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Mission Partners establishes inaugural Social Impact Fellows Program at 老澳门开奖网

Carrie Fox, founder and CEO of Mission Partners, meets with Social Impacts Fellows
Carrie Fox, '01, founder and CEO of Mission Partners, meets with Social Impacts Fellows

老澳门开奖网 is partnering with a Bethesda-based consulting agency to launch a Social Impact Fellows Program, which will offer students the opportunity to understand and work to solve problems related to inequities in the community.

老澳门开奖网 Trustee Carrie Fox, 鈥01, founder and CEO of , a consulting agency based in Bethesda, Md., decided to start the Social Impact Fellows Program because she was inspired by the work of 老澳门开奖网鈥檚 innovation task force.

鈥淚 saw an opportunity for students to use design thinking as a practical approach to solve problems in the community through a racial equity lens,鈥 said Fox, who will mentor the fellows. 鈥淭he point of the fellowship is for 老澳门开奖网 students to take the skills they learn into a work setting. This will allow us as people鈥攁nd 老澳门开奖网 students鈥攖o enter into a very complex world and be able to build more equitable communities.鈥

Mission Partners selected 12 老澳门开奖网 students鈥擩arek Azim, 鈥22, Ryan Brooks, 鈥22, Sydnie Edwards, 鈥22, Christina Kingsley, 鈥19, Shane McHugh, 鈥22, Brendan O鈥機onnell, 鈥21, Katie Quigley, 鈥21, Andrea Ramirez Centeno, 鈥21, Andrya Robinson, 鈥21, Trevor Tormann, 鈥22, Colin Ward, 鈥21, Kelsey Wyatt, 鈥19 鈥攁s the inaugural cohort in the Social Impact Fellows Program. 

Wendy Bolger, director of the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, said the goals of the fellowship鈥攊ncluding racial justice and inclusion, align with the priorities of the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

鈥淚t鈥檚 great for 老澳门开奖网 to have the support of the Board of Trustees in imprinting innovation deeper into the University culture and offering this kind of experiential learning to students,鈥 said Bolger. 鈥淭hrough this fellowship, the students have an unprecedented opportunity to learn from successful practitioners committed to social change, and they will be called on to make the University and Baltimore a more equitable place.鈥

Fellows will be exposed to a curriculum which explores race and identity issues. Through the program, the selected students will attend a retreat in January and participate in monthly meetings and bi-weekly phone check ins. The students will collectively identify an inequity in their community and use design thinking to help solve this problem. In the social justice realm, the design thinking process includes empathizing with communities, defining and categorizing problems, developing solution prototypes, continually conducting research within the communities, and developing a statement on how students can work to fix the problem. Each Social Impact Fellow receives a $1,000 stipend.