Social Changemakers

Social Changemakers (SC) is a 12-week immersive program in which students learn and apply human-centered design to co-create new capabilities addressing a specific need of a community partner working on complex social, economic and environmental challenges. Community partners are student-driven, through either a student-led nonprofit (established for at least a year) or a pre-existing student engagement with a local nonprofit. Students work in small teams and have the opportunity to strengthen skills, from collaboration and leadership to project design and management.

Social Changemaker Logo

Learn More about the Program

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Are you interested in learning more about this program for the Fall semester? Click here to fill out our interest form. 

Student Application for students to apply solo or be matched with a team; students can indicate who they already want to be paired with.

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Social Changemakers meeting

Program Information

  • Who may apply?

    Social Changemakers is open to all participants, including Vanderbilt students, faculty, staff, local college students, community partners, etc.

  • Dates and times

    SC meets every Tuesday, 4:30pm–6pm, starting January 30th, 2024, until April 23, 2024, in the 3rd Floor Lounge of the Wond’ry (Room 300).

    Program Schedule:
    Jan 30: Fellowship Session (TBD)
    Feb 6: Session 1 (4:30-6pm)
    Feb 12: Session 2 (4:30-6pm)
    Feb 20: Session 3 (4:30-6pm)
    Feb 27: Session 4 (4:30-6pm)
    Mar 5: Session 5 (4:30-6pm)
    Mar 12: Spring Break
    Mar 19: Session 6 (4:30-6pm)
    Mar 26: Session 7 (4:30-6pm)
    Apr 2: Session 8 (4:30-6pm)
    Apr 9: Session 9 (4:30-6pm)
    Apr 16: Session 10 (4:30-6pm)
    Apr 23: Fellowship Session (TBD)

    Session Structure:

    4:30 – 5:00 pm    Program Content

    5:00 – 5:45 pm    Co-Creation (SC Teams Time)

    5:45 – 6:00 pm    Group Reflection and Next Steps

    Additionally, SC teams schedule regular contact with community partners and each other outside of session time and complete project-supporting work. The total time commitment averages 5 hours per week.

  • Learn more

    For community partner inquiries, contact Jackie Hansom at jackie.hansom@vanderbilt.edu.

    For all other questions, contact Dan Drogosh at dan.drogosh@vanderbilt.edu.

  • One of the groups who presented at Social Changemakers
  • Pointing during a presentation
  • Smiling client with social changemakers

Past Partners and Projects

  • Image for Adaptive Fashion

    Adaptive Fashion

    In partnership with the Curb Center’s Art of Healing Exposition, Alex Sargent Capps, & The Wond’ry at Vanderbilt, students collaborated to generate innovative solutions for individuals with disabilities.

  • Image for Community Gardens

    Community Gardens

    In partnership with VU Community Gardens, students considered how to tackle the issue of garden surplus in a way that addressed food inequity in Nashville.

  • Image for Fiber Arts Build Lab: Sustainable Fashion

    Fiber Arts Build Lab: Sustainable Fashion

    The Sustainable Fashion team aimed to collaborate with the Wond’ry’s Fiber Arts Build Lab in creating a website that educates and increases awareness of sustainable fashion, helping legitimize the issue on college campuses.

  • Image for Hands On Nashville: Disaster Resilience

    Hands On Nashville: Disaster Resilience

    Hands On Nashville Disaster Resilience Project addressed the problem of spontaneous volunteers from all over the city and surrounded states acting in unorganized, uncoordinated ways, as seen in events like flash floods. The project located 12 volunteer reception centers in the city of Nashville to create a Go-Kit/process for establishing future volunteer reception centers.

  • Image for Mayor’s Office: Nashville Climate Challenge

    Mayor’s Office: Nashville Climate Challenge

    The Social Changemaker’s team collaborated with the Mayor’s Office to support the sustainability challenge for Nashville’s private sector. The final deliverable was a design framework for the Nashville Climate Change website, which converts the information they have compiled into an easily communicable format that participating businesses can reference.

  • Image for Title IX

    Title IX

    The Social Changemaker’s team partnered with Title IX to increase the accessibility of the Title IX Office’s Sexual Misconduct Resources through an app.

  • Image for Waste Diversion

    Waste Diversion

    In alignment with the Zero Waste Master Plan approved by the Mayor’s office, students considered how city officials, debris recyclers, and prospective services might address the processing capacity, creating demand, policies, and a profitable business model or process for mixed building material diversion.