Social Change Internship
An immersive social entrepreneurship experience for students
About the Program
The Social Change Internship is an 8-week program that challenges students to inspire, encourage, and create social change. Using design thinking methodologies, teams of high school and college students are tasked with working together to create, test, and pitch solutions to social challenges in their communities. Each week, teams are introduced to local social entrepreneurs as a way for them to network and learn from real world experiences. At the end of the experience, past interns are encouraged to come back and mentor future participants.
Students will learn how to:
Define problems and identify their target users
Conduct user research through ‘User-Centered Design’ practices
Ideate and prototype potential solutions
Launch a pilot and collect user feedback and data
Pivot their concept as necessary and pitch their ideas
“The Social Change Internship is not only allowing young people to analyze social problems they are passionate about in a space that encourages their curiosity, but young people are also recognizing their own abilities to create change and make impact in a way that is meaningful to them. Our interns are developing the skills they need to take their ideas to reality by doing things the way the real-world works; by connecting and building ideas with others.”
—Veronica Alvidrez, Experience Manager at Startland
Featured Social Change Internship Projects
A bill to ban smoking in vehicles while minors are present
One group of students felt that second-hand smoking exposure, particularly in vehicles, is an often overlooked issue causing respiratory infections, severe asthma, SIDS, and other preventable health concerns. Through their research, they discovered only a handful of states have laws prohibiting smoking in vehicles transporting minors, but Kansas and Missouri are not included in that list. Their solution was to introduce a bill to ban adults from using substances that include but are not limited to tobacco, nicotine, and or marijuana in cars when minors are present. They are currently working with City Council members to push the bill through local governments, and have created a petition to gain more support from the community.
Creating a habitat for monarch butterflies
Another team of students was concerned about the reduced population of monarch butterflies in North America. While there were approximately 30,000 of the species in North America in 2019, only about 2,000 remain today. Climate change, insecticides, and habitat loss have contributed to this sharp decline, so these students proposed to build a butterfly garden with sustainable, butterfly-attracting plants in downtown Kansas City. The plans include providing a tranquil space for community members to spend time, while creating a natural habitat for the species. Coincidentally, a local group is currently working on a project to reclaim city-owned land in the same area to make it a recreational space with some restoration of native habitat. The students are now collaborating with this team to bring their vision to life.
What Participants are Saying
“Age doesn't matter on how big of a change you can make as an individual. My team is creating legislation to ban adults from using substances / products that contain but are not limited to tobacco, marijuana, and/ or nicotine when minors are present in a vehicle. At the very beginning of the 8 week internship, we were definitely wary about whether or not we could get this done, but by the time week 5 rolled along, we were already talking with numerous councilmen from 5 different cities to pass our legislation. It is beyond crazy to see the amount of change my age group can make.”
— Vari Patel
“I wanted to participate in the Social Change Internship because I knew it would give me the space to get creative and come up with solutions to problems I find important. This internship has taught me how to work through a problem and come up with a solution that benefits not just one group of people but multiple. I have been working with some wonderful people who have helped to strengthen my teamwork and leadership skills.”
— Easton Waller
“I’ve always wanted to help others. I grew up in Pakistan so I've seen a lot of the hardships people have had to endure. I'm very determined to do what I can to help fix problems there and in the US, as well. I'm not sure what my exact career path will be. I was thinking of being a journalist, a social entrepreneur, a lawyer or a politician. These programs have definitely helped me because they've taught me how to think of concrete solutions to help others in small and big ways.”
— Zara Jamshed
