Design Thinking for Social Impact

The world is changing at an unprecedented pace and ambiguity is everywhere. Traditional problem-solving approaches often fall short in addressing complex societal challenges such as climate change, inequality, health care access, and education gaps. In this course, students explore design thinking as a transformative, human-centered methodology used to tackle these pressing social issues. By fostering empathy, collaboration, and experimentation, design thinking provides a structured yet flexible approach that helps change-makers identify the right problems, generate innovative solutions, and drive meaningful, lasting impact. Through a learning-by-doing approach, students immerse themselves in real-world projects, developing skills in empathy-driven research, ideation, prototyping, and strategic implementation. They learn to define the right problems—those at the core of systemic challenges—and balance creativity with feasibility to design solutions that have an impact. Collaboration, adaptability, and resilience are key as students navigate complexity, test ideas in uncertain environments, and iterate based on real-world feedback. Beyond just creating solutions, students build skills in storytelling and advocacy and learn how to craft compelling narratives that inspire action and drive meaningful change. Whether they aim to create a nonprofit, influence policy, or innovate within existing organizations, this course equips them with the tools to lead through change with confidence and creativity.