On the eve of PIM’s 10th Anniversary, we meet up with Meg Rudy, an early team leader at PIM to reflect on the organization’s legacy in sustainable social innovation education. Joining PIM in 2014, Meg helped develop PIM’s flagship social investment education program and experiential curriculums covering topics from impact investing and systems thinking to impact evaluation, sustainable development, social enterprise business models and more.
One of these curriculums is still the core of our Sustainability Leaders Initiative program or previously known as Yenching Academy’s Impact Lab – an academically rigorous program designed for scholars and university students to foster their understanding of social innovation in their local communities and empower them with practical experience from inspiring field leaders. When designing the curriculum, Meg and the team carefully thought of bringing in community organizations for the purpose of site visits, applying an experiential, blended learning model (i.e., a “learning by doing” infrastructure), and incorporating the element of guided leadership. “In many ways, this course is still exactly the kind of class I wish I could have taken in business school,” Meg reflects.
Learning by Doing
The course’s unique experiential design allowed students to connect with nonprofits and their inspirational leaders and acquire the ability to lead their own programs. A major breakthrough that students often experienced was the realization that change could happen and those leading social change are simply humans who want to make a difference – just like themselves.
Besides gaining confidence in their ability to make social impact, students who participated in the Yenching Academy program learned what the key questions are to ask when evaluating nonprofit programs, how to develop and implement a theory of change, what the most effective way to make social change is, and how to reach out to communities outside of their own to do crowdfunding. Students also learned to manage their time, balance their priorities, and foster an inclusive environment within their multinational teams.
From Meg’s perspective, the magic formula for educating students about social impact is “learning by doing + knowledge + inspiration.” In other words, educators need to balance skill building with knowledge building, while incorporating a story-focused approach by connecting students with inspirational leaders and their stories through interactions, readings, or videos. This formula, in addition to PIM’s rich network across a number of renowned universities, is the key to the success of PIM’s Yenching Academy.
Transforming Perspectives
“What stands out the most for me is all that I learned from the practitioners and social entrepreneurs who led sessions and mentored students too.” Through her experience leading the Yenching Academy, Meg deepened her knowledge of the theory of change from hearing different leaders talk about their vision and what they were learning about what solutions worked (and didn’t work) in the field. She picked up lessons from social entrepreneurs about how to operate an organization or lead a team, and got new perspectives from students on creative solutions to social issues in other parts of the world.
One of the workshops Meg remembers as most transformative focused on disability inclusion. The interactive session challenged participants to examine and transform their own preconceptions surrounding disability and empowered participants to reflect on how they can play a role in changing attitudes to make their own organizations and companies more inclusive for all. “I think about many of the key concepts we discussed in that sessions all the time as I continue learning how to be a better leader and team member today.”
Making an Impact
Additionally, in 2018, the cohort of students helped raise awareness for two nonprofits – XiXi Garden which improves access to sex education for vulnerable communities and Easy Inclusion which focuses on disability inclusion and economic empowerment. This collaboration allowed the managers of the nonprofits to engage students in the community beyond volunteers and interns and invite them to share, give feedback and test their sex education curriculum in a creative and academic way.
Looking into the future, Meg envisions the Yenching Academy (Sustainability Leaders Initiative) continuing to be a really innovative and creative platform, contributing to sustainable social development in China. She hopes the program continues to include workshops and site visits and teaches students how to fundraise, decide which organizations to support, sell a social impact model to investment committees, and allocate funds.
For more information about PIM’s Sustainability Leaders Initiative including our Yenching Academy program, please visit us at PIM Sustainability Leadership Initiative or contact us at https://www.pimglobal.org/contact-us/.
The magic formula for educating students about social impact is “learning by doing + knowledge + inspiration.”
About Meg Rudy
United States
Senior Associate, Elevate – Former Impact Director, PIM
Meg works closely with early-stage social entrepreneurs daily – many of whom are leveraging technology to scale innovative solutions to pressing social and environmental challenges. Her role regularly requires her to engage as an empathetic coach, providing mentorship and identifying strategic priorities for a wide range of business and impact models.
