Course Overview
In this Social Impact Lab, students work in small groups on consulting projects that are curated to address various economic development needs and opportunities on the South Side. By exploring Chicago’s rich and complex social, economic, and political history, we in turn work with leading institutions to shape their strategies for how to advance local economies particularly with a lens towards generating wealth in the black community.
The Social Impact Lab seeks to give students opportunities to work with clients in a strategy consulting context while leveraging the Southside as a context for understanding systemic inequalities and the need for multi-sector and community participation in generating impactful strategies. Each week, we bring in guest speakers who can contextualize and animate conversations about economic development in Chicago’s Southside and provide real-world insights into the challenges and opportunities that they see and are addressing.
In addition, each week students are given time to work on their client projects culminating in the final capstone in which students will present their findings and recommendations for the clients during the final week. Given the vast and complicated nature of addressing economic development and wealth creation, we bring guest speakers who bring various perspectives that are important: entrepreneurs, elected officials, venture capitalists, leaders at anchor institutions, artists, and philanthropists, among them. Clients for the Winter 2025 section will include:
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The Obama Presidential Center, in partnership with other South Side cultural institutions, is looking to explore revitalizing a tourism and brand strategy to support Museum Campus South. As the Obama Presidential Center nears its public launch in 2026, students will develop a strategy to identify and amplify tourism opportunities for the broader network of cultural institutions that stand to benefit from significant new tourist activity in the broader South Side.
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The Garfield Park Community Council is working to address food insecurity in the broader community through a variety of strategies. Having successfully recruited an anchor retailer to occupy a grocery retail site formerly occupied by Aldi, students will develop a retail launch, pricing, and customer retention strategy to ensure the success and profitability of the new grocery retail partner.
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The Chicagoland Workforce Funder Alliance is a collaborative of over 30 funders who develop and fund workforce solutions to strengthen workforce development strategies in the region. This quarter, students will develop a strategy to support transportation access for people entering the workforce, in particular in the construction and trades where vehicle access is required to transit to work and job sites. Students will explore various potential strategies including a shared fleet model, vehicle financing programs, or third party partnership models.
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Other project(s) TBA
Applications for the
Social Impact Lab (SIL) are now open, taught by
Ghian Foreman and myself,
Todd Connor. The course
will be offered winter quarter on Tuesday mornings from 8:30 – 11:30am at the Harper Center. This course is open by application only.
Applications are due on 11/19/2025 at 5:00pm, and decisions will be sent out 11/21/2025. Students applying early can also receive an early acceptance for course planning purposes.
The first class will be Tuesday, January 6th, 8:30-11:30am and is required for all enrolled students.
Interested students can apply here.
