The term social innovation (SI) has been around for 35 years, and yet we are still defining what it means. In this series of collaborative blogposts brought to you by the Institute for Leadership and Social Impact (ILSI) and Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS) we will dive into the definition and practice of SI, make an inventory of SI related programs, courses, and resources on campus, and will discuss some great examples of SI in action at Tech and in our communities.

Our first segment will attempt to answer the question many of you interested in learning more about social innovation might be asking yourselves ‘ where do I start’ and our answer is get involved and here are some suggestions to how:

  • Take a course this spring that explores SI:
    • MGT 4803: Social Impact Exploration and Design: this workshop series introduces you…


In the third of our series on social innovation, Dori Pap, managing director of the Institute for Leadership and Social Innovation sat down for a conversation with alumna Susan Davis (Biol'91), her co-lead in this spring's Social Impact course (a series of workshops for Ideas to Serve program participants.) Susan has many decades of experience with global development program evaluation, and she is a big proponent of talking openly about failures - so we can learn from them, and hopefully avoid them in the future. See that full conversation here.

Interested in our full Social Innovation series? See the first two posts:


Georgia Tech’s Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS) and Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) are collaborating to expand professional development initiatives to incorporate sustainability and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across the curriculum—at Georgia Tech and beyond.

SLS and CTL recently accepted thirteen faculty members to serve as Sustainability/SDG Education Teaching Fellows during the spring semester. The program builds upon Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS) Fellows and Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) Teaching Fellows Programs. The SLS Fellows Program fosters interdisciplinary learning communities by bringing together diverse faculty, staff, and graduate students to examine and apply key themes related to sustainable communities. CTL Teaching Fellows Programs bring together a diverse group of interdisciplinary faculty to engage in conversations about teaching.

The spring 2022 Fellows Program advances creative uses of the SDGs and sustainability…


SLS launched the application for the Summer 2022 Sustainable Communities Summer Internship two weeks ago, and the application process is open through Friday, February 4th.  This internship program provides student interns with practical experience in supporting solutions for sustainable communities through real-world experience with community partners in Atlanta and throughout Georgia.  Please see our website for additional information and the application.  This week, we are pleased to share another reflection from a Summer 2021 intern, Jonathan Yun.

Jonathan Yun, B.S. Aerospace Engineering

Partner: The LIFE School

I had the opportunity to intern at The LIFE School, a small pre-K to high school in…


SLS launched the application for the Summer 2022 Sustainable Communities Summer Internship last week, and the application process is open through Friday, February 4th.  This internship program provides student interns with practical experience in supporting solutions for sustainable communities through real-world experience with community partners in Atlanta and throughout Georgia.  Please see our website for additional information and the application.  This week, we are pleased to share reflections from two 2021 interns.

Gabrielle Oliverio, M.S. City and Regional Planning

Partner: City of Atlanta, Mayor's Office of Resilience

In Summer 2021, I interned with the AgLanta Team in the Atlanta Mayor’s…


With a new semester underway, this is a terrific time for faculty to get reacquainted with the SLS Teaching Toolkit and to explore the NEW tools added over the past year. As you seek out opportunities to learn more about pressing issues such as climate resilience and racial inequality and identify ways to incorporate these real-world challenges in your courses, the resources and lessons in SLS’ Teaching Toolkit can help.

Instructors with a specific topic in mind may want to begin by using the search function on the Teaching Toolkit home page. You may also find it useful to browse relevant categories, listed on the right-hand side of the home page, to find relevant tools and resources that have been recently added. And don’t forget to refer to the…


In just a few days, the 5.5 years I’ve spent at Georgia Tech as an undergraduate and graduate student will be coming to a close. The ritual end-of-college tasks are nearly complete – I've solidified an exciting job, taken my last final, and purchased my regalia. All that’s left to complete the deed is to walk across the stage this upcoming Saturday. I'm excited for a new chapter, but can't avoid the feelings of nostalgia that accompany the closing of 5.5 years (a fair chunk) of my life. As I reflect on the opportunities and challenges that are an inevitable aspect of the college experience, I realize that the experiences that shaped me the most were sparked from leaps of faith into new and unfamiliar territories. One of those leaps includes a 1-credit hour student-led project that sparked my interest late in my 3rd year, which played a significant role in my personal and professional growth.

When setting up my schedule for the Spring 2020 semester, I was looking for an…


In November, Dori Pap from GT’s Institute for Leadership and Social Impact (ILSI) published the first of four blog posts that we are writing on Social Innovation, “Social Innovation – Where Do I Start?,” sharing a multitude of ways that students can learn about the topic, inside and outside the classroom. In this December post, we explore the question – what is Social Innovation, anyway?

Many people, when they think of social innovation, think right away of one or two models. The first is the business model, which has profit generation as the first priority and social impact as the second. For example, many people are familiar with Tom’s Shoes, which became famous in 2006 for giving away a pair of shoes for free every time a pair was bought. The second is the philanthropic model, also grounded in the success of global businesses, through which large foundations, such as the Gates Foundation, MacArthur…


During the 12th Global RCE (Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development) Conference last month, two RCE Greater Atlanta regional sustainability education network initiatives — Building Effective ESD in Higher Education through Multi-Institutional and Community Collaboration and EQUINOX: Catalyzing Community-Centered Scholarships and Partnerships — were announced as 2021 RCE award winners.

Both projects are part of the RCE Greater Atlanta’s Higher Education Learning Community. The Effective ESD project is led by Georgia Tech’s Serve-Learn-Sustain, and EQUINOX is led by Kennesaw State University faculty. Established in 2012, the Global RCE Award celebrates projects and programs in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) that connect local and global education and action through the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), advance transformative and community-…


Climate talks in Glasgow have recently concluded, and the COVID-19 pandemic rages on. Communities- and the country- are responding to decisions in high profile court cases that embody the clarion call: Black Lives Matter. The forces that reshaped our lives, work, and studies in 2020 are still at work upon our institution and our society in 2021.  So as many of you seek to take positive action through educating yourself on racial injustice, global economic tumult, and ways to combat climate change, this is a good moment to survey the offerings of SLS-affiliated courses in Spring 2022. Several courses affiliated with SLS embrace an aspect of one or more of those themes; great places to discover those courses are in the Social Justice Minor, the Sustainable Cities Minor,…