Engaging the Next Generation: Connecting Students with Collective Impact Organizations

Abstract

One common challenge that organizations engaged in collective impact (Kania & Kramer, 2011) face is a growing need to reach broader audiences and inspire new leaders to advance this work. This capstone explores strategies to expand student engagement with organizations practicing collective impact, through the lens of The EdRedesign Lab (EdRedesign) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. I leveraged the organization’s senior fellowship program, which supports best-in-class leaders, to introduce students to EdRedesign and the collective impact field. A pivotal moment came when survey data revealed that this emergent field’s vocabulary may create a barrier to entry for students and other professionals. Findings showed widespread unfamiliarity with key terms such as collective impact, cross-sector work, backbone organization, among others. To address this communication barrier, I launched an informal awareness campaign using storytelling to explain collective impact work, demystifying the vocabulary and increasing accessibility. To generate student engagement, I leveraged my connections at Harvard through my roles as a doctoral student, first-year experience residential proctor, and fellow. These efforts contributed to the creation and launch of a new pilot program, the Cradle-to-Career Summer Fellowship, aimed at providing undergraduate students with summer experiential learning at a collective impact organization. The fellowship may serve as a model for organizations across the country to adopt in their efforts to engage undergraduate students. I make concrete recommendations to address both technical and adaptive challenges (Heifetz, 1994) that organizations may encounter when implementing similar practices. I also identify implications for my leadership and the sector at large. Through this engagement project, I experienced managing from the middle, aligning my workstyle with the organization’s culture, and deepening my understanding of the collective impact ecosystem. My experience as a resident allowed me to learn from a strategic-minded team, reflect on my leadership style, and practice my immunity-to-change goals (Kegan & Lahey, 2009). On a broader level, this work reinforced the importance of intentionally developing a culture of mentorship to scale leadership and ultimately increase impact.