Changes

= Regional and Local Economic Development Efforts =

This is a national student consulting group that offers free consulting services to nonprofits. A selected few students at Swarthmore are trained to support startups and nonprofits in various fields from education to healthcare with consulting services. These startups and nonprofits can be located all over the US and students carry weekly meetings with their management teams to provide their services.

This center is heading Swarthmore’s Regional and Local Economic Development. The mission of the Lang Center for Social and Civic Responsibility is to connect “curriculum, campus and community through engaged scholarship and collaborative action.” Not only does it provide students with engagement, counseling, and networking opportunities for action outside of Swarthmore College, but it also provides students with funding opportunities that can last beyond a summer project. The most prominent example is Project Pericles.

This program empowers students to take on “social and civic action projects whose scope and sustainability will advance solutions for the issues in question and also promote recognition of students' motivation and capability to address such major issues effectively.” It offers grants of up to $25, 000 for regional, national, or international projects. Some of the Project Pericles awardees went on to develop sustainable eyewear in Iran or implement geospatial analysis tools to increase wider scope food security in the Philadelphia area.

This program is one of many funded through the Lang Center where selected interns work on a project in the City of Chester in collaboration with a Chester-based organization. Chester county is recognized to be one of the most underserved communities in the area. The goal is to develop a "scholar, civic leader, and public servant" out of these students.

As an initially student-run organization funded through the Lang Center, the group has grown to help hundreds of kids in the Chester county area by providing tutoring. This includes assisting them with their academics and teaching important life skills by allowing Swarthmore students to act as role models for them.

In promoting design thinking, human-centered design, and lean start-ups to address issues in Philadelphia, a day-long sprint is hosted in collaboration with the Center for Innovation and Leadership (CIL), the Haverford Innovation Program (HIP), and educators from the Malvern Preparatory School.