How to Create Impact on Society: A Case Study of Experiential Learning Intervention in a Course on Social Advocacy

Of all the people in Pakistan, we who are sitting around this table have no right to blame others for the sorry and dismal state that we find ourselves in! We, gentlemen, are in command of at least 20,000 students in the three major cities of Pakistan and these students often remain with us for at least two to four years. The students of our institutions hail from resourceful families. Our universities have enough resources. We can influence the type of courses that we offer, the content of these course and even the teachers who are conducting these courses. We can even fire or change the teachers. Collectively we are churning out over 4,000 graduates every year who have gone through the process designed and approved by us. Why can’t we produce even 400 change agents who can transform the business and societal environment of Pakistan and who can turn the tide of our social deterioration?  

Our brochures boast about courses in leadership but the only thing on the mind of the graduates that we produce is to escape from our problems to the attractive environments abroad. Why? As detailed in my post  “Curriculum’s Relevance to Social Impact: Why do our graduates want to leave the country“, the graduates want to escape from Pakistan because our curriculum and the way it is taught has not equipped them to be the change agents for resolving our societal and economic issues.  I delivered a more concrete version of what needs to be done in my talk on 11th of February at the Deans and Directors Conference of the business schools in Pakistan at Karachi Marriott which was organized by HEC and NBEAC, the regulatory body for business education. Realization of this responsibility is important for universities because they are currently churning out about half a million graduates every year in Pakistan as mentioned by the HEC Website. I would be surprised to see even a tiny fraction of these graduates to have done a depth course on how to solve a major problem of Pakistan, let alone going through a “Learning by Doing” experience (often called experiential learning) in a course for a problem that would give them the confidence to take on the real life issues of Pakistan and not think of escaping from them! 


The personal challenge that confronted me in 2007-08 was to design a course-based intervention that can be doable within a semester duration and for which credit could be allocated in a formal curriculum. I had attended a workshop on Strategic Visions that provided me with a framework to make concrete some of the ideas of how to create impact on society in the long term. I was then able to see that as dean of a private chartered institute, I can go beyond the empty rhetoric of a typical vision and mission statement which often vacuously claims to contribute to the development of society. The framework provided a sense of purpose to my responsibility. It enabled me to translate the vision and mission of the institute into concrete goals that can be achieved through a careful design of curricula and outcomes of courses. It got me thinking out-of-the-box and urged me to go beyond the usual class room teaching of imported texts and to evolve an intervention that can lead to the creation of social impact using students of a class. In this quest, I was goaded into action by the inspiring examples of some excellent interventions made by John Hunter with grade-4 school students for resolving scores of interlocking problems confronted by nations in the World Peace Game [1], and Kiran Sethi with her school children mobilizing city-wide and nation-wide campaigns to bring real change on roads and marketplaces [2]. I felt humbled by these interventions done at the school level students, and compared them with what universities are doing with more mature and accomplished youth is to numb their minds by restricting them to a few imported books, and not exposing them to the real life problems and real life issues afflicting our nation and our country. This was humiliating and challenging especially given the greatly motivating example of Randy Pausch’s intervention at CMU as explained in his “Last Lecture” [3]. 

I went to several leaders involved in creating impact in education and health sector through NGOs and offered them the services of my students enrolled in a course for a semester along with the teacher as a supervisor for creating an intervention that can provide their NGOs with university students support free of cost, and in return students could earn credits for some carefully designed experiential learning projects. I went to TCF, AKU and Indus Hospital, but found that they had their hands full and probably my offer was not concrete enough to make sense until they had seen the specifics of the interventions I was proposing. After a few years of trial and error with various alternative interventions, different teachers, and different course formats, I was fortunate enough to find a committed faculty member, and a suitable experiential learning project that was doable within a semester duration by a group 3-5 students in a carefully designed course with measurable rubrics. The innovative intervention was the Experiential Learning Social Advocacy Projects [4] that emerged from the mandate given to course owner, Mr Omar Javaid, to impact the heart and minds of the students through a carefully designed social intervention [5]. 

Project by Muteeullah-Anas- Faryal-Fariha  in Spring 2011

The intervention was linked to the development of entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurship. The course was named Social Advocacy, as per the advice of Professor Dr Mohammad Wasay of AKU who told me that the type of thing I am trying to do in the course is typically called Social Advocacy. Students enrolled in a section of about 40 students were divided into groups of 4-5 students. Each group was assigned a deserving family in one of the poor localities of Karachi. The objective was to study the family environment and source of livelihood and come up with a suitable micro-business for the bread-earner of the family. Student groups collected funds ranging from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 40,000 from the relatives of group members or from other donors. From 2010 to 2014, students of social advocacy class sections identified and funded the start of 430 micro businesses for supporting poor families under the supervision of Mr Omar Javaid. Micro businesses established ranged from funding a street vending cart, small shop, sewing machine, pop-corn cart, french-fries cart, rickshaw/taxi repair, etc. Total funds collected and disbursed were over five million rupees. There were on average 8-10 groups per class section. 

The results were immediately visible. The body language of the students changed as they became confident about handling unknown situations and people belonging to the lowest demographic level. A major change was observed in the attitudes of students who had never left the confines of their previliged housing societies. Several students became committed to social entrpreneurship. Their confidence in taking on their own personal businesses increased. 

Project by Sajid-Imran- Waqas-Ammar in Fall 2010

These interventions were successful in providing a start for the families to be on their own feet. However, there were several improvements that were needed to refine the model by developing an infrastructure that can help the families in sustaining the business after the start-up, but which the institutional limitations did not allow for lack of commitment to the stated vision. The required infrastructure included database, office support, trainers and counselors who can provide followup visits and mentorship to the families after the students who originally funded the business had moved on after completing the course. The pool of money can be replenished by the return of the principal in small installments, collection of donations from other sources, support for families in their financial and health emergencies, and losses due to breakdown of machinery, inadequacy in managing the finances and management issues etc. Although much still needs to be done in improving the infrastructure and for overcoming the challenges and transforming this course based intervention into a sustainable institution, but it is a good prototype; a proof of concept of the type of things university students are capable of achieving and much much more.

Project by Nida-Samana- Erum-Ramsha in Spring 2011

See Also:

1. 55 interlocking problems: How John Hunter enables the 4th graders to understand and design solutions in this excellent Ted talk on the World Peace Game. 
2. Kiran Sethi and her students take charge: Ted Talk.
3. Randy Pausch: Last Lecture
4. Social Advocacy Projects at CED
5. Javaid, Omar, Using Constructionist Philosophy to Inculcate Optimism and Philanthropic Spirit Among Students (October 1, 2010). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1812442 orhttp://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1812442
6. Curriculum’s Relevance to Social Impact: Why do our graduates want to leave the country?]
7. Myth: We are backward because we lag in science & technology
8. Myth: Impact Factor Measures Impact
9. Why Project Based Learning? An Experiential Learning Case Study of Language Teaching
10. Why Education and Why Higher Education: Leadership in Life and Society
11. Of Hanafi School of Marketing, Orientation of New Students and Dr Matin A Khan of IBA
12. Myths of Schooling and Education: Resources