Design & Impact · Social Entrepreneurship

SENSA

a student entrepreneurship club I help lead

As part of the Stanford Social Entrepreneurial Students’ Association (SENSA), Stanford’s social entrepreneurship club, Toby and I designed and launched a new initiative from scratch called Impact Labs. We wanted to create a hands-on bootcamp where freshmen could learn social entrepreneurship by actually practicing it: going into the world to understand problems, talking to real people, building prototypes, and testing ideas that could improve campus and community life.

Over the quarter, we built the full program experience, from curriculum and workshops to mentorship, community-building, partnerships, and Demo Day. We ran social events like a scavenger hunt, organized a needfinding trip to San Francisco where teams created mini movies, hosted practical workshops on topics like consulting, presenting, and photography, and paired each team with a mentor to guide their thinking. We also ran a design hackathon with the Agaram Foundation and raised $600 toward funding a baby incubator in Sudan through Embrace Global.

The cohort worked on real prototypes addressing problems in food waste, sustainability, student engagement, wellness, and transportation. One of the most meaningful parts of the experience was watching teams move from vague observations about campus life to tangible prototypes and live pitches. At our final Demo Day, students presented their work through exhibitions and pitches in front of judges from across entrepreneurship, design, education, and social impact. Check out a clip from our Demo Day below.

teams and their prototypes at Demo Day

Building Impact Labs taught me how to create structure without removing creativity, support teams through ambiguity, and turn an idea for a program into a living community. I am now stepping into the role of SENSA President, where I hope to continue growing SENSA as a place for students to build thoughtful, responsible, and impact-driven ventures.