When Catherine Jefferys signed up for the Social Impact Lab, a project-based course at Chicago Booth, she was eager to explore social impact in a real-world setting. Jefferys had prior experience as an attorney in London and knew the course would allow her to work with a UK-based investment fund focused on increasing housing resources for underprivileged populations.
“I was interested in how finance can be used as a source of good,” she said.
Throughout the quarter, Jefferys worked alongside seven classmates to help build out a framework for measuring and scaling the impact of a new Women in Safe Homes fund for UK-based property investor Patron Capital. The solution is meant to allow social impact investors to create affordable and safe homes for women experiencing homelessness, survivors of domestic abuse, or those with complex financial needs.
Jefferys participated in the new lab course taught by Christina Hachikian, AB ’02, MBA ’07, clinical associate professor of strategic management at Chicago Booth. Social Impact Lab is also supported by the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation, Booth’s hub for people committed to helping solve complex social and environmental problems.
The Social Impact Lab is a dynamic course. On the one hand, each course follows the same framework and students apply their analytic skills to help an organization answer a particular question around topics such as market expansion, impact measurement approaches, or scalability. On the other hand, course themes and organization participants vary by quarter, which allows Professor Hachikian to respond to student interests around social impact. “As part of our approach to business education, labs offer the chance for our students to use the finance, economics, and operations skills they are learning in a low-risk environment,” she said. “We teach them to try out those lessons before they apply them in the real world.”
