Social Impact Internships
The Victor and William Fung Foundation
About Victor and William Fung Foundation
The Fung Scholars program, funded by the Victor and William Fung Foundation, aims to nurture future world leaders by supporting university students to experience different cultures and environments early in their careers. A leading youth talent network internationally, the program comprises more than 6,000 undergraduates and graduates worldwide, established with 31 universities and local chapters in 9 cities who all share a common value for making a difference within and beyond their local communities.
We were first in touch with PIM in year 2016 as referred by our Fung Scholars participating in their Model Foundation, and since which, every year, our Fung Scholars have gained insight into systems thinking, effective philanthropy and social innovation. Our partnership developed further to the Social Impact Internship Program in 2018 to provide Fung Scholars with a new type of experience, creating an opportunity for them to apply their skillset to benefit innovative social organizations, learning from their mentors as well as making an impact in the local community. This is in line with our aim to nurture our future world leaders to give back to the community. Along the way, we are pleased with the outstanding management and executive teams of PIM for developing the programs for our Fung Scholars.–Jenny Ann Chan, Program Director, Victor and William Fung Foundation
Summary
Social Impact Internships for Fung Scholars is an immersive 8-week educational internship program in Beijing, which teaches social impact perspectives and community engagement for Hong Kong and Mainland China’s future leaders. We do this through skill training bootcamps, immersive service, and structured mentorships.
Situation and Background
PIM launched the Social Impact Internships program in 2018 to help realize the Victor and William Fung Foundation’s goal of creating an immersive leadership opportunity for their Fung Scholars. The Foundation has traditionally supported and organized conferences, trainings, peer-to-peer learning workshops, company visits and study experiences for university students. They are interested creating a new type of experience that would be different from what the students can conventionally obtain in their university setting. They also hoped to expose their scholars to a different environment in mainland China to expand their perspectives. PIM worked with the Foundation to come up with the following program objectives and designed a program with the scholars’ input to address these needs.
Program Objectives
- Expand perspectives. Though many of the Hong Kong scholars had experience studying internationally in the US or UK, few had lived or worked in Mainland China and were eager to gain new perspectives on development and social impact through immersion in a Beijing community.
- Develop leadership capacities. Many of the scholars were passionate about social issues but had limited skills or mentors to give them guidance in developing their own projects or pursuing a related career.
- Strengthen community engagement. Fung Foundation staff were actively seeking better ways to equip scholars to lead more sustainable community projects within their own local chapters.
Our Approach
The Social Impact Internship program aimed to bring the Fung Scholars’ shared passion for social impact to life by fully funding a summer of immersive service in Beijing, and in the process, create a transformative learning experience for scholars, strengthening their leadership within the Fung network, and providing meaningful support to organizations serving marginalized communities in Greater China.
Building on our expertise in experiential education and our strong network of innovative social impact organizations, PIM developed an immersive 8-week educational internship program in partnership with innovative social enterprises and non-profits in Beijing, China. Taking a community-driven approach, PIM surveys long-term partner organizations to understand their needs and current projects. Collaborating with the Foundation and Fung Scholars, PIM then helps Fung Scholars identify their skillsets and goals in order to match them with organizations and projects best suited to each, while identifying priority leadership as key learning outcomes.
The program includes:
Social Impact Training – PIM identified the leadership capabilities and mindsets that were most important for Scholars to develop to grow as impact leaders and contribute effectively to their host organization, gathering input from our partners. In a 3-day bootcamp, Fung Scholars receive tailored training on critical social innovation skills including impact measurement, storytelling, lean start-up, social enterprise business models, empathetic leadership, and more.
Immersive Service – Working closely with select partner organizations, PIM scopes out projects for the Fung Scholars that are within their capabilities so that they can contribute meaningfully to the organization, yet challenging enough to stretch them beyond their comfort zone. Sample projects have included:
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- Drafting a business plan and financial model for a social enterprises’ new product partnership with Starbucks China
- Developing data tracking tools to help an organization better monitor and evaluate their services to migrant worker families in Beijing’s outskirts
- Creating a podcast featuring job skills training content for persons with disabilities
Through their service, Fung Scholars learn about real-word problems and solutions from people in the Beijing community, while embracing the opportunity to learn and grow professionally with mentorship from the organization founder or leadership team.
Mentor Community – Scholars convene every other week for a sharing or discussion facilitated by a PIM mentor. Structured mentorship opportunities offer Fung Scholars new perspectives on cross-sector career paths, while building space for reflection to derive meaning and solidify learnings from their internship. Mentors from cross-sector backgrounds are selected based on their professional achievements in the social impact space, aligned with the cohorts’ interests, such as:
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- Strategy and Business Development at Microsoft
- Nonprofit Co-Founder, Education in Sight & Mantra
- Consultant at World Bank and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Special Counsel at Covington & Burling Law Firm
I feel that I’m introduced to a new community, with young people who never restrict themselves but keeps learning and exploring. Moreover, I find people who are always empathetic and kind, and surely they are my new role models.–Fung Scholar, 2019
Results
Analysis of evaluation surveys and post-interviews reinforced that this program provided Fung Scholars with a high impact, active learning experience, integrating community service with skills training and personal reflection while advancing the Victor and William Fung Foundation’s mission of nurturing socially responsible young leaders. We found that participating Fung Scholars emerged from the program with:
- Expanded perspectives. 100% of survey respondents would recommend the program to a friend, most citing their reason being that the program helped them to consider new perspectives on their career path.
- Strengthened leadership capabilities. 100% of survey respondents agreed the program helped them to develop meaningful new skills, including problem-solving, impact evaluation, workplace communication, digital marketing and more;
- Deepened motivation to engage in community issues 100% of survey respondents reported a commitment to engaging in social impact leadership opportunities in the future. Many participants noted that the program helped them to better understand a social issue they care about, as well as the strategies and solutions to address these issues. More than half of participants expressed a desire to launch or support an organization tackling social or environmental issue in their own local community.
This program expanded my expectations for my career path. I do not have to work according to what I learn in college, but could always explore new area to learn.–2019 Scholar
This program inspired me a lot by changing my perspective on “doing good.” There are tons of channels to do good…and I have a clearer picture of realizing my aspiration through studying the successful samples of Mantra and PIM as well as the foundation opportunities in Beijing.–2018 Fung Scholar
Survey results from organization leaders also reinforced that participating in the Social Impact Internship program brought significant value to community partners. Organization leaders ranked the diversity of skills, backgrounds and perspectives Fung Scholars contributed to their team as the program’s greatest value to their organization. Anecdotally, we found that some organizations are interested in connecting with student-led leadership groups to advance their mission and this program helped them to test out ideas and get feedback. All organizations expressed interest in partnering with PIM and the Victor and William Fung Foundation again to host interns.
The Fung Scholars were excellent and accomplished a lot in a short amount of time.–Sam Waldo, Co-Founder & CEO, Mantra
About PIM
PIM empowers young people with the education, resources, and networks to become mission-driven leaders and effective changemakers. We partner closely with stakeholders (including universities, foundations, social organizations) to provide education and leadership programs and capacity building initiatives founded on a “learning by doing” model for investigating and solving social problems.
Interested in creating an experiential leadership development program for your community? PIM can help. With experience leading transformative education programs for over 2,900 young leaders since 2014, and a network of over 160 innovative social innovation partners in China, Rwanda, India, San Francisco, and more, PIM can help you tailor impactful professional development experiences for your community of young leaders that transfer back to positive community impact.
Click here to download the case study.
