Ballard Center News 

Ballard Center employee Hannah Koford was recently honored as the 2022 BYU Student Employee of the Year.

Many college students often have to turn off social media in order to do their homework. However, social media is homework for four students at BYU. These students use social platforms to help their social impact project partner Video Volunteers find individuals sharing personal stories of living in underrepresented communities.

As a child in Arroyo Grande, California, Sydni Dunn crafted woven purses out of empty Capri Sun pouches to sell to her friends, a pet project of hers that was a preview of things to come in her career. While this BYU Marriott School of Business graduate had dreams of helping run a business, she did not know that she would grow up to empower artisans around the world to sell their own handcrafted products as a way to reduce poverty.  

Do you want to work in a consulting firm but don’t know how or where to start? BYU Marriott School of Business 2020 MPA graduate Alyssa Clark and BYU 2020 political science graduate Jennica Collette share how the skills they learned during their time at the Ballard Center for Social Impact helped them transition into social impact consulting.

BYU students seeking to make a difference in the world no longer need to choose between pursuing a fulfilling career or a well-paid profession. Todd Manwaring, director and founder of the Ballard Center for Social Impact, shares that across the world, nonprofit organizations are merging with corporate businesses to maximize the long-term positive impact created through philanthropic efforts. This adjustment has created the need for updated instruction among academic institutions, and the Ballard Center combined with the Romney Institute of Public Service and Ethics, housed in the BYU Marriott School of Business, is rising to the challenge.  

A day of work for BYU Marriott School of Business alum Tanner Clawson might look different than what most people assume someone in “business” does. Through the Ballard Center for Social Impact at BYU Marriott, Clawson’s career in business has led him across the globe, helping with projects that are solving pressing social issues.

Since completing a social impact internship in Mexico City in 2012, Nathan Noble has charted a career path dedicated to serving others and helping people in need. The BYU Marriott School of Business entrepreneurship alumnus still feels the ripples of his foundational experiences during his time at BYU Marriott in his current efforts to reimagine and improve the lives of foster children.

This summer, Walmart challenged four BYU Marriott School of Business students to create a sustainable alternative for a supply chain process through an internship with the school’s Ballard Center for Social Impact. These social impact projects (SIPs) enable students from all disciplines to create lasting solutions to global challenges. 

The more Breann Hunt learns about social impact causes, the more she envisions businesses changing the way they operate forever. The BYU Marriott School of Business strategy senior hopes to change the industry as a social impact consultant who helps businesses take on bigger roles in making a difference in their communities. Hunt is studying strategic management at BYU Marriott because she believes the program will give her the tools to help companies make those changes.

After drinking a soda on his way home from campus, BYU Marriott School of Business alum Ryan Smith was surprised to find his student apartment did not have any way to recycle his empty can. After reading a BYU survey that showed the majority of students also wanted to recycle, the 2016 strategy alum started thinking of the idea for Recyclops, a gig economy recycling company. Running his own business while taking classes allowed Smith to learn much more from the strategy program. Although Recyclops almost failed, applying the principles he learned in the classroom to his work helped Smith produce a multimillion-dollar company.

The Ballard Center for Social Impact at the BYU Marriott School of Business connects students with opportunities to make a difference through social innovation. One way the Ballard Center helps students create a positive impact in the world is through its on-campus Social Innovation Projects (SIP) internship classes. Giving students the unique chance to improve lives through joint efforts with nonprofit organizations, SIPs help students find purpose in helping others.

In a world still reeling from a global pandemic, many are wondering how to prevent or prepare for the next global disease outbreak. BYU microbiology major Curtis Hoffmann discovered what he believes is the answer through his work with the Ballard Center for Social Impact.

At home in Australia, Jaysen Valdes felt like he was “marinating in stagnation” and that his goals were out of reach. However, thanks to his own grit and the resources available at the BYU Marriott School of Business, the senior in the strategy program now uses his business skills to reach his own aspirations and to help early-stage organizations around the world reach theirs. 

Steven Fox's life experiences have taught him how to look outside himself and serve those around him. Now, as he returns to BYU Marriott, Fox continues to prioritize serving others.

In a year where many plans and events have been postponed or canceled altogether, Alexa Elliott is cautiously and optimistically moving forward. Despite a variety of challenges faced, Elliott, a junior from Gaithersburg, Maryland studying journalism at BYU, recently decided now was the right time to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

When BYU Marriott MBA alum George Simons discovered the difficulty of sending legal documents through the mail, he decided to make a difference and find a better solution.

When Todd Manwaring first heard the term social impact, he had no clue how much those two words would change his life. It was 1996 and Manwaring was searching for his legacy vocation after a successful information technology career. Now looking back almost twenty-five years later as the founder, director, and professor-of-practice of the Melvin J. Ballard Center for Social Impact at the BYU Marriott School of Business, Manwaring says the change in career was one of the best decisions he made in his life.    

Graduating from college often means the beginning of a new journey for students. Gone are textbooks and class schedules, replaced by commutes and paychecks. For Jennica Collette, her career in social impact is taking off as she begins her internship at Latter-day Saint Charities. Collette, who recently graduated from BYU in political science, is one of four Ballard Center for Social Impact scholars who were accepted into highly competitive and sought-after internships at Latter-day Saint Charities this summer.

Cheryl Crockett, assistant office manager at the Ballard Center for Social Impact, first recognized the diversity of the human condition while reading National Geographic as a girl. “Looking through those pages, I learned that there were others in the world who not only lived differently than me but had so much less opportunity and material abundance. Early on I felt love for the people in those distant places and longed to travel and help in some way,” she remembers.

Eight years ago, a group of BYU engineering students started a project to create a neonatal ventilator for premature babies born in third-world countries. Today, several iterations later, that original idea has been reengineered as an affordable adult ventilator that just received FDA emergency authorization for use in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.