Problem solvers for nonprofits

The Buffalo News reported on UB’s Social Impact Fellows program and the project one team completed at Journey’s End Refugee Services. The team — made up of sociology PhD candidate Ayesha Datta, MSW student Ian Weeks and MBA/MSW student Arianna Wink — devised a resource-mapping system that allows case managers to pair clients with needed resources 10 times faster than before.

In total, 30 students from the School of Social Work, School of Management and College of Arts and Sciences participated in the fellowship this summer. “The idea of going into an organization to solve a pressing problem in eight weeks was very intriguing to me,” Datta said. “Getting to work with a multidisciplinary team to use your skills and learn from others to solve a specific problem, that was life changing.”