Facilitation of a Changemaking Workshop to
Empower Student Leaders at the University of
Nebraska Omaha
Ryan Chapman, Joey Gruber, Marissa Morales, Lavanya Uppala
University of Nebraska at Omaha
University Innovation Fellows - Stanford University
Abstract— Students at the University of Nebraska at Omaha
(UNO) have reported feeling isolated and unheard as a result of
the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, students report that
financial barriers and other adversities are a roadblock
preventing them from getting involved in changemaking efforts.
Our team has developed a novel workshop that teaches students
the proponents of leading change and paid them for their efforts
to make the workshop more accessible. The workshop featured
presentations from students who have led change at UNO,
presentations on a modified design thinking methodology, small
group time spent generating solutions, and faculty cooperation.
During the workshop students identified three areas that needed
reform: Campus Safety/Security, Accessibility, and Mental
Health. By the conclusion of the workshop all groups had
generated solutions to issues within these areas and had proposals
for carrying out their work. Because of the passion shown by
student participants, we have created a new student organization,
Mavericks for Change, which seeks to create an environment
where student-led change can continue.
Keywords—changemaking, design thinking, implementation,
innovation, empathy, innovation, problem statements, prototyping
I. INTRODUCTION
The University Innovation Fellows (UIF) program is a
global curriculum facilitated by the Stanford University’s Hasso
Plattner Institute of Design. Through UIF, university students
are challenged to institute change at their individual institutions.
Once accepted, fellows embark on a 6-week training session
during which they investigate resources and issues facing their
campuses, utilize Design Thinking, and report their findings to
fellow students, university faculty, and administration [1].
During our training, we found that many problems facing
students at our home institution, the University of Nebraska at
Omaha (UNO), were rooted in the COVID-19 pandemic and its
impacts on education. We conducted several student interviews
regarding these issues. Students reported feeling isolated from
other students and unheard by both professors and university
administration. Additionally, students did not feel as though
they had sufficient financial support to participate in
changemaking efforts while supporting their university tuition.
As both a resource for interested students and an experiment
to show UNO administration, we have developed a
changemaking workshop that teaches students the proponents of
leading change, applies design methodologies for developing
©2021 IEEE
solutions to change, and compensated students for learning,
leading, and improving our university. Through this workshop,
students developed several solutions to issues facing the UNO
student body, and they concluded the workshop feeling
empowered to pursue implementation of their ideas with access
to a new organization to continue their work.
II. METHODS
A. Design Thinking Methodology
The method of changemaking that was taught during our
workshop was a modified version of the Design Thinking
methodology, which is a human centered approach to design.
Through this modified version, we sought to make the process
more inclusive to all members involved. Our version consisted
of four distinct stages: Empathizing, Focusing In, Solution
Generation, and Implementation. The purpose of the
Empathizing stage is to listen to those currently affected by the
issue one is seeking to solve. In the “Focusing In” stage, the
information from the Empathizing stage is synthesized to
concrete problem statements. During Solution Generation,
students generate ideas in a judgement free environment. This
stage encourages students to develop seemingly unfeasible
ideas and to build off the ideas of other group members. Finally,
the Implementation stage focuses on creating a product that can
be tested.
B. Workshop Recruitment
Participation in our workshop was open to currently
enrolled UNO undergraduate and graduate students. Our
workshop was advertised via social media and via email
communication through various university organizations.
C. Workshop Format
Our workshop was held via Zoom over the course of three
days. Each day consisted of a two-hour long session split into
two hour-long halves. The first hour of the session was an
informational section to teach participants the proponents of that
day’s activities. Each day also included student speakers who
had been involved in student-led change at UNO. The second
half of each session was devoted to working in groups to focus
on each day’s task.
The first day’s theme was “What does Changemaking look
like?” and consisted of the Empathize and “Focus In” stages.
Students were sent into breakout rooms to discuss issues that Figure 1: Mural Board showing the ideation session ran by a group focused on
they faced at UNO and areas of university life that they felt accessibility of technology and online coursework at UNO.
needed reform.
Based on the ideas generated during the second session,
The second day’s theme was “How can you implement students worked together to generate prototypes that could be
change?” and focused on the Solution Generation stage. During used to solve their issues and were ready for implementation.
the group activity for that day, students ran an ideation session Many groups' prototypes were either storyboards or surveys
in their small groups. Students began by generating general
(Figure 2 and 3). Storyboards mainly focused on how the
ideas for solutions that they felt could solve problems in their
groups planned to continue their efforts after the conclusion of
area. Next, students voted on their top 3-4 ideas and then built
off these ideas under different constraints. The constraints were the workshop (Figure 2a and b). Surveys were aimed at
based off of time frames that the idea could be implemented gathering additional student input that could be used to refine
during: a single semester (short term), an academic year (middle future prototypes (Figure 3a and b).
term), and 2-5 years (long term). Additionally, students could
ideate under a fun constraint based on activity from UIF [2].
The final day’s theme was “What resources can UNO
provide to you?” and focused on the Implementation stage. The
group activity for that day consisted of students creating
prototypes, which would be ready to implement across the
university. Additionally, faculty members were invited to join
the students during this session, and they provided the groups
with feedback and resources for implementing their prototypes.
The online platform Mural was used to facilitate the small
group components of the workshop [3].
D. Student Payment A B
Students were compensated $9 per hour that they attended
Figure 2: Mural boards showing the storyboard prototypes of groups. A. The
the workshop. storyboard of a group focused on the accessibility of online courses. B. The
storyboard of a group focused on the safety of students traveling through
III. RESULTS Elmwood Park.
Our workshop garnered the participation of 27 students of
various majors and stages of education. During the first session,
students identified the areas of Campus Safety/Security,
Accessibility, and Mental Health. Before the second session,
students voted on which area they would like to focus on. Due
to higher levels of interest, two groups of students focusing on
both Accessibility and Mental Health were formed, and a single
group was formed focusing on Campus Safety/Security. During
the third session, students generated ideas on ways that they
could solve their issues. Students generated a variety of ideas
that could be used to solve their issues in various time points
(Figure 1).

A B
Figure 3: Mural boards showing the survey prototypes of groups. A. The survey
of a group focused on Mental Health seeking student input on the availability of
counseling services through UNO’s Counseling and Psychological Services
(CAPS). B. The survey of a group focused on Mental Health seeking student
input on the creation of a virtual space for students to interact with one another.

During the final segment of the workshop, students presented

their plans to the other groups and faculty members. Several
groups reported that they had shared contact information with
one another and planned to meet again after the workshop.
Additionally, one of the groups focused on accessibility attended
a student government meeting the day following the workshop
to present their prototype of revising the UNO website.
 IV. DISCUSSION
The engagement and passion shown by the students who
participated in the changemaking workshop has inspired us to
create a student organization at our institution. The student
organization, known as Mavericks for Change (MFC), hopes to
provide a space where students can facilitate their own project
ideas alongside other student leaders and locate resources that
can enhance their projects. MFC is structured around the idea
that there is no hierarchy of power. Instead, any “leadership”
roles serve to maintain the business aspects of the organization,
and power is given to the entire membership of the organization.
Any student who is interested has the option to join, propose a
project, join an existing project, and hold a “leadership” role.
Already, MFC has garnered several members, many of whom
were participants in the changemaking workshop, and who
would like to continue to innovate and implement their
prototypes. We hope that our initiative can influence a culture at
our institution where students and administration, faculty, and
staff are able to be supportive to the idea of student-led change.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank the Stanford University Innovation
Fellows Program for inspiring and training us to conduct this
effort. Student speakers at this event included Bri Full, Val
Gayton, Dalton Meister, Jabin Moore, and Vanessa Chavez
Jurado. We would also like to thank our faculty mentors Harnoor
Singh and Kristina Cammarano and our University Innovation
Fellows alumni guide Cade Wolcott. Funding for this project
was provided by the Department of Student Success at the
University of Nebraska at Omaha, headed by Dr. Dan Shipp. We
would also like to thank all of the faculty, staff, and
administrators, who attended and supported student projects.
REFERENCES
[1] “About the Program,” University Innovation Fellows.
https://universityinnovationfellows.org/about-us/program/ (accessed
Mar. 06, 2021).
[2] University Innovation Fellows, Brainstorming Constraints. 2020.
[3] “MURAL is a digital workspace for visual collaboration.”
https://www.mural.co/ (accessed Mar. 08, 2021).