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How Faith Shapes Social Impact: Eva Witesman, PhD, on the followHIM Podcast
Eva Witesman, PhD, director of the Ballard Center for Social Impact at BYU Marriott, joins the followHIM podcast to explore how faith shapes meaningful social impact. Drawing on Doctrine and Covenants 81–88, Witesman shares insights on ministering, strengthening communities, and creating lasting change by serving individuals and addressing their needs.
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How Ballard Briefs Are Shaping the Next Generation of Changemakers
Learn how the Ballard Brief is helping high school students build research skills, information literacy, and a deeper understanding of complex social issues. Inspired by the Ballard Center for Social Impact at BYU Marriott, students at Maple Mountain High School used the Ballard Brief model to research root causes, evaluate evidence, and develop a more informed, human-centered perspective. See how social impact education is preparing the next generation of changemakers to do good better.
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Transferring For-profit Skills to Social Impact Work
Discover how Brent Goddard transformed a successful business career into a passion for social impact. Learn how his experience in corporate social responsibility and the Ballard Center is preparing the next generation of purpose-driven leaders.
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Rooted in Community, Led by Christ
Discover how BYU alum Ellie Romans Draper transformed her passion for community service into global social impact through the Ballard Center. Learn how faith, leadership, and hands-on experience empowered her to create meaningful change.
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Faith, Collaboration, and Lasting Change
In this employee spotlight, Eva Witesman, director of the Ballard Center for Social Impact, shares insights on her career path and goals as a professor in the BYU Marriott MPA program.
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How One BYU Alumnus Built Social Impact into His Career
Do your career goals align with your core values? For BYU alumnus Andres Aleson, finding fulfillment in his career required more than a steady job in his chosen field. He’s learned that pursuing purpose-driven work can offer a deeper sense of gratification, even if it wasn’t part of the original plan.
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Learning by Doing: Lessons from a Case Competition
Discover how BYU students created TechConnect, an innovative nonprofit concept designed to expand laptop access and digital learning opportunities in Nigeria. Learn how collaboration and social impact strategies can help bridge the digital divide and empower students through education.
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BYU Engineering Capstones Incorporate Social Impact
BYU Engineering capstone students, in collaboration with the Ballard Center for Social Impact and collaborators like Gram Vikas, develop engineering projects such as scalable water treatment systems that address real-world challenges through cross-disciplinary teamwork.
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Bingham Family Clinic Expands Free Healthcare Access with BYU Student Support
Through collaboration with the Bingham Family Clinic in Orem, Utah, BYU students with the Ballard Center for Social Impact develop outreach strategies and community partnerships aimed at expanding access to free healthcare for uninsured individuals.
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Planting Seeds of Community
More than 600 BYU students turned a few minutes between classes into meaningful community service, creating 2,100+ seed balls to support local community gardens and raise awareness about food insecurity. Through this hands-on project, the Ballard Center and Y-Serve showed how small acts of service can bring light, connection, and hope to a community.
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Seeds of Change: The 2025 Do Good. Better. Conference
From insightful interviews with social impact experts to bold startup pitches by BYU students, the 2025 Do Good. Better. Conference exceeded expectations.
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Collaborating to Care for Those in Need
A new collaboration between the Ballard Center, World Food Program USA, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is empowering young adults worldwide to work toward ending hunger.
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Using Data to Improve Homelessness Support Services in Utah
From the Director: Dr. Eva Witesman makes a case for embracing data-based learning and improvement for support providers serving people experiencing homelessness in Utah.
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The Lisa Show Breaks Down What It Means To "Do Good. Better."
Our motto at the Ballard Center is a call to action: "Do Good. Better." But what does that really mean?
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How a BYU Student’s Trip to Ghana Changed Her Understanding of Social Impact
BYU Public Relations student Alyssa Minor did not know early on that she would write a detailed research paper on child abuse in Ghana's orphanages. But in the Ballard Center Do Good. Better. class, Minor discovered the problem and chose to investigate.
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Turning a Social Need Into a Startup Opportunity
Ryan Smith grew up with a passion for recycling. As a BYU student, he began finding new ways to help his apartment complex recycle materials, as there wasn’t an existing program.
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Bridging The Gap Between Data And Policy
Professor Darren Hawkins is leveraging his connection with the Ballard Center to bridge the gap between high-quality evidence and effective public policy.
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Championing Social Impact In Word and In Deed
For many students, college learning looks like an hour-and-a-half stay in a lecture hall. For the students of Pamela Brubaker, Ph.D., learning is making marketing strategies for a real-world startup.
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