Sometimes, a dozen hours can bend the arc of a young person’s lifetime toward a new career of public service and meaningful change.

That’s what happened in the Spring of 2022 for Austin Zielenbach, SPA/BA ’24, of Ladera Ranch, California.

After learning about the Changemakers series—professor-curated, “how-to” courses that are offered up to four times every semester—Zielenbach decided to attend SPA professor Kevin Boyle’s class, Justice Reform: A Step in the Right Direction.

The Changemakers series was launched during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, sprouting from SPA’s Analytics and Management Institute for graduate students and career professionals. SAMI, which is celebrating its 5^th anniversary and was made possible by a $1 million gift from Betsy Mangone, SPA/BA ’65, and Peter Mangone, expanded its programming in 2020 to offer undergraduate students under the umbrella of Changemakers, its highly successful “sister” program, which helps students learn how to bring about positive change.

“We felt that students are very interested in how to get directly involved in the policy area that they are most passionate about,” said Professor Saul Newman, SPA’s associate dean for undergraduate education. “They wanted to learn how to develop the skills they need to have an impact on policy areas now. Changemakers was the answer.”  

Back in April 2022, Boyle’s class inspired Zielenbach to serve as a prosecutor and bring meaningful change to the justice system.

“The biggest thing I took away from this class is how each one of us can create change one step at a time,” said Zielenbach, who is majoring in the Justice, Law, and Criminology program. Or as Boyle puts it, “you eat an elephant, one bite at a time.” 

“Nobody in my class is going to change the criminal justice system overnight because it's too big and it’s too complex,” Boyle admitted. “But I hope that each student in the class can affect the life of one person who is in the system. Changemakers is focused on exactly that: What can you do to fix a problem?

“For example, what can we do to prevent recidivism? We can have a clothing drive, so that people released from prison have an outfit to wear to a job interview. We can donate books so they can study and prepare for job interviews. We can assist with writing a resume to help them get a job or to teach them how to use the computer so they can apply for a job. These are the hands-on things that students can do to make that change.”

In its first three years of operation, Changemakers has prepared students to create change in areas that include justice reform, gender violence, LGBTQ rights and housing discrimination. And this year, the selection of classes has expanded to include Equity in Cannabis and Women’s Movements in the Developing World, and Food Insecurity, which is set for the fall semester.

This year, more than 300 students enrolled in the Changemakers classroom lectures. The students have the option of either to take classes as one-credit courses or without charge for those who may want to attend the sessions but not complete the coursework for credit.

Students explore such topics as “how to get involved,” “how social movements train activists,” “how interest groups and lobbyists organize on issues,” and “the most important of skills that activists need.”

They have heard from prominent advocates, activists, and leaders whose ranks have included John Henry Brown, who defended serial killer Ted Bundy; Shiwali Patel, Director of Justice for Student Survivors and Senior Counsel at the National Women’s Law Center; and Carolos Cervantes, founder for The Ride Home Program.

For Anahi Hernandez, SPA/BA ’23 from Chicago, IL, the Changemakers class on ending gender-based violence taught by SPA professor Jane Palmer and adjunct instructor Katharine Manning led to a capstone project.

“Last summer, I took a justice research course and ended up writing my final paper,” Hernandez said. “I was a little intimidated at first to take in so much information in a condensed form, but I thought both Professors Palmer and Manning did a great job at laying a good foundation and giving us the context we needed to explore the topics we then went on to learn about.” 

Palmer, who started her activism against gender-based violence as a college student, noted that although time in college is about reading, studying, and debating, it’s also time when students can learn that they can bring positive change to this world.

Palmer and Manning structured their Changemakers class with that thought in mind and in a way that their student would not only learn about a particular area but also understand their own power and the impact they can make.

“We knew that students were deeply invested in that topic and wanted to learn more about it,” Manning said.

“In the class, we cover the past, present, and future of movements to end gender-based violence in the US. It can be very demoralizing when you realize how long we’ve been trying to fight gender-based violence, and how bad things still are,” Palmer, who will be teaching the “Ending Gender-Based Violence” class in the Spring semester, said. “So, we were trying to be empowering and help our students recognize there are things that they can do to improve things. Our class discussions and assignments are action-oriented and forward-looking. But we also want them to see that change takes time and we have to sustain ourselves in the work, so we incorporate conversations about preventing burnout as well.”

Acting Provost Vicky Wilkins, who served as Dean of SPA until July 2023 and who has been instrumental in launching both SAMI and Changemakers, says that she is excited to see both programs expand so quickly, and to see graduate and undergraduate students applying the skills they have learned at AU to the real world while bringing positive change to communities across the country and beyond.

“To me it’s the pinnacle of success—the kind of tangible, meaningful change that you are creating after attending this course,” Wilkins said. “I hope that both SAMI and the Changemakers series continue to grow and continue to spread our message that learning lasts a lifetime.”