The Jacobs Institute for Innovation in Education Receives Over Half a Million Dollars for Social Good Innovation with Teens and Teachers

The Jacobs Institute for Innovation in Education in the School of Leadership and Education Science (SOLES) has received an additional $580,000 commitment from Dr. Irwin & Mrs. Joan Jacobs to continue work building and implementing Pactful™, a social good innovation app for teenagers and their teachers.

The Institute unveiled Pactful™ at their recent conference, EDInnovateLive 2019, attended by over 200 educational innovators throughout the country. Aligned to the UN Global Goals, Pactful™ supports students to work in teams to design local and global solutions to social issues using a design thinking process. Beta testing launches this fall. Interested teachers can sign up for beta testing here: https://www.pactful.org/

Dr. Lisa Dawley, Executive Director of the Jacobs Institute, shared, “It has been an amazing journey to work with the Jacobs Institute team, our designers and advisors on this project. Championed by the encouragement and financial support from Dr. and Mrs. Jacobs, our goal is to recapture millions of “lost Einsteins” around the country by providing them access to innovation culture and training. After beta testing, our next step is to launch the app in a region-wide changemaker competition next fall with thousands of teens creating solutions to local and industry problems.”

Dr. Dawley and Monte Kalisch, Director of Technology Strategy & Development at the Jacobs Institute, are the inventors of Pactful.

More information about the Jacobs Institute for Innovation in Education can be found on their website: https://www.sandiego.edu/soles/jacobs-institute/

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Strengthened by the Catholic intellectual tradition, we confront humanity’s challenges by fostering peace, working for justice and leading with love. With more than 8,000 students from 75 countries and 44 states, USD is among the Top 20 Best Private Schools for Making an Impact according to The Princeton Review. USD’s eight academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences, the Knauss School of Business, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Division of Professional and Continuing Education. In 2021, USD was named a “Laudato Si’ University” by the Vatican with a seven-year commitment to address humanity’s urgent challenges by working together to take care of our common home.