Former Projects

Girls on the Run Capital Region

Schenectady County Food Council

For the 24-25 academic year, the NExT team working with Girls on the Run Capital Region helped the nonprofit consider strategic outreach and marketing to expand into Warren and Washington Counties. Members of the team will developed strategic growth strategy for these service counties, which included developing outreach materials, developing email templates, and creating brand awareness in these counties. The initiative will help more girls engage in an afterschool sports-based program that helps girls build their leadership skills, teamwork, and confidence. 

From fall 2024 through spring 2025, the NExT Fellows working with the  Schenectady County Food Council developed a survey and best practices guide for a county-wide needs assessment on food insecurity, food access, and food justice. Students analyzed surveys that were previously constructed and used in smaller municipalities and focused on developing a survey about food access overall. In addition, the student team developed focus group questions and a best practices guide for deploying the survey and evaluating the logic of the survey. The initiative will help the Council to develop programming, inform initiatives, and ensure an updated evaluation on food access is conducted in Schenectady County. 

Community Investment Trust (CIT)

From fall 2024 through spring 2025, a NExT team worked on designing and painting a mural in the South End of Albany through a partnership with the CIT. NExT Fellows on this team successfully reviewed listening session notes, attended events, and spoke with business owners at the building to develop a vision for the mural. The members not only painted a mural in the building that will be immediately visible to anyone exiting the elevator on the second floor but they also developed a best practices guide for public art. Given the CIT's desire to integrate more art into the building, the legacy of both the mural and the sustainability document will help ensure collaboration in the space with others for years to come.

Whitney Young Health Center

From fall 2023 through spring 2024, NExT Fellows created a detailed proposal for Whitney Young Health Center to use as they build partnerships with local bar associations to support patients with specific social determinants of health.  The team examined data from almost 1,000 patients to identify the need areas that could be met by pro bono resources. The team presented their findings and proposal to the Executive Board team, which will ideally help to improve patient health outcomes.

Over the 2023-2024 academic year, NExT Fellows made the United Tenants of Albany's (UTA) volunteer training handbook more accessible.  The team wrote scripts for, and recorded, 12 training video modules for helpline volunteers with quizzes to increase accessibility to UTA's handbook.  Two members of the team created a policy brief on housing needs and the necessity of tenant associations while another created an infographic based on the research from the policy brief

A student team led the creation of Francis Medical Transport, a nonprofit organization that will provide on-emergency medical transportation, to seniors in the Capital District who otherwise would be limited in their capability to schedule and show up to their doctor's appointments. Students researched how to establish a nonprofit organization, developed plans for fundraising, and successfully founded the nonprofit in one semester. The Team Leader, who spearheaded this project as their Capstone, also created a legacy document to support future NExT Fellows who may want to also create nonprofits through our program.

In spring 2022, NExT Fellows served with the Community Loan Fund to advocate for the development of a daycare business incubator in the South End of Albany. The project worked to address the child care desert in the area as well as improve employment opportunities by evaluating training documents previously used for the daycare incubator to make the training sessions more effective and efficient by researching and implementing best practices.

During the 2022-2023 school year, NExT Fellows worked with FOR-NY to advocate for the development of organizational wellness. Through this project, Fellows spread awareness for the PARSE Coalition and Recovery Friendly Workplace initiatives through the State of New York by advocating on behalf of RFW legislation. They also provided FOR-NY with research supporting the financial and personal advantages involved with organizational wellness to aid in their strategic planning as an organization.

The Food Pantries for the Capital District

NExT Fellows focused on the impact of the Food as Medicine program in the Capital Region through The Food Pantries for the Capital District during the 2022-2023 school year. This collaboration helped evaluate the effectiveness of the program to show the impacts of food insecurity as well as food improving individuals overall health. Members analyzed data for the partner and shared results with the partner as well as presented at a conference on their findings.