From classroom to community: UTS shopfront students driving social change | UTS

The UTS Shopfront program is transforming work-integrated learning by connecting students with grassroots community organisations. Through this program, students work as external ‘consultants’, offering their expertise to non-profits that often lack resources.  

Spanning five faculties, Shopfront supports real-world projects, such as:

• helping Boxhead Plastics improve their marketing materials, leading to their growth from two to 40 customers in one year

• Glebe Youth Services, where students designed a music program for vulnerable youth, teaching them both technical and soft skills, and  

• The HIV/AIDS Legal Centre (NSW), where students produced research to assist the representation of LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the Federal Court.

The program has supported over 1,100 organisations, helping them build capability and achieve their social impact goals. In 2023 alone, 2,185 students participated in this transformative experience.  

Finalists - Dr Gillian Smith, Dr Mehal Krayem, Maddy Langabeer, Grace Dulawan, Mary Valentin, Dr Cale Bain, Tegan O'Neill, Elisa Lee