MBA Teacher did the math: Nashville's homeless and unemployment numbers add up to empathy and humility

With intentionality, Annie B. Williams, MBA Instructor and Associate Sponsor of the Service Club, helps take her students "off of the hill and into the less-than-pretty side of our community, so they can witness first hand the impact that creative problem solving can have on their world." 

"Our partnership with Justice Industries—a non-profit that builds self-sustaining companies that employ the unemployed—allows our students to experience entrepreneurial solutions to BIG problems in our community like homelessness and poverty," Annie B. shared.   

FACT: In 2015 there were over 35,000 unemployed men and women and 28,500 homeless children in Tennessee.

"Unconscionable. This is a problem that gets band-aided and never solved. To me, being part of a community is NOT brushing aside the numbers as "them" but seeing them as "us." Then we are ​more inclined to feel empathy and take action.

​That is one of the advantages of working with Justice Industries: our students engage one-on-one with people who are trying to make their lives better, doing what they can to overcome obstacles, and to support themselves and their families.

"Our goal is to take the students out of their shell and broaden their perspectives, to instill empathy and humility—to build on their natural instincts to care and love."