Social Impact Fellow Reflection: Afsheen Mohammad | Empact Work

What drew you to this organization and role?

Starting out as a student outside of the Scheller College of Business, I was not familiar with the Institute of Leadership and Social Impact (ISLI) until a friend had told me about her fellowship and urged me to join one of my own. Soon, I realized that joining an organization that prioritizes social good would be one of the best choices I made this past semester!

Empact Work’s primary mission is to create learning programs that train a company’s management teams to lead with empathy and with their employees’ best interests in mind. Throughout the interview and onboarding process, I was drawn in by the sincerity of Empact’s mission and both Nautrie’s and Karen’s passion for their work.

What were your primary responsibilities or projects?

With a high number of clients comes a large amount of paperwork and contracts that need to be created and organized. My primary responsibility was to make different backend processes within Empact more efficient: including the ones that generated welcome kits and contracts for new clients. By the end of the internship, I perfected two different tools that would automatically produce new client materials with just the press of a button, (hopefully) making their onboarding processes a whole lot easier!

How might this experience shape your future academic, professional, or personal goals?

Prior to this internship, I had never worked closely with a company that had a small team, and I have usually been a small fish in an organization’s big pond. Throughout this last semester, I was able to work in a very small, tight-knit team, who loved what they did and whole-heartedly believed in their organization’s message. On top of that, I truly felt like my work mattered.

This experience made me realize how important it is to see your work’s impact and to have managers who are looking out for you. I know that in the future, I will be looking for opportunities just like this one!

Supervisor Q&A with Karen Galvan, Operations Manager at Empact

How does this internship role contribute to the organization’s mission or impact?

This internship role directly supports our ability to operate efficiently and scale our impact. By helping build and refine workflows, automations, and internal systems, interns make it easier for our team to focus on higher-value, mission-driven work instead of getting stuck in repetitive tasks. In a small organization like ours, that kind of support is huge—it allows us to move faster, stay organized, and ultimately better serve the communities and clients we work with.

What skills or qualities are most important for students interested in this field?

Students interested in this field should focus on developing a strong understanding of systems, workflows, and operations. It’s not just about knowing a tool—it’s about understanding how different systems connect and how information flows between them. Being curious, detail-oriented, and open to trial and error is key, since a lot of this work involves testing and improving processes over time. It’s also important to have an eye for simplification—being able to step back, question what’s unnecessary, and suggest more efficient ways of doing things.

What advice would you give to future interns or students pursuing similar opportunities?

I’d encourage students to start by building their own workflows—whether it’s organizing their emails, helping a friend, or supporting a small business. Hands-on practice is the fastest way to learn. There are so many tools and resources available now, especially with AI, but it’s still important to understand the fundamentals first—how systems work, where things can break, and how to troubleshoot. That foundation makes it much easier to use more advanced tools effectively. I’d also recommend paying close attention to real-world pain points—understanding when automation adds value and when it doesn’t is just as important as knowing how to build it.

What has been most valuable about having interns involved in your work?

Having interns has been incredibly valuable for our team. As a small organization, we have limited capacity, so having someone dedicated to improving workflows and building automations has made a big difference. Interns have helped us save time, reduce manual work, and create smoother systems overall. That support allows the rest of the team to focus more on strategic and client-facing work. Their contributions have had a meaningful impact on how we operate day-to-day, and we’re genuinely grateful for the role they’ve played in strengthening our processes.

The Institute for Leadership and Social Impact (ILSI) is an interdisciplinary institute at Georgia Tech dedicated to promoting servant leadership and advancing organizational practices that contribute to a more just, caring, and sustainable world. Through experiential learning, research, and community partnerships, we nurture leaders who drive meaningful social change—locally in Atlanta and globally. To learn more about our initiatives and programs, visit our website.