DesignSeed | Selected Work | Vanina Pappacena

Project summary

Connect technical skills with social purpose

Technical students from the Buenos Aires City Government’s professional internship program possessed strong hard skills but lacked the frameworks to understand the social impact of their creations. The goal was to instill a systemic mindset in these future professionals through specialized workshops — teaching them to map the consequences of their technology on community and environment.

FocusSocial impact workshops for the City Government's professional internship program (Prácticas Profesionalizantes)
MethodTwo hands-on workshops on purpose-driven project development
Result80% of students engaged to continue applying the model

Role

Design and facilitate impact workshops, instill a systemic mindset

Designed and facilitated a two-part workshop series and impact measurement framework integrated into public technical schools.
Set the goal of teaching students to map the consequences of their technology on community and environment.
Mentored students toward a more ethical, systemic way of thinking about design.

Approach

Two workshops, one shift in mindset

Workshop 1 — Theory of Change

Students learned to plan their internship projects starting from a deep sense of purpose, ensuring each technical step had meaning and social direction.

Workshop 2 — Impact Models

Introduced tools to help students consider the social and environmental impact of their technical solutions from the very beginning.

Outcome

A mindset shift, backed by real engagement

High engagement

Achieved 80% student interest in continuing the "Theory of Change" model within their projects.

Actionable toolkits

Delivered scalable impact frameworks that technical schools under the Buenos Aires City Government can adopt autonomously.

Talent pipeline

Mentored the next generation of technical professionals to think ethically and systemically before entering the workforce.

Who this is for

Educational institutions & technical schools
Public sector & government internship programs
Incubation and acceleration programs
Companies seeking to develop tech talent with a systemic, impact-oriented mindset

Key learning

There's a clear gap between technical knowledge and the ability to create real-world impact. Introducing these frameworks early in high school professional internships helps students build more conscious, sustainable, and context-aware solutions.