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Community Organizations Interested in Participating

The Hobby School seeks collaboration with nonprofits and community organizations with data and evaluation project challenges. Projects typically last about three months to which one graduate student will be assigned to each project after a thorough process matches your needs to our students’ skill sets and experience. 

 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Any community organization that is a 501(c)(3) or a public entity (e.g., school district, local, state or federal government) is eligible to submit a project profile. The CONNECT program will utilize the following criteria to prioritize project matching for the upcoming Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 cohorts - project type, organizational need, organizational readiness and financial support.
There are two upcoming opportunities to submit projects to be matched with graduate students. These opportunities are concurrent to the University of Houston’s schedule - Fall and Spring semesters. See below for project submission deadlines for each cohort.

Fall 2022: July 29

Spring 2023: November 11

Yes. In fact, many of the projects we help organizations to source take place in phases over more than one project cohort.
The CONNECT program is open to any graduate student currently enrolled at the University of Houston.
Step 1: Organizations submit their project requests via an online form.

Step 2: CONNECT follows-up with organizations to gain clarity on project goal and deliverables (if necessary), share important dates and logistical information, and provide the organization with their project fellowship estimate(s).

Step 3: Students tell us about themselves via a short, online form.

Step 4: Matches are then determined based on project requirements and students’ availability, skillset, experience and interests.

Step 5: Organization notifications are sent out via email to all matched organizations. Organizations receive information on the student they have been matched to and have the choice to accept or deny their match.

Step 6: Official match notifications are then sent out to the students. CONNECT then begins coordinating the initial project kick-off meeting.

To participate in the program, we ask that you provide basic background information about your organization, a description about the problem you are trying to address and the project category (research, measurement strategy, data collection and tool development, data interpretation and analysis, advanced analytics and business intelligence) as well as provide project logistics. Please note, we provide assistance to any organization that needs additional help with scoping their project.
Organizations do not have the opportunity to interview the student(s) that match with their project(s). To verify that CONNECT suggests the optimal match for your project, your organization is encouraged to include additional information (when asked to do so while completing the project profile form) regarding “nonnegotiable” skills/qualities, you would like your graduate student to have. When your organization is notified of its suggested student match, you will be provided with the graduate student’s profile and resume to review before accepting or declining your match suggestion.
There is currently no cost for organizations to participate. Organizations that choose to participate in the program will be asked to consider making a gift in support of the CONNECT program. Due to the generous philanthropic support of individuals and foundations, an inability to make a gift does not preclude participation in the CONNECT program.