Impact on Society

In 2023–2024 Harvey Mudd College is launching the Climate Clinic program in order to better equip our students as scientists to pursue research and technology toward solutions to the threats posed to our society as a result of changes in the earth’s Climate. With inaugural funding from the Fletcher Jones Foundation and an additional gift from a private donor, Climate Clinic is a collaboration between the Clinic departments and the Hixon Center for Climate and the Environment. As the capstone experience for most of our students, Clinic influences students’ career directions by aligning them with industries and organizations at the forefront of climate solutions. Through Climate Clinic, Harvey Mudd College will graduate scientists and engineers with applied technical experience and an interdisciplinary understanding of the relationship between climate science, technology and society.

Global Clinic, established in 2005, prepares students for the future challenges of practicing engineering, science and mathematics in a global context. This program supports the activities associated with undertaking several yearlong, industry-sponsored global engineering and science projects in which teams of Harvey Mudd students collaborate with teams of students from international partner schools with particular emphasis on partnerships in Singapore, China, India, Japan and Israel, with future plans to expand into South America and Europe.

Like many college students, Harvey Mudd students are concerned about social justice, and look for ways to apply their skills in ways that can support societal inequities and the threats to our natural world that impact us all. In 2018, the college launched a program to commit to two Social Justice Clinics each year to provide technical support to community-based organizations working in areas including educational, environmental, economic and social justice.