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I started a d.school for leadership
As the Chief Learning Officer for the CU Boulder’s Dean’s Leadership Fellows, I co-developed a design thinking leadership program for undergraduate students. This work involved creating a vision for the program that would allow students to grow over the course of their academic experience. To support this vision, I created interactive workshops for students in both in person and virtual settings, trained and managed a team of six facilitators, and developed tailored curriculum. Here’s an overview of the program:
01. Help students discover their purpose and mission
I designed a course called the Purpose Project, which consisted of 20 interactive design thinking workshops for CU Boulder Sophomores. I was a lead instructor for this course and brought in a team of 6 facilitators to support the class. This course was an intensive, hands-on, project-based experience in which students applied design and business skills to create comprehensive solutions for challenges in the health, environmental, social sectors.
We partnered 10 partners with various challenges in these sectors. Here’s examples of some of the companies we worked with and their design challenges:
Leave No Trace: How might we use organic, unpaid marketing to tell the story of Leave No Trace in order to promote engagement and excitement for their Citizens' Science Center app?
Greenaction: How might we convert Greenaction's in-person walk-a-thons into a virtual event while making it more profitable than traditional walk-a-thons?
E Source: How might we help low income consumers and communities gain the most benefit from electric transportation in a way that aligns with their day to day needs?
Community Cycle: How do we communicate rules of the road to students in a way that they will take action?
Lily's Sweets: How might we increase the household penetration of Lily’s Sweets to 10% despite the sampling limitations introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic?
Power for Parkinson’s: How might we better reach those suffering from Parkinson’s Disease through virtual platforms to increase their quality of life?
KidsTek: How might we market KidsTek programs to spur high enrollment in their after school enrichment programs?
Leaf Global Fintech: How might we attract U.S. donors to contribute to refugees abroad through Leaf Global Fintech's mobile wallet platform while respecting and maintaining the dignity of refugees?
Pamala Machala: How might we help musicians generate revenue during COVID-19?
Youth Seen: How might Youth Seen gain more funding through partnerships with anti-racist organizations to increase services to the QTBIPOC community?
Teams were created to allow students to empathize with users, define needs, ideate, prototype, and test ideas that can be implemented by partner organizations. Students presented their findings to partners and ultimately helped move the needle forward on these pressing issues.
02. Design curriculum that allows students to craft compelling stories about their work
I also held storytelling workshops for juniors at CU Boulder. The purpose of designing and delivering a Storytelling Workshop was to introduce students to basic theory and practice for storytelling to encourage strong communication. This training will help students continue to build strong leadership skills, understand the basic principles of storytelling, demonstrate creativity and aptitude of creative communication, and prepare to use design thinking in future career opportunities.
03. Enhance students’ innovative leadership skills
After students were introduced to design thinking, in their final year, I wanted to teach them how to bring design leadership skills into their future workplaces through facilitation. In these facilitation trainings, students learned how to create safe, equitable spaces and practiced and received feedback on their leadership.
#leadership #designthinking #facilitation #curriculumdesign #socialentrepreneurship #education #health #sustainability