Every academic year form student teams that each will work on design challenges put forth by partners. If you have existing relationships, please bring them to the group, and we can form a team and project for a given semester.
Partner
Part of an internal grant from Teaching Race Across the Curriculum (TRAC) and Center for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL).
Project Overview
In this project we explored how existing and new media resources could be made available to faculty to more easily integrate topics of technology and racial equity into their courses.
Partner
As part of a DFA National Challenge, Fordham DFA partnered with YMCA National around the question, how can we leverage peer-to-peer relationships to inspire youth as change makers sponsored by the YMCA?
Project Overview
In this project we spoke with several local YMCA centers in Manhattan and the Bronx to understand their needs in engaging youth around civic opportunities. In the final prototype presented to the YMCA Leadership team, the studio proposed a YouTube series around youth ambassadorships. We created several sample video posts, and a campaign to engage youth in participating in the video series.
Partner
We partnered with a social impact organization called i Live For, founded by Nikki Webber Allen. i Live For… is a 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit committed to ending the cultural stigma of depression, anxiety and other mental disorders in teenagers and young adults of color. Here is a TED talk from Nikki herself (she was a 2018 TED Fellow).
Project Overview
In this project we spoke with people that had never experienced therapy and those that had recently had their first experience with different kinds of therapy. We designed a variety of prototypes focused on tackling mental health stigma. In our final prototype we created a space where youth could record their own “first time” experiences with therapy and share them as short stories. We organized some of these in a short-form podcast called “How does that make you feel.” Our prototype is here.
