DFA at UC
In 2014, I co-founded a Design for America (DFA) chapter at the University of Cincinnati. DFA is a national student organization focused on design innovation for social impact. If a school wants to start a DFA chapter at their university, they have to apply. At the time we applied, the application process was a two semester process. You had to have at least 20 students who want to be part of the organization, a faculty advisor, and a community partner. My friend Michelle and I gathered people from different majors to be a part of DFA, hosted a workshop with DFA national, and helped facilitate user-centered design projects.
Being President of DFA taught me a lot about leadership and working with people that are different than me. Being a studio lead for DFA helped me learn how to teach the design thinking process, talk about design thinking with non-design majors, and the importance of empathy when working on projects. Being a leader for DFA also helped me become a better public speaker, and allowed me to become comfortable conveying my ideas to large groups of people.
UC Hosts Mid-West Meet-up
Every year the mid-west schools in the DFA network hold a conference that focuses on a design-related topic. In 2016, I co-led the planning for the conference held at UC. The focus of the conference was storytelling. We wanted to convey the importance of communicating an idea and the power of a story.
When we started planning, we thought, "What's the best way to teach students about visual storytelling?" After a lot of brainstorming, we decided we that we would teach everyone through experience. We wanted students to experience Cincinnati's unique community and tell the story of their weekend.
Students were split up into small groups and told to explore Cincinnati. They completed a scavenger hunt on UC's campus, visited companies that are involved in the community, and saw important Cincinnati sites. After exploring the city, students came back and listened to speakers talk about the power of a story and attended a storytelling workshop. The groups then created their visual narrative and presented them to the group.
Brian Barkocy, former Senior Sales Analyst at P&G, talked with students about the power of using simple metaphors in storytelling to connect with your audience emotionally.
Students visited Design Impact, a local non-profit that aims to improve society by design.
Levi Bethune, a storytelling expert, talked with students about the importance of empathizing with your audience when telling a story.
Read more about the experience on the DFA national blog.
Teaching the Design Thinking Process
Part of my role as a DFA studio lead was to teach the design thinking process to DFA members so they can implement this method during their DFA projects. One of the ways we did this was to lead a "design sprint" at the beginning of the semester using cartoon characters. This approach introduced teams to the entire design thinking process in a fun way before they started working on real world problems.
IIDA Presentation
I was asked to present on who DFA is and what we do for Cincinnat's International Interior Design Association's (IIDA) philanthropy night. IIDA members were looking for a way to get involved in their community, so DFA presented different opportunities for professionals to get involved.
