As the first quarter of school came to a close, GL groups entered the “empathize” stage of the design thinking process, where they began to identify something that was missing, something that could be improved, or something they wished their community had to make life better for others. In doing so, students proposed an innovative idea that directly and positively impacted a community, using one of the SDGs as a guide for their design. Working in collaboration with their group members, teams pitched their ideas to the “Sharks,” community members from around campus, who in turn gave teams meaningful feedback to adjust their project goals and take action throughout the rest of the year.

We've seen a lot of progress in project development since those initial presentations back in October. While some project concepts have endured, like a student mentorship group called “Big Sib” or a reef-safe sunscreen group called “Asé Sunscreen,” other students realized that their original project ideas didn’t quite align with their passions and interests. The first semester of school concluded with a Global Leadership Fair, where students were encouraged to reflect on what they cared about and why. Through this experience, teams could “choose their own adventure,” where students could (1) share their progress with their original ideas, (2) recruit new team members to fill identified roles, or (3) market their own individual skills to others to join a brand new team. Through this experience, students had to clearly articulate their skills, interests, and motivations in a communal setting. Iterative student reflection has been an important piece of the design thinking process and largely contributes to the success we’re seeing from our GL groups now at the end of the year.