ABOUT MARQUITA SNOW
With the goals of exploring the territories of cyberspace, protecting the American people, and making history with modern technology as the frontier, I am working towards obtaining a second-degree in Cybersecurity from ODU. My name is Marquita Snow and I am a native of Okolona, Mississippi. I am also a member of the Virginia Army National Guard where I enjoy serving my community for a greater cause. I wanted to participate in INNOVATE Monarchs to leave a lasting impact at ODU for future Monarchs.
MEET THE IDEA DESIGNERS BEHIND "THESOURCE Fair"
We are the designers of ODU's "THESOURCE FAIR" which is an event that we came up with in support of ODU’s efforts to ‘Design a University Ready for African American and Latinx Learners during the INNOVATE Monarch Program. THESource Fair allows us to ensure that we promote the campus organizations and resources available on ODU's campus and in the Hampton Roads community especially resources catered to specialize in the needs for African American and Latinx students.
Human-Centered Design Mindsets
Innovation is for Everyone – We are all creative problem-solvers in some way or another.
Know Your Why – Identify your personal passion and personal mission; it gives meaning and strength to our energy and outcomes when innovation aligns with our personal values.
Show & Tell – Have a bias towards action and know that action matters.
Radical Collaboration – The catalyst for change comes through cross-disciplinary, authentic partnerships involving a diverse array of people.
Empathetic & Human-Centered – The challenge is best understood through the lens of others; through empathy, we can create a human-focused solution.
Embrace Ambiguity – The problem is likely deeper than the surface of the challenge. Don’t jump to conclusions or rest in familiarity. Be comfortable with the journey.
Iterate, Iterate, Iterate – We iterate because we know that we won’t get it right the first time. Or even the second - be okay with embracing failure. Iteration allows us the opportunity to explore, to get it wrong, to follow our hunches, and ultimately arrive at a solution that will be adopted and embraced. We iterate because it allows us to keep learning.
MY REFLECTION ON MINDSETS OF A HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGNER
INNOVATE MONARCHS EXPERIENCE
Our Prototype will allow ODU Monarchs an opportunity to plug into ALL THE ORGANIZATIONS AND RESOURCES on-campus and in the Hampton Roads community.
ODU’s THESource Fair for Students is the "ONE-STOP" fair that will be hosted virtually and in-person twice during the Fall and Spring semesters. While the Student Success BRIDGE Program will be a new resource launched at “THESource Fair” where African American and Latinx students will be able to participate in a minority student-led cohort geared for student engagement and success.
In order to develop our Prototype, we endured through the Design Thinking Process which allowed us to learn about the problem that we were tasked to formulate a solution for at ODU. By going through the Five Phases of the Design Thinking Process we were able to to build our prototype around the question of how might we promote the resources available on ODU's campus and in the Hampton Roads community especially resources catered to specialize in the needs of African American and Latinx students.
- Empathizing: We developed a survey that we administered via the University Announcements to students asking questions surrounding their experience at ODU.
- Defining: We analyzed the student data to point out major themes that we saw which were: ADVOCACY, FINE-TUNING, PUBLICITY, INCLUSION & COMMUNICATION, and CULTURAL DIVERSITY
- Ideating: We formulated outside-the-box ideas to solve the problem. We used the Brainstorming-Group-Prioritize model to narrow down our ideas to one project for our Prototype.
- Prototyping: We used the INNOVATE Concept map to build our prototype around the question of how might we promote the resources available on ODU's campus and in the Hampton Roads community especially resources catered to specialize in the needs of African American and Latinx students.
- Plans for Testing: We developed a plan to administer a test for this project by branding and outlining how the event could possibly be administered at ODU.
Check out our idea of ODU's First "ONE-STOP" #THESourceFair where students can get information on all the resources available on ODU's campus and in the Hampton Roads community especially resources catered to specialize in the needs of African American and Latinx students.