Monarch Experience

How to design a university ready for Black and Latinx students was the first question that was asked of my team to design a prototype around. We knew that this question was a multifaceted problem that would require listening to others to find what students think a black and brown student that is ready for university looks like, so we sent out a survey to find just that. We asked peers and faculty about their experience on ODU’s campus and what they felt could have helped them when first coming to ODU and the thing that stood out the most for each student's experience was the fear of the unknown. Not knowing how to find classes or important building like Financial aid , or how to check out books and equipment at the library were some of the things that were common this lead my team to ask further question of how student overcame some of these obstacles and the answers varied from going without to getting other students that were friends to help them. This fear of asking for help became a common theme in the answers from students so my team came up with our How might we of How might we communicate about the campus resources for AA& LX in a way that raises awareness and reduces stigma of getting help? Our solution came in the form of a map quest program that groups of students would work together with a faculty member to solve throughout the semester.

Mindset of Human centered thinking

I practiced the Innovation is for Everyone mindset when I had to come up with a solution that my entire group agreed upon during our process. This taught me that making a product with a group of people you are meeting for the first time takes a lot of comprise and patience, What I wanted to see for the product could not necessarily work for others, so incorporating a piece of my ideas with others in my group helped to strengthen our final prototype and prove that I can create change that could lead to students success on campus.

I practiced the Know Your Why mindset when I had to survey different students and faculty to determine what problems they faced on campus during our process. This taught me that Listening to others is so important because it helps you get to the root of the problem that you are trying to solve. We were given our first task of designing a university ready for black and brown students but as we listen to others we discovered our true reason why we were designing and that was to help reduce the stigma of asking for help and getting students over this hurdle to be more comfortable with speaking up and using their resource to help them succeed at ODU.

I practiced the Show & Tell mindset when I had to get our idea from paper to production during our process. This taught me that what you write down on paper may not go as planned when implementing a project. My team had so many ideas and we knew we had a limited amount of time so when we had to condense our idea to be able to present to a body of staff that would judge if our idea could possibly come true and we did just that. We used our time wisely and fully prototyped your product until it was the best that we could possibile get it and presented with ease

I practiced the Radical Collaboration mindset when I had to work with a group of strangers for a whole semester to create our solution during our process. This taught me that I will have to work with people that I must learn to collaborate with to get our job done. This takes a lot of communication and patience when trying to have everyones opinions heard and ideas validated while thinking about our time constraint and not hindering the natural flow of our project.

I practiced the Empathetic & Human-Centered mindset when I had to talk to others to learn what the students needed and not just what I wanted to see on campus during our process. This taught me that taking time to listen to others without interruptions to get to the true feelings and ideas helps make the difference between a product that works for some and a product that works for all

I practiced the Embrace Ambiguity mindset when I had to stay in this unknown of how to fix our how might we during our process. This taught me that the answers are not just going to jump out at me. I need to be able to trust that where I’m at in a process of ideation is the place I need to be.

I practiced the Iterate, Iterate, Iterate mindset when I had to go back and tweak our idea after during our process. This taught me that there's always improvements to be made when designing a prototype. Going back and making your product even better to make sure that you have done the absolute best to be inclusive , effective, and efficient to help everyone Wear your crown proud and to do this you must first Earn your crown.

Applying Innovate Experiences in the Future

This was my second time participating in an innovative program and learning how to use design thinking to create a working solution that will help others. I really enjoyed getting to tackle a problem that not only affects me as a student but me as a black woman in today's society. It was truly an honor to help create a plan to help all students let alone black and brown students. I will use what I learned in this experience to further my understanding of how we as individuals can make an impact within our communities and apply the mindsets of a thinker to my work as a student and in any career that I end up pursuing. My goal is to help advocate for social change in this country so this whole program helped to get me to talk more and listen when others speak. I will continue to practice this and the empathy that is the center of this whole experience. Empathy goes hand in hand with listening so being an empathic listener heightens the quality of the conversations that you have to gain insight on others perspective on problems they face. Especially if you are trying to create change that is supposed to directly help try to alleviate problems. I will continue to work on this and implement empathic listening in every conversation I have from here on out.