My Name is Diego Feliciano and I am currently a junior at ODU. I got the great honor to be part of the INNOVATE MONARCHS as well as to be able to provide a change on campus. I am originally from La Paz Bolivia and I am a person that always like to give back on my community on a way or another as I believe everyone has the potential to give back to the community.
INNOVATE Monarch Experience
The hearts together campaign is and will be one of the most prominent and complex projects to be place. Praised by many as well as endorsed by staff, this campaign is headed to a good start but why people endorse it and how it got so much support?
The truth is that it touches a topic that everyone went through it or had a family member suffer and it is mental health.
Our product is to offer a year round campaign to address this issue by training students on mental health, breaking the stigma about this silence disease and primarily to ensure that staff and student organizations know about this and contribute to the fight.
Mindset of a human Centered Designer
I practiced the Innovation is for Everyone mindset when I had to design a plan that will include all minorities and, after analyzing, we saw how mental health is a silence illness that is not treated correctly by our communities
I practiced the Know Your Why mindset when I had to analyze the biggest issue in the community and what needs to be talked about. In addition, this was an issue out of many that needs to be reflected on.
I practiced the Show & Tell mindset when I had to talk to different students and they told me about their own struggles as well as staff that lend their confidence on us for the well being of minorities.
I practiced the Radical Collaboration mindset when I had to talk different communities and closed minded people to see their perception as of why is not an issue and why it should not be prioritized. This was key as it helped for the "Break the stigma" part and how to educate and guide people.
I practiced the Empathetic & Human-Centered mindset when I had to listen to every case, every story as well as how people suffered and how they wished they had help before or they took it directly instead of being avoided.
I practiced the Embrace Ambiguity mindset when I had to listed to old methods as well as to analyze how it was treated before. Even though the process get updated and change, it is crucial to see how it was talked and dealt before.
I practiced the Iterate, Iterate, Iterate mindset when I had to reflect and show people that it is quite important to deal with this issue and to break the stigma with mental health
Applying Innovate Experiences in the Future
Working on this project with the community it was quite interesting and quite frustrating at the same time as you get to learn there are many issues the community is facing but not enough leaders.
I am quite happy to plan and to put this in place to work and I wish this will work as a training method for the leaders of tomorrow to deal with this issues as well as to take the lead and lead by example.
It will be a lot of work and it will be very demanding but it is crucial to make this happen as a lot of people put trust into you and it is worse to not do it at all than to do it and not knowing what could have happened.
For future Leaders, i strongly suggest being strong and staying with their idea as every help counts for the well being at ODU and for a better situation for our students.
It is quite sad to finish this program but I am quite grateful that we will make it happen and be part of ODU.