Community with a photo of two students under a tree

Care more. More care.

MFA DSI is a graduate social design program that asks:

How can design offer pathways that shift us towards healthy, equitable systems?
What conditions and collaborations enable communities, systems, and nature to thrive?
How can social design increase care and our capacity
for change?

APPLY NOW FOR FALL 2025

Social design
works with communities, organizations, governments, businesses, and the planet through:

Strengthening Relationships + Care

Advocating for health, equity, anti-discrimination, justice, joy, and healing, Supporting shared values and interdependence, and honoring nature’s wisdom.
Design asks questions over solving problems, with care.

Intentionally
Co-Creating

Collaborating with communities, advocating for mutual benefit and abundance. Centering lived experience, while reducing harm.
Design can shift power, while building leadership and creatively responding.

Embracing Complexities

Breaking from things that no longer serve us. Recognizing the continuum and pluralities, and making the invisible visible.
Design supports new thinking over new things to imagine possibility and lead with vision.

DSI MFA Program

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5 Reasons to Apply to DSI

Thinking about graduate school?

Here are 5 reasons to apply to DSI.

We are still accepting applications for Fall 2025 (as space allows). APPLY TODAY!

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Scholarships & Financial Aid

Financing a graduate degree can look different for everyone. Find out how MFA DSI can help with financial Aid.

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Global Guest Lecture

Global Guest Lecture: Tiya Gordon

Global Guest Lecture features weekly guest speakers pioneering how social design is practiced.

Click Here To Watch

Alum At Work

Andrea Miranda Salas (MFA DSI ’20)

DSI Alum putting social design to work. “What are DSI graduates doing? What kind of jobs do DSI students get?”

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Thesis 2023

Thesis 2023

As You Are

Riddi Sabnis MFA DSI ’23)

“As You Are” reimagines the role of self-care & expression in ADHD.