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Design Social Change.

Apply to MFA DSI to learn the design mindsets and capabilities to support people and the planet.

How can design shift us towards more healthy, caring systems?
What conditions and collaborations enable communities, systems, and ecosystems to thrive?
How can eco-social design increase innovation and our capacities for change?

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

Strengthening Relationships + Care

Advocating for health, access, ecologies, restoration, joy, and healing. Supporting shared values and interdependence while honoring nature’s wisdom.
Social Design asks good questions and deepens connections, with care.

Co-Creating Intentionally.

Collaborating with communities, advocating for mutual benefit, accountability, and abundance. Centering lived experience and responsibility, while reducing harm.
Social 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.
Social Design supports new thinking over more things, to imagine possibilities and lead with vision.

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MFA DSI Scholarships have increased!

Apply before January 15 Priority Deadline for earliest consideration

Our Fall 2026 scholarship amounts have increased. We are now offering two departmental scholarships of $28,000 each. These are two-year awards (distributed $14,000 per year) offered to two applicants for Fall 2026.

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THESIS

Check out: MFA DSI Thesis Show 2025 Project Videos available now

Through inspiring interventions, social issues, and partners, MFA DSI Class of 2025 designers find a common coexistence in future-building. Check out our Thesis Show videos as social design graduates present their amazing thesis projects at our May 2025 show.

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BLOG

So, what can a degree in social design do for you? DSI Alums share their journeys.

Bruno Monteiro (MFA DSI ’16) says: “The most important thing was the ability to see in systems — to understand how policy, behavior, and design are interconnected. That lens completely changed the way I lead, build organizations, and translate research into meaningful strategy.”

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BLOG

Susanti Vijaykumar (MFA DSI '25) receipient of 2025 Don Norman Design Award

The Sapna Rannaghor Cookbook Project, co-designed in the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes at Sapna NYC centers cultural assets and native Bangla language skills using food and recipes to build English proficiency and community.

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Thesis 2018

Thesis 2018

Moms Make Books

Pilar Finuccio (MFA DSI ’18)

Moms Make Books is a bookmaking workshop for mothers with children between the ages of 4 and 12 who want sexual health development to begin at home – and include the messages and values they want to impart to their children.