Artecno by Edwin Mauricio Olivera Anaya (MFA DSI ’25) is a STEAM-based after-school training program in AI literacy and creative
technologies for high school students in Bolivia. By creatively engaging imagination
and embracing a practice of teaching as an act of radical care, it introduces
somatic learning, balancing both analog and digital marketable skills for better
opportunities in future-facing careers in creative industries.

Care Brings Care by Haoyu Yul Chen (MFA DSI ’25) addresses caregiver turnover by building trust and shared
purpose between new caregivers and care institutions through co-designed
mentorship and evaluation systems—tested through cross-institutional
collaboration in Chengdu.

Friend of Time by Ruisi Fu (MFA DSI ’25) bridges Chinese immigrant retirees and international students in
New York through storytelling and craft, turning personal histories into tangible
connections. Developed through community workshops with senior services
centers and student makers, it transforms aging into a shared act of creation and
cultural exchange, by stitching together memories – literally and figuratively –
and celebrating cultural transmission as a living, co-authored future.

Humming Inside Us by Nany Xinyu Chen & Jiayao Li (MFA DSI ’25) is a participatory project that reframes everyday cultural values
as tools for emotional well-being. In collaboration with mental health clinicians,
Henry Street Settlement, Accent Sisters, self-care workshops blend mind-body
awareness with culturally-relevant wellness strategies to help first-generation
Chinese American young adults in New York City understand their feelings and
reduce shame.

Never Stop Moving by Avery Chih-Hsiu Liu (MFA DSI ’25) explores the overlooked life cycle of unwanted furniture in a city
defined by constant movement. By reframing the moving experience as a chance to
make low-waste decisions through tools like an interactive donation map, reflective
planning guides, and a furniture exchange platform, individuals are encouraged to
make last-minute decisions about where to responsibly rehome items.

Parwaaz (پرواز |par-waaz, Urdu meaning “flight”) by Srinidhi Ramprasad (MFA DSI ’25) is a behavioral framework and set
of interventions designed to help immigrant women in NYC build savings habits
as an act of self-care and collective empowerment. Parwaaz makes conversations
around money more approachable, joyful, and grounded in everyday experience,
building upon existing financial coaching spaces and exploring small habit shifts
that can lead to meaningful, long-term change.

Pawtential Bonds by Meichen Kristina Jin (MFA DSI ’25) promotes the dog foster care system, turning individual pet
fostering experiences into an animal welfare movement. Through creative
workshops and a digital storytelling hub designed with NYC animal shelters
and fostering advocates, it mobilizes the passion of future dog caregivers,
strengthens the shelter-to-foster pathway, and makes fostering a more accessible,
supported possibility for dog lovers.

S.T.A.R. (Space Trash Awareness & Recovery) by Yuki Han and Katherine Yisi Shen (MFA DSI ’25) is an international alliance of young
experts coming together beyond the traditional space industry. By igniting bold
conversations to confront the escalating crisis of space trash and turning complex
challenges into stories that spark global awareness and inspire an ethical mindset,
S.T.A.R. sparks the next generation to become the space leaders of tomorrow,
co-creating a culture where the cosmos is cherished as a shared, protected frontier.

Shared Fate by Aishwarya Srivastava (MFA DSI ’25) reimagines clothing consumption through sharing, lending, borrowing,
repairing, and connecting. Co-created in the neighborhoods of North Brooklyn,
it explores resource sharing as a meaningful alternative to today’s cycles of buying
and waste. In this post-pandemic era of digital living and e-commerce, how can we
rekindle a sense of neighborly exchange?

Sisterhood or Sabotage by Qian Qiu and Jessica Zhao (MFA DSI ’25) is a social design exploration of how young women absorb
and reproduce gender bias toward themselves and others, both online and offline.
Emerging from conversations with young Chinese women communities residing
in NYC, it invites reflections, dialogue, and small intentional actions to challenge
judgment and rebuild mutual support through a community-driven digital platform
“See It, Say It, Stop It” so that young women can feel less isolated, more empowered,
and better supported in the digital era.

We Are Speaking / Estamos Hablando by Héctor Ruiz (MFA DSI ’25) creates spaces for community members to
identify shared values, goals, and symbols, representing them as a group and
create a visual code in the form of a digital font designed “by” them. The potential
of these tools made out of symbols is to design posters, postcards, and zines that
celebrate communities and engage individuals in conversations that advocate for
the recognition of their experiences and the improvement of their futures.

Word of Mouth by Susanti Vijaykumar (MFA DSI ’25) is a culturally rooted language education initiative co-designed
with emergent bilinguals and community organizations across The Bronx, Lower
East Side NYC, and Jersey City, NJ. Leveraging the richness of native cultures and
experiences of emergent bilinguals, it proposes education tools via a cookbook,
a zine, and a social media campaign that provides individuals with practical
pathways to navigate essential services, build meaningful social connections, and
access economic opportunities in their new homes.