To ring in 2021 strong, DSI teamed up with MFA Products of Design to create a new iteration of their biennial Design & Politics workshop, facilitated by our own Sloan Leo & POD faculty Jennifer Rittner. Sloan gave us a recap of the course, which came at a pivotal moment following the insurrection at the…
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Applications are still open for fall 2021!
If you missed our January 15th priority deadline, don’t despair! DSI is still accepting applications on a rolling basis for our class of 2023. All incoming applications will receive equal considerations, but will not be eligible for either of our departmental scholarships for this coming Fall. If you have any questions, reach out to us…
Spring 2021 Fast Track Students Announced
This semester, our Fast Track honors program will feature three incredible teams working on impactful, timely projects across the globe. The selected students began developing these designs outside of DSI coursework, and have brought them into our space to be workshopped and developed at an accelerated rate. Second Years Bridget Qian and Shuyu Fang (‘21)…
Thesis Intensives: Shifting Mental Models
As we draw closer to our Spring ‘21 thesis show, our faculty is continuing last fall’s Thesis Intensive series. Our second years started this semester’s set with Jaimie Cloud–instructor of Environmental Ethics–facilitating a workshop on shifting mental models. This intensive focused around the idea of mental models of unsustainability, which are categories of thinking that…
Announcing the 2018 Paul Polak Scholarship for DSI
We are delighted to announce that for the fourth year, incoming students can apply for the Paul Polak Scholarship from MFA Design for Social Innovation. Paul has been a friend, adviser and inspiration to our program, and to the millions of people around the world whose lives he has changed through his work to end…
Thesis Intensives: Facilitation 101
As an expert in community design and leadership, Thesis Advisor Sloan Leo added an invaluable workshop to our thesis intensive series: Facilitation 101. A core practice of social design, this session reframed common expectations of facilitation by highlighting practices to avoid and asking students to recenter the core values and purpose of facilitation in a…
New Clients and Partners
DSI students learn the practice of Social Design not only by theory, but through practice, working with exciting organizations, on the most important issues. This year, teams in the Communication Design class are working with Dr. Ruth Gates, a marine biologist who is selectively breeding corals to withstand the effects of climate change in the…
Why DSI? Mari Nakano. That’s Why.
This year, our amazing group of thesis advisors has been led by Mari Nakano, who joined the DSI team in 2018. What is design for social innovation to you? For me, design for social innovation means using design tools and strategies for the purposes of creating a resilient planet, where all people can share power…
Announcing the first Fast Track Winners
Fast Track is a new DSI initiative intended to take students’ bold ideas to the real world. DSI faculty Asi Burak and Maggie Breslin are leading the program, and will mentor the winners and get them the help they need to realize their ideas. The first winners are Catalina Cipri, who is developing a Facebook…
Kartik Krishnan on Taking DSI’s Learnings Back Home
Since graduating last Spring, Kartik Krishnan (‘20) has begun sharing his passion for social design with clients and corporations back home in India. As visiting faculty for B-Schools and a Design Researcher for design innovation consultancy firm TinkerLabs, Kartik works with students and clients to implement design thinking into their day-to-day practices across an array…
