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PLEASE SEE OUR NEW & IMPROVED WEBSITE
for further DETAILS and UPDATES:
http://dfa-barnardcolumbia.com/
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* CHANGING COMMUNITY SERVICE *
CHECK OUT OUR STUDIO’s FANTASTIC OPINION ARTICLE IN THE COLUMBIA DAILY SPECTATOR. A special thanks to our Press Team for putting this together!
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2011/12/06/changing-community-service
- Design for America applied for and has been OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZED by SGB for Spring 2012 (Columbia’s inter-college Student Governing Board). We were one of seven new student groups granted recognition for next semester, enabling us to receive university funding and support.
- Barnard’s Athena Center for Leadership Studies has listed DFA as one of their five Affilited Student Groups: http://athenacenter.barnard.edu/affiliated-student-groups
- DFA has caught the attention of the Barnard Bulletin (see November Print edition) with a feature on Studio Co-Leader, Lulu Mickelson
- DFA was also featured in Environmental Leadership, Ethics, and Action Blog: http://edblogs.columbia.edu/scppx3335-001-2011-3/2011/10/26/environmentalist-and-activist-art-on-campus/
At our first-ever End-Of-Semester Conversation / Celebration
Get introduced to the work of our DFA Studio.
Engage in meaningful conversation.
Give valuable feedback.
Light snacks will be served.
Friday, December 9th at 6PM.
« Please RSVP or direct further questions to
barnard-columbia@designforamerica.com »
ON-CAMPUS PROJECT
DFA Designers participate in a Barnard College Facilities Tour to better understand how waste and energy is managed behind the scenes.
A LOOK AT THE THREE ISSUES WE ARE TACKLING THIS SEMESTER:
ON CAMPUS ENVIRONMENTAL TEAM: How can we encourage better student and facility recycling practises on our campus?
OFF CAMPUS EDUCATION TEAM: How can we encourage better student and facility recycling practises on our campus?
COMMUNITY FORUM TEAM: How can we ensure the numerous and diverse populations of our NYC neighborhood and Columbia University Campus have access to effective, responsive, and sustainable tools to help shape and improve our community?
FULL DESIGN TRAINING = 40 students
QUICK DESIGN OVERVIEW = 30 students
70 students introduced to our DFA Studio and the Human-Centered Design Process.
OVER 110 STUDENTS attended the DFA Barnard/Columbia Launch.
The vibrant and enthusiastic turn-out was UNPRECEDENTED!
HERE IS THE CELEBRATORY EMAIL WE SENT OUT:
“THE LAUNCH WAS A HUGE SUCCESS! Two weeks and two days ago, we sat together in a dorm lounge with no projects chosen and lots of energy. Tonight, only 15 days after our first DFA Brainstorm, we saw the start of a service-revolution on campus!
We got over 100 students to come together to start RE-IMAGINING CIVIC ENGAGEMENT on our campus (about 110 to be more exact)!
Wow. How snazzy! Thank you to everyone who baked, poster-made, brought friends, sent emails, set-up, took photos, cleaned-up, and danced to get this project off the ground.”
LOOK LOCALLY
CREATE FERVENTLY
ACT FEARLESSLY
RE-IMAGINE COLLEGE CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Join DESIGN FOR AMERICA for our official LAUNCH
Monday, October 10th
TIME: 7:30
LOCATION: 5th floor, Diana Center
This semester, our campus is launching a DFA student-run “solutions studio” that utilizes the design process as a platform to promote innovative, tangible local impact. Using student ideas as a catalyst for positive change, DFA works as an activist think tank aimed at improving the Barnard/Columbia and Harlem/Morningside Heights communities through collaborative, creative problem solving.
We are seeking an interdisciplinary team of motivated students from all backgrounds who want to work along side faculty members, community nonprofits, and NYC professionals to solve pressing issues in our area concerning health, education, and the environment. We’ll be working with real people in our community, prototyping and implementing our ideas. This is beyond the classroom: we are harnessing the next generation of innovators, using our energy and resources as college students to design sustainable projects with national implementations.
To get involved, PLEASE ATTNED OUR LAUNCH EVENT!
(Home-designed cookies will be served)
This FALL 2011, a team of passionate students aims to reinvent the way in which we as Columbia University undergraduates engage in community service by launching the Design for America BARNARD/COLUMBIA STUDIO.
WE OFFICIALLY TAKE-OFF OCTOBER 10, 2011.
With an event @ Barnard College’s Diana Center from 7:30-8:30.
Please continue reading for more information.
DFA is recruiting the next generation of American activists, problem-solvers, leaders, artists, CEO’s, engineers, environmentalists, doctors, teachers, and thinkers to work together to design a better future.
Tapping into one of our nation’s largest renewable resources, DFA is fueled by the energy, enthusiasm, and new ideas of college undergraduates.
DFA serves as a student-run platform for activism, challenging Barnard/Columbia students to…
- identify and critically engage with the problems around us,
- use our academic training and out-of-the-box thinking to imagine solutions,
- and work with each other and the resources of our university to make our new ideas realities.
To serve as a guide for creating change, DFA uses the DESIGN PROCESS as a forum for innovation and collaboration.
Design means different things to everyone. To us at DFA,
DESIGN = THE VISION AND ACTIVE CREATION OF THE FUTURE
DFA uses HUMAN-CENTERED design to create PRODUCTS, SYSTEMS, and INITIATIVES that can successfully address complex issues.
By using the methodology of design, DFA give students the tools and organization to re-think the world around us and implement tangible positive improvements.
Read more about the DFA design process and view example projects:
DFA addresses America’s most prevalent and pressing domestic issues - EDUCATION, HEALTH, and the ENVIRONMENT - and asks students to seek solutions at the LOCAL level.
Working locally, students can test and implement their ideas within their immediate sphere of influence. This approach…
- fosters a more complete understanding of the university and our surrounding community for students,
- allows for concrete engagement with urgent national problems through focussed community-based local situations,
- and enables the IMPLEMENTATION of solutions that can be perfected locally and then adopted on a national scale.
DFA is about designing solutions close to home with the goal of translating our ideas to communities across the country, using our growing professional network and alliance of college studios.
DFA takes a new perspective on college civic engagement by aiming to improve current realities using the DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF IDEAS AS OPPOSED TO THE VOLUNTEERING OF HOURS OR RAISING OF FUNDS. While time and money are a part of turning ideas into realities, our focus is on creating solutions that are collaborative and self-sustaining.
We reject the community service model of an aid-giving relationship in which a clear giver-receiver hierarchy is established. Instead, we DESIGN WITH OUR “USERS” - the individuals and communities impacted by the problem we are trying to remedy, whether it be students, faculty, Harlem Residents, or all three.
Design is a process of EMPATHY and INCLUSION. It is about listening, understanding, and telling the stories of your users - walking in their shoes and making their problem your problem.
AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, THE DFA DESIGN PROCESS PROVIDES AN INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY TO FOSTER MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING AND POSITIVE, RESPECTFUL INTERACTION WITHIN THE SCHOOL AND THE GREATER COMMUNITY.
DFA SEES DESIGN AS A LIASON TO IMPROVE COMMUNITY COHESION, SPECIFICALLY THE UNIVERSITY’S RELATIONSHIP WITH THE AREA’S NON-COLUMBIA MEMBERS.
