Identify an issue at UCSD and publicize the issue to raise awareness without prescribing a specific solution.
The issue we chose was the college sorting system within UCSD. Every incoming student has to select one of 6 colleges at UCSD to affiliate with, which will shape their educational experience for the next few years. However, during the application process, the course requirements for each college are not emphasized enough, and instead students are given very superficial information to inform their choice, which can have long-lasting consequences such as delaying graduation time.
We worked in a team of 4 people to address this issue. First, we identified the underlying values that were being overlooked - transparency and fairness. Then we brainstormed ideas for a campaign on campus that would raise awareness for our issue.
We came up with a few prototypes, and after receiving feedback from our professor and our peers, we decided to go with our most provoking idea - “What if UCSD Colleges were Tinder Profiles?”. We created physical poster-sized mockups for each college and used them to create an interactive, awareness-raising campaign on the university’s Library Walk.
My role in the project was a team lead/ project manager.
Our project was a success, we were able to execute our campaign and delivered our final report and presentation on time. We received positive feedback from our professor and teaching assistant. Our final project grade was ‘A’.
Part of our campaign was to reach out to the Dean of Undergraduate Admissions to get the attention of UCSD Administration. The Dean responded to our invitation and set up a meeting to speak with us. Myself and another one of our teammates met with the Dean the following quarter and discussed possible solutions for the issue we raised.
In this project, I gained a different perspective when it comes to problem solving. I learned how to raise awareness for an issue through campaigning, rather than prescribing a solution, and that this can be a powerful force in creating change.
Although our team worked well together as a whole, we had one team member who had a difficult time understanding the assignments and contributing to the project. I feel that we could do better by investing more time in training and supporting that team member so they could contribute more to the project.