COMPASS
A high school student development program for Santa Clara, California
Prospect Studio is an organization that specializes in strategic foresight to help design a more equitable future for education. In 2020 they collaborated with the Santa Clara Unified School District to create a vision for where they wanted to be in the year 2030-35. After initial community engagement and research a 53 page long document of SCUSD’s vision for the future was created. Then Prospect Studio began collaborating with Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Design to create artifacts of what may exist in this future Santa Clara.
Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) faces a number of challenges due to its history and proximity to Silicon Valley. It faces cultural divides from those who have lived there previously and the influx of wealthy technology workers coming in. Despite the median household income of Santa Clara being 147K, approximately 37% of students are coming from low income families. These lower income students are often minorities who are facing inequities such as a lack of social capital and access to quality learning materials. Current education practices fail to account for varied learning styles and lack experiential learning that promotes growth mindset as well as culturally sustaining practices.
Prospect Studio is an organization that specializes in strategic foresight to help design a more equitable future for education. In 2020 they collaborated with the Santa Clara Unified School District to create a vision for where they wanted to be in the year 2030-35. After initial community engagement and research a 53 page long document of SCUSD’s vision for the future was created. Then Prospect Studio began collaborating with Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Design to create artifacts of what may exist in this future Santa Clara.
Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) faces a number of challenges due to its history and proximity to Silicon Valley. It faces cultural divides from those who have lived there previously and the influx of wealthy technology workers coming in. Despite the median household income of Santa Clara being 147K, approximately 37% of students are coming from low income families. These lower income students are often minorities who are facing inequities such as a lack of social capital and access to quality learning materials. Current education practices fail to account for varied learning styles and lack experiential learning that promotes growth mindset as well as culturally sustaining practices.
Prospect Studio is an organization that specializes in strategic foresight to help design a more equitable future for education. In 2020 they collaborated with the Santa Clara Unified School District to create a vision for where they wanted to be in the year 2030-35. After initial community engagement and research a 53 page long document of SCUSD’s vision for the future was created. Then Prospect Studio began collaborating with Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Design to create artifacts of what may exist in this future Santa Clara.
Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) faces a number of challenges due to its history and proximity to Silicon Valley. It faces cultural divides from those who have lived there previously and the influx of wealthy technology workers coming in. Despite the median household income of Santa Clara being 147K, approximately 37% of students are coming from low income families. These lower income students are often minorities who are facing inequities such as a lack of social capital and access to quality learning materials. Current education practices fail to account for varied learning styles and lack experiential learning that promotes growth mindset as well as culturally sustaining practices.
Compass is a program that helps connect students of similar interests with mentors to work on projects and explore potential career paths.
High school juniors from throughout SCUSD can come together at the Compass space to work and discuss. This location is also equipped with a reflection space.
In the reflection space, students can think about their progress so far, concerns they have, and anything they may wish to talk about with their mentor during the next meeting. The space’s conversational user interface will help record and organize the students' thoughts while still protecting their privacy.
Compass is a program that helps connect students of similar interests with mentors to work on projects and explore potential career paths.
High school juniors from throughout SCUSD can come together at the Compass space to work and discuss. This location is also equipped with a reflection space.
In the reflection space, students can think about their progress so far, concerns they have, and anything they may wish to talk about with their mentor during the next meeting. The space’s conversational user interface will help record and organize the students' thoughts while still protecting their privacy.
Compass is a program that helps connect students of similar interests with mentors to work on projects and explore potential career paths.
High school juniors from throughout SCUSD can come together at the Compass space to work and discuss. This location is also equipped with a reflection space.
In the reflection space, students can think about their progress so far, concerns they have, and anything they may wish to talk about with their mentor during the next meeting. The space’s conversational user interface will help record and organize the students' thoughts while still protecting their privacy.
Prospect Studio’s vision document listed desirable traits that they wanted to see embodied by their students, teachers, and organizing system. In order to ensure a more concentrated impact, our team decided to focus on the goal of Santa Clara students graduating as future ready learners and global citizens.
To help solidify these early values we created the following territory map. In this map we laid out who the direct and indirect stakeholders of the students were as well as the various ways we could potentially see the two values manifesting themselves. In doing so we kept clear how we were choosing to define the two values.
Prospect Studio’s vision document listed desirable traits that they wanted to see embodied by their students, teachers, and organizing system. In order to ensure a more concentrated impact, our team decided to focus on the goal of Santa Clara students graduating as future ready learners and global citizens.
To help solidify these early values we created the following territory map. In this map we laid out who the direct and indirect stakeholders of the students were as well as the various ways we could potentially see the two values manifesting themselves. In doing so we kept clear how we were choosing to define the two values.
Prospect Studio’s vision document listed desirable traits that they wanted to see embodied by their students, teachers, and organizing system. In order to ensure a more concentrated impact, our team decided to focus on the goal of Santa Clara students graduating as future ready learners and global citizens.
To help solidify these early values we created the following territory map. In this map we laid out who the direct and indirect stakeholders of the students were as well as the various ways we could potentially see the two values manifesting themselves. In doing so we kept clear how we were choosing to define the two values.
Prospect Studio’s vision document listed desirable traits that they wanted to see embodied by their students, teachers, and organizing system. In order to ensure a more concentrated impact, our team decided to focus on the goal of Santa Clara students graduating as future ready learners and global citizens.
To help solidify these early values we created the following territory map. In this map we laid out who the direct and indirect stakeholders of the students were as well as the various ways we could potentially see the two values manifesting themselves. In doing so we kept clear how we were choosing to define the two values.
To help inform our initial research we chose to create a STEEP analysis and corresponding horizon map. The STEEP analysis helped us to better understand the landscape surrounding Santa Clara. This proved to be especially useful for providing insight on the loss of neighborhood cultures and the rate at which technology is progressing faster than academia. The horizon mapping exercise was our first activity in futuring and allowed us to map out what events and trends we thought may become relevant in the next 10-15 years. These activities were also useful in identifying holes in our knowledge that we would then attempt to address in our primary research.
Our team conducted a round of interviews with experts in education as well as Santa Clara stakeholders. Through these interviews we gained a number of insights on how being a future ready learner and global citizen has touched these participants' lives. We also conducted multiple interviews with third culture kids to better understand the potential identity issues caused by children being exposed to world cultures that are very different from their parents'.
![Insight 3: Growth mindset is incredibly important. It’s ok to make mistakes and learn...that can help [students] in future jobs.](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5fecbf34489ca91bb359f450/61d8816aec5999bc147441f4_Insight%203.png)
Our team paired up with another team in order to run a workshop with the students of New Valley High School. We wanted to learn more about the day to day lives of these students and identify potential opportunities for intervention. Before the event began we sent out a survey to the participants to gather what baseline knowledge they may have before entering the workshop. Then I had the opportunity to interview an administrator at the school in order to gain further perspective on the state of education at Santa Clara.
For our first activity in the workshop, we decided to play the Polak game. Each student chose an emoji and was asked to place it on the map to reflect how much hope and control they felt they had in regards to their lives at that moment. Then the activity was repeated for the year 2030. Through this we were able to get a sense of how students were feeling about their futures. This then served as a topic for further discussion as we broke up the 17 participants into breakout rooms.
Through our exploratory research we identified and decided to design for the following wants and pain points of high school students in SCUSD. Our team decided these reflected the greatest needs of the students while still aligning with the values previously identified.
Lacking educational resources & social infrastructures for support.
Students feel uncertain and lack of control with regard to their futures.
Methods of learning are rigid, without diversity and hands on experiences.
Lack opportunities to develop growth mindset while maintaining cultural identity.
Inspired by the Social Change Wheel from Campus Compact, the Student Centered Theory of Change Wheel is a tool we created to help in aligning us to address the needs identified. In the center are our core values of future ready learning and global citizenship. The first ring represents the 3 metacognitive skills we think are important for students to develop for future success. The outer ring represents the various ways that these students could develop and apply these skills. Through this process we aim to aid in a more holistic development of students into graduates.
To help inform our initial research we chose to create a STEEP analysis and corresponding horizon map. The STEEP analysis helped us to better understand the landscape surrounding Santa Clara. This proved to be especially useful for providing insight on the loss of neighborhood cultures and the rate at which technology is progressing faster than academia. The horizon mapping exercise was our first activity in futuring and allowed us to map out what events and trends we thought may become relevant in the next 10-15 years. These activities were also useful in identifying holes in our knowledge that we would then attempt to address in our primary research.
Our team conducted a round of interviews with experts in education as well as Santa Clara stakeholders. Through these interviews we gained a number of insights on how being a future ready learner and global citizen has touched these participants' lives. We also conducted multiple interviews with third culture kids to better understand the potential identity issues caused by children being exposed to world cultures that are very different from their parents'.
Our team paired up with another team in order to run a workshop with the students of New Valley High School. We wanted to learn more about the day to day lives of these students and identify potential opportunities for intervention. Before the event began we sent out a survey to the participants to gather what baseline knowledge they may have before entering the workshop. Then I had the opportunity to interview an administrator at the school in order to gain further perspective on the state of education at Santa Clara.
For our first activity in the workshop, we decided to play the Polak game. Each student chose an emoji and was asked to place it on the map to reflect how much hope and control they felt they had in regards to their lives at that moment. Then the activity was repeated for the year 2030. Through this we were able to get a sense of how students were feeling about their futures. This then served as a topic for further discussion as we broke up the 17 participants into breakout rooms.
Through our exploratory research we identified and decided to design for the following wants and pain points of high school students in SCUSD. Our team decided these reflected the greatest needs of the students while still aligning with the values previously identified.
Lacking educational resources & social infrastructures for support.
Students feel uncertain and lack of control with regard to their futures.
Methods of learning are rigid, without diversity and hands on experiences.
Lack opportunities to develop growth mindset while maintaining cultural identity.
Inspired by the Social Change Wheel from Campus Compact, the Student Centered Theory of Change Wheel is a tool we created to help in aligning us to address the needs identified. In the center are our core values of future ready learning and global citizenship. The first ring represents the 3 metacognitive skills we think are important for students to develop for future success. The outer ring represents the various ways that these students could develop and apply these skills. Through this process we aim to aid in a more holistic development of students into graduates.
To help inform our initial research we chose to create a STEEP analysis and corresponding horizon map. The STEEP analysis helped us to better understand the landscape surrounding Santa Clara. This proved to be especially useful for providing insight on the loss of neighborhood cultures and the rate at which technology is progressing faster than academia. The horizon mapping exercise was our first activity in futuring and allowed us to map out what events and trends we thought may become relevant in the next 10-15 years. These activities were also useful in identifying holes in our knowledge that we would then attempt to address in our primary research.
Our team conducted a round of interviews with experts in education as well as Santa Clara stakeholders. Through these interviews we gained a number of insights on how being a future ready learner and global citizen has touched these participants' lives. We also conducted multiple interviews with third culture kids to better understand the potential identity issues caused by children being exposed to world cultures that are very different from their parents'.
Our team paired up with another team in order to run a workshop with the students of New Valley High School. We wanted to learn more about the day to day lives of these students and identify potential opportunities for intervention. Before the event began we sent out a survey to the participants to gather what baseline knowledge they may have before entering the workshop. Then I had the opportunity to interview an administrator at the school in order to gain further perspective on the state of education at Santa Clara.
For our first activity in the workshop, we decided to play the Polak game. Each student chose an emoji and was asked to place it on the map to reflect how much hope and control they felt they had in regards to their lives at that moment. Then the activity was repeated for the year 2030. Through this we were able to get a sense of how students were feeling about their futures. This then served as a topic for further discussion as we broke up the 17 participants into breakout rooms.
Through our exploratory research we identified and decided to design for the following wants and pain points of high school students in SCUSD. Our team decided these reflected the greatest needs of the students while still aligning with the values previously identified.
Lacking educational resources & social infrastructures for support.
Students feel uncertain and lack of control with regard to their futures.
Methods of learning are rigid, without diversity and hands on experiences.
Lack opportunities to develop growth mindset while maintaining cultural identity.
Inspired by the Social Change Wheel from Campus Compact, the Student Centered Theory of Change Wheel is a tool we created to help in aligning us to address the needs identified. In the center are our core values of future ready learning and global citizenship. The first ring represents the 3 metacognitive skills we think are important for students to develop for future success. The outer ring represents the various ways that these students could develop and apply these skills. Through this process we aim to aid in a more holistic development of students into graduates.
With this alignment, our team began creating storyboards of early design ideas. Then we began prepping a workshop for parents with young children and another with teenagers to help review and generate ideas. As this is a futuring project we thought it may be fruitful to speak with teenagers who are at the age of our target users as well as parents whose children would be teenagers in the year 2030-35.
After a brief introduction we split the participants up into breakout rooms with a pair of teammates to ask questions and record thoughts. Teenage participants were asked to speak about themselves while parents were asked to speak about their children. Participants were asked to create a persona/digital collage where they identified various aspects of their lifestyle as well as their hopes and fears. Then participants created another persona in the future. After this, all groups came back together and shared their experiences.
Our final activity was then to run our participants through 4 different concept cards and ask what their opinions were. Each concept card was a distilled down version of one of our previous storyboards that we were seeking input on. As the participants had just spent a fair amount of time thinking and talking about development we believed that this would be the opportune time for this activity. These responses were then coded and used to refine our concepts.
Our team took our newly refined concepts and created a short explainer video for each. These were then paired with a survey and put out to students, alumni and faculty of the Santa Clara area. Each participant was asked to reflect on the impact these services may have had on their lives as well as development of metacognitive skills.
With this alignment, our team began creating storyboards of early design ideas. Then we began prepping a workshop for parents with young children and another with teenagers to help review and generate ideas. As this is a futuring project we thought it may be fruitful to speak with teenagers who are at the age of our target users as well as parents whose children would be teenagers in the year 2030-35.
After a brief introduction we split the participants up into breakout rooms with a pair of teammates to ask questions and record thoughts. Teenage participants were asked to speak about themselves while parents were asked to speak about their children. Participants were asked to create a persona/digital collage where they identified various aspects of their lifestyle as well as their hopes and fears. Then participants created another persona in the future. After this, all groups came back together and shared their experiences.
Our final activity was then to run our participants through 4 different concept cards and ask what their opinions were. Each concept card was a distilled down version of one of our previous storyboards that we were seeking input on. As the participants had just spent a fair amount of time thinking and talking about development we believed that this would be the opportune time for this activity. These responses were then coded and used to refine our concepts.
Our team took our newly refined concepts and created a short explainer video for each. These were then paired with a survey and put out to students, alumni and faculty of the Santa Clara area. Each participant was asked to reflect on the impact these services may have had on their lives as well as development of metacognitive skills.
With this alignment, our team began creating storyboards of early design ideas. Then we began prepping a workshop for parents with young children and another with teenagers to help review and generate ideas. As this is a futuring project we thought it may be fruitful to speak with teenagers who are at the age of our target users as well as parents whose children would be teenagers in the year 2030-35.
After a brief introduction we split the participants up into breakout rooms with a pair of teammates to ask questions and record thoughts. Teenage participants were asked to speak about themselves while parents were asked to speak about their children. Participants were asked to create a persona/digital collage where they identified various aspects of their lifestyle as well as their hopes and fears. Then participants created another persona in the future. After this, all groups came back together and shared their experiences.
Our final activity was then to run our participants through 4 different concept cards and ask what their opinions were. Each concept card was a distilled down version of one of our previous storyboards that we were seeking input on. As the participants had just spent a fair amount of time thinking and talking about development we believed that this would be the opportune time for this activity. These responses were then coded and used to refine our concepts.
Our team took our newly refined concepts and created a short explainer video for each. These were then paired with a survey and put out to students, alumni and faculty of the Santa Clara area. Each participant was asked to reflect on the impact these services may have had on their lives as well as development of metacognitive skills.
With this alignment, our team began creating storyboards of early design ideas. Then we began prepping a workshop for parents with young children and another with teenagers to help review and generate ideas. As this is a futuring project we thought it may be fruitful to speak with teenagers who are at the age of our target users as well as parents whose children would be teenagers in the year 2030-35.
After a brief introduction we split the participants up into breakout rooms with a pair of teammates to ask questions and record thoughts. Teenage participants were asked to speak about themselves while parents were asked to speak about their children. Participants were asked to create a persona/digital collage where they identified various aspects of their lifestyle as well as their hopes and fears. Then participants created another persona in the future. After this, all groups came back together and shared their experiences.
Our final activity was then to run our participants through 4 different concept cards and ask what their opinions were. Each concept card was a distilled down version of one of our previous storyboards that we were seeking input on. As the participants had just spent a fair amount of time thinking and talking about development we believed that this would be the opportune time for this activity. These responses were then coded and used to refine our concepts.
Our team took our newly refined concepts and created a short explainer video for each. These were then paired with a survey and put out to students, alumni and faculty of the Santa Clara area. Each participant was asked to reflect on the impact these services may have had on their lives as well as development of metacognitive skills.
With the feedback received from our research we decided to settle on a mentorship and incubator program for SCUSD. In order to help address problems of equity we wanted to have Compass take place in a building that was able to be accessed by all of the highschools in the school district. By bringing in alumni and experts from Santa Clara we also aim to help ensure that mentors may have a more meaningful connection with students when talking about projects and life in general. Students are then empowered to showcase their work, giving them confidence moving forward, enriching students coming into the program and bringing together the community.
As mentorship and incubator programs exist today, our team began to question how we may push this concept for the year 2030-35. With the rise and development of conversational user interfaces, we began designing a space within Compass where students could reflect on their progress with an AI and record their thoughts and feelings. Then the AI could help facilitate communication and feedback between students and mentors so long as both parties consent to the information they wish to share.
We began building a low fidelity version of this reflection activity that we would then run participants through while gathering their initial impressions. During this time we also asked them for feedback on what a potential space for reflection may be like. The feedback we received was then coded and used to inform our next iteration of these designs.
With the feedback received from our research we decided to settle on a mentorship and incubator program for SCUSD. In order to help address problems of equity we wanted to have Compass take place in a building that was able to be accessed by all of the highschools in the school district. By bringing in alumni and experts from Santa Clara we also aim to help ensure that mentors may have a more meaningful connection with students when talking about projects and life in general. Students are then empowered to showcase their work, giving them confidence moving forward, enriching students coming into the program and bringing together the community.
As mentorship and incubator programs exist today, our team began to question how we may push this concept for the year 2030-35. With the rise and development of conversational user interfaces, we began designing a space within Compass where students could reflect on their progress with an AI and record their thoughts and feelings. Then the AI could help facilitate communication and feedback between students and mentors so long as both parties consent to the information they wish to share.
We began building a low fidelity version of this reflection activity that we would then run participants through while gathering their initial impressions. During this time we also asked them for feedback on what a potential space for reflection may be like. The feedback we received was then coded and used to inform our next iteration of these designs.
With the feedback received from our research we decided to settle on a mentorship and incubator program for SCUSD. In order to help address problems of equity we wanted to have Compass take place in a building that was able to be accessed by all of the highschools in the school district. By bringing in alumni and experts from Santa Clara we also aim to help ensure that mentors may have a more meaningful connection with students when talking about projects and life in general. Students are then empowered to showcase their work, giving them confidence moving forward, enriching students coming into the program and bringing together the community.
As mentorship and incubator programs exist today, our team began to question how we may push this concept for the year 2030-35. With the rise and development of conversational user interfaces, we began designing a space within Compass where students could reflect on their progress with an AI and record their thoughts and feelings. Then the AI could help facilitate communication and feedback between students and mentors so long as both parties consent to the information they wish to share.
We began building a low fidelity version of this reflection activity that we would then run participants through while gathering their initial impressions. During this time we also asked them for feedback on what a potential space for reflection may be like. The feedback we received was then coded and used to inform our next iteration of these designs.
As mentorship and incubator programs exist today, our team began to question how we may push this concept for the year 2030-35. With the rise and development of conversational user interfaces, we began designing a space within Compass where students could reflect on their progress with an AI and record their thoughts and feelings. Then the AI could help facilitate communication and feedback between students and mentors so long as both parties consent to the information they wish to share.
We began building a low fidelity version of this reflection activity that we would then run participants through while gathering their initial impressions. During this time we also asked them for feedback on what a potential space for reflection may be like. The feedback we received was then coded and used to inform our next iteration of these designs.
As mentorship and incubator programs exist today, our team began to question how we may push this concept for the year 2030-35. With the rise and development of conversational user interfaces, we began designing a space within Compass where students could reflect on their progress with an AI and record their thoughts and feelings. Then the AI could help facilitate communication and feedback between students and mentors so long as both parties consent to the information they wish to share.
We began building a low fidelity version of this reflection activity that we would then run participants through while gathering their initial impressions. During this time we also asked them for feedback on what a potential space for reflection may be like. The feedback we received was then coded and used to inform our next iteration of these designs.
As mentorship and incubator programs exist today, our team began to question how we may push this concept for the year 2030-35. With the rise and development of conversational user interfaces, we began designing a space within Compass where students could reflect on their progress with an AI and record their thoughts and feelings. Then the AI could help facilitate communication and feedback between students and mentors so long as both parties consent to the information they wish to share.
We began building a low fidelity version of this reflection activity that we would then run participants through while gathering their initial impressions. During this time we also asked them for feedback on what a potential space for reflection may be like. The feedback we received was then coded and used to inform our next iteration of these designs.
As mentorship and incubator programs exist today, our team began to question how we may push this concept for the year 2030-35. With the rise and development of conversational user interfaces, we began designing a space within Compass where students could reflect on their progress with an AI and record their thoughts and feelings. Then the AI could help facilitate communication and feedback between students and mentors so long as both parties consent to the information they wish to share.
We began building a low fidelity version of this reflection activity that we would then run participants through while gathering their initial impressions. During this time we also asked them for feedback on what a potential space for reflection may be like. The feedback we received was then coded and used to inform our next iteration of these designs.
