UNIVERSITY TEACHING
AND TRAINING
getting future ready
with the cutting edge now
Relevant Highlights
Since 2012 I have been connected to formal, yet pioneering, academic networks launching first-of-it's kind university global studies programs. Below you will find examples of courses and initiatives that brought together
the latest concepts for a truly future-ready mindset.
THAMMASAT SCHOOL OF GLOBAL STUDIES AND SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP // Bangkok, Thailand
#hcd #designthinking #futuremaking #innovation #communityimpact #socialchange #problembasedlearning #socialimpact #socialinnovation
AUGUST 2016-2018
Human-Centered Design for Social Innovation
See What We Did and Learned: Course Reflection and Project Showcase Here
At Thammasat's School of Global Studies and Social Entrepreneurship program I teach Human-Centered Design for Social Innovation - one of my absolute favorites- to university students from across the region. This class is an intensive, hands-on project based course focused on bringing real-world social impact and innovation projects to life utilizing the human-centered design process. Students are exposed to various design cycle methodologies, approaches and methods from around the world. Students work in multidisciplinary and diverse teams to design, develop and test real-world products or services that are inspired by reframing local challenges as opportunities in collaboration with Bangkok based stakeholders. By the end of the course students have been exposed to design thinking methods practiced by innovation leadership organizations like ideo.org, the d.school at Stanford University, MIT-D Lab (via International Development and Design Summit), the THNK School of Creative Leadership, Delft University of Technology, Frog Design Studios, Hyper Island and the DIY Toolkit by Nesta among many others. Just as importantly for the 'real-world' students are also trained in project and time management as well as team facilitation methodology. I have have also designed and taught an intensive semester courses focused on the foundations of Leadership Development.
FROM MY POINT OF VIEW //
About the SGS Approach
HIROSHIMA JOGAKUIN UNIVERSITY // Hiroshima, Japan
#fieldwork #empathy #socialentrepreneurrship #socent #india #thailand #philippines #cambodia #hcd #designthinking #socialimpact #socialinnovation #peaceandconflict
FEBRUARY 2012-WINTER 2015
Global Studies Program
In 2012 I was recruited to launch and develop a new Global Studies program - and I moved from the United States to Japan to make it happen. Over the course of three years I was able to design and develop more than ten original course curricula for students from Asia, Africa and North America. As if the creative freedom that comes from launching a new initiative was not enough, I also was fortunate to be entrusted to found and launch a Tokyo Foundation Funded “Global Studies, Peace and Leadership Summer Seminar”- this became a 5 week international program the included two weeks of Virtual Classrooms, a 1 week Japan based Peace Component (using the Hiroshima A-Bomb memorial week as a learning case study, followed by a 10 day immersion experience with Social Entrepreneurs and communities across India, the Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia- my students then segued into a semester long course "Designing for Social Innovation" where they crafted their own SE ventures leveraging various tools and methods (i.e . business model canvas, storytelling, design thinking, pitching, etc). We ran the pilot in 2012 and iterated and scaled for a 2013 run as well. As a lead for this I was managing multiple cross-cultural teams, field budgets and stakeholders including a media team to capture some of the impact. You can see some of the videos of students and their impressions here. For me, it was a passion project that allowed be to facilitate an awakening and connecting across cultures- having worked at Ashoka and already launched my own venture previous to my moving to Japan, I wanted my students to understand that they can be the creators of their own destiny- they can turn challenges into opportunities and make impact. The end game was to understand what it would take to run and manage their own projects- should they choose to convert lessons learned in the classroom into their real world careers.
