SJSU x REP4 Learner Design Summit

The newly-established Rapid Education Prototyping (REP4) Alliance is a powerful network of regional and national education, industry, and technology leaders, led by the six founding higher education partners, including the SJSU Lurie College of Education. This alliance will create opportunities to bring together diverse learners to codesign new ideas for education using liberatory design principles.

In Summer 2021, we launched this network with a free Learner Design Summit, which is a leadership development opportunity designed to bring together rising 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students, recent high school graduates, community college students, and SJSU undergraduate students to collaborate and design creative proposals to address existing challenges in the higher education system.

Summer 2021 Learner Design Summit

Watch the video above to learn more about the proposals from our student design leaders, who met one another for the first time, came up with and refined their proposals, and presented them to the SJSU President and senior administration within 4 days.

• 0:00 - Welcome from SJSU Lurie College of Education Dean Heather Lattimer and intro from Educational Leadership faculty Veneice Guillory-Lacy
• 5:20 - "CC: The Dream (Creating and Continuing the Dream)" by College 2.0
• 11:28 - "Creating Connections" by Creative Connections
• 18:33 - "How Integrating Community and Technology Can Help Students" by Three Trees
• 24:25 - "Elevation Promise" by Equity Ambassadors
• 37:26 - Response by Dean Heather Lattimer
• 38:38 - Remarks by SJSU President Mary Papazian
• 43:43 - Closing remarks by Dean Heather Lattimer

“I really, really enjoyed this experience of meeting and connecting with great people. Everybody shared what problems they had faced, and that really opened up my mind to see what we can do and what we need to change.” - JC Jacinto, Learner Design Summit participant

Read the full story on the SJSU Newsroom blog

Design Leader Proposal Descriptions

• CC: The Dream (Creating and Continuing the Dream)

  • Group College 2.0

    - Dean Chen - College Design Leader
    - Nicole Hoang - High School Design Leader
    - Max Goldfield - High School Design Leader
    - Mi Nguyen - High School Design Leader

    - Jace Chang - Student Mentor
    - Rebeca Burciaga, PhD - Faculty Mentor

    Prototype Proposal

    This concept of this prototype is to develop an industry skill building course.

    Through the creation of this course, SJSU will establish partnerships with external organizations, which will sponsor the reading materials and laptops. As a result, students would gain access to subsidized required resources and organizations would benefit from student interns. 

• Creating Connections

  • Group Creative Connections

    - Simon Cha - High School Design Leader
    - JC Jacinto - College Design Leader
    - Joy Everson - College Design Leader
    - Amelie Pak - High School Design Leader

    - Vinson Vũ - Student Mentor
    - Jila Malek, EdD - Faculty Mentor

    Prototype Proposal

    The concept of this prototype is to provide opportunities for prospective and future students to experience college life.

    With limited exposure to the college experience, it can be challenging for students to be able to decide if college is for them and which colleges and majors to apply to. We hope to fulfill this need through our prototype to implement a shadowing experience, where students from middle school, high school, and community college can shadow an SJSU mentor for the day. Future students will have an opportunity to learn about the opportunities that SJSU has to offer to them through a personalized shadowing experience. Students will be matched with an experienced college mentor based on their personal interests.

• How Integrating Community and Technology Can Help Students

  • Group Three Trees

    - Rizwana Balkish - College Design Leader
    - Adam Dinh - High School Design Leader
    - April Nicholson - High School Design Leader
    - Andrea Toledo - High School Design Leader
    - Antonio Tremblay - High School Design Leader

    - Karina Chavez - Student Mentor
    - Robert Marx, PhD - Faculty Mentor

    Prototype Proposal

    The concept for this proposal is a mobile app that builds community, mentorship, and access to mental health resources 

    In looking through the currently available SJSU mobile app, students noted that there were many issues and shortcomings. In order to address these problems and increase its potential impact on community needs, students will redesign the app to make it more user friendly and powerful. Importantly, mental health resources will be more immediately accessible, and a universal chat feature will be built so that students can immediately find the information they require. In addition, there will be a mentorship function whereby students can be matched with other students, staff, and faculty to help them adjust to and be successful in college. 

• Elevation Promise

  • Group Equity Ambassadors

    - Vaneesha Dave - High School Design Leader
    - Mia De La Cerda - High School Design Leader
    - Vanessa Karki - College Design Leader
    - Maryan Le - High School Design Leader
    - Aaliyah Villarete - High School Design Leader
    - Demi Yang - College Design Leader

    - Tuka Almamori - Student Mentor
    - Veneice Guillory-Lacy, PhD - Faculty Mentor

    Prototype Proposal

    The concept for this prototype is to develop a career path support program for underrepresented minority students

    This prototype focuses on providing opportunities such as career group advising, scholarship opportunities, forms of financial advising, and internships. This is done through website guides, course maps, and brochures. It ultimately gives financial and career security by offering paid internships and opportunities with company partnerships in correspondence for each college at SJSU. Students will walk away with employment opportunities after the internship, work experience, resume building, financial means from the internship, while also the volition to explore other careers and employers. This helps ensure underrepresented minority students are set up for success after graduation by guaranteeing a secure job.