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DIAD Co-Curricular Impact | 2022-2023

Throughout 2022-2023, the Design Initiative at Dartmouth (DIAD) funded student-led activities and programs that provided opportunities for students to flex critical design thinking skills and engage in real-world projects that help improve the lives of others within our community — and beyond.

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Designing a Better Dartmouth

DIAD funded 19 design projects conducted by students, faculty, and staff, awarding approximately $75,000 for on-campus and off-campus design efforts. DIAD has collaborated with 12 different organizations and institutes on campus and with faculty from 18 departments.

Design Corps

DIAD’s Design Corps pairs student teams with Dartmouth organizations to address on-campus challenges using human-centered design to improve community-wide Dartmouth experiences. Students on Design Corps teams have helped the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society make “energy visible” (pictured), assisted Dartmouth’s Alumni Relations to provide better career support to young alumni, and enhanced the framework for communicating wellness resources to students.

“I am extremely impressed with Design Corps. Not only did they comprehensively tackle a problem for us, but it was wonderful to provide content to the student team while the Design Corps managed the process. The structure that Design Corps offers has been invaluable, making the process as enjoyable as the final product is useful.”

—Amelia Kahl, Barbara C. and Harvey P. Hood 1918 Curator of Academic Programming, Hood Museum of Art

Design Corps Projects

In addition, the Design Corps helped design and create solutions for a variety of partners across Dartmouth. Sample projects, as of April 2023, include:

  • Improving the International Studies Minor
  • Increasing Student Engagement with the Hood Museum
  • Understanding the Study Abroad Experience
  • Improving Student Support at the Tucker Center
  • Making Energy and Sustainability Visible
  • Communicating Wellness Resources to Students
  • Increasing Student Engagement with the Hopkins Center
  • Deepening Learning through International Study Programs
  • Improving the Peer Tutoring Program

Design Corps Project Partners (As of April 2023)

  • Dartmouth Sustainability Office
  • Dickey Center for International Understanding
  • Guarini Institute for International Education
  • Hood Museum of Art
  • Hopkins Center for the Arts
  • Irving Institute for Energy and Society
  • Office of Alumni Relations
  • Student Wellness Center
  • Tucker Center for Religious and Spiritual Life

Off-Campus Design Field Trips

DIAD helped fun a number of field trips off-campus for students to witness and learn more about how human-centered design and design thinking is applied in the real world — from

Off-campus field trips for students to see design in the real world:

Tools for Wellness

Sid Babla and LB White at the Student Wellness Center (SWC) used their DIAD grant to implement an accessible digital tool that highlights available wellness resources and encourages students to reflect on their own well-being. The Design Corps team helped SWC identify communication and accessibility barriers that students faced to the resources available.

Design Workshops and Speaker Series

During 2022–2023, DIAD hosted numerous guest speakers across a wide range of disciplines for lectures, workshops, panels, and collaboration with faculty.

Guest Speakers and Panelists

Through DIAD, speakers with design leadership and expertise across numerous disciplines have spoken at the following programs and audiences:

  • Design workshops inside existing student programs
  • Rockefeller Leadership Fellows
  • Foundations in Social Impact Program
  • Sustainability Action Program
  • Women In Innovation Club

DIAD-sponsored campus-wide events and speaker series:

  • “Designathon”
  • “Design for Belonging”
  • “Dance, Design, and Disability”
  • “Liberatory Design"
  • “Teaching and Practicing Design Through a Critical Lens”
  • “Design Justice”
  • "Architecture, Making, and the Power of Shared Agency"
  • “Future-building: Tech and Mental Wellness”
  • “Bias at the Intersection of Computing, Design, and Textiles”
  • “Sound Engineering: DIY Microphones and Star Wars”
  • “Portfolio Creation for Students and Designers”
  • "Critical Visualization: Rethinking Representation of Data"
  • “Contextualizing Social Inequities: Designing New Futures”
  • “Climate Adaptation and Participatory Design”
  • “Designing Hardware for the Circular Economy”