The Dell Scholars Program serves over 2,000 first generation college students at more than 400 colleges and universities nation-wide to support them as they earn a college degree,
The Challenge
Dell Scholars Foundation was looking to better connect their scholars with one another. The staff at the foundation recognized the opportunity to engage, inspire, and support scholars as they faced common challenges for first-generation students, such as student persistence, technical skills, and program processes.
The Process
Dell Foundation asked Desklight to design and facilitate a workshop that could teach their team how to use design thinking to better emphasize with their learner stakeholders and drive innovation. True to the spirit of building with, not for, our team surprised the staff by enlisting their Scholars in the workshop exercises for information gathering, persona development, and journey mapping.
The Solution
By grounding the workshop in the context of their work and embedding the stakeholders directly into the team learning exercise, Desklight was able to help the staff learn design thinking through a process of doing, while increasing empathy between staff and first-generation college students.
