Kuching Fellowship

UnSchool Fellowship Number 10 happened in Kuching, Malaysia on the island of Borneo between the 17th and 23rd of November, 2019. The Kuching cohort included seventeen fellows from nine different countries (meet them here).

Our Kuching Fellows, Mentors and UnSchool team

DAY ONE: Sunday 17th November 2019 

Day one kicked off with us meeting just after noon at the Square Tower on the Kuching waterfront. Thanks to the incredible tropical weather, we hid in the shade against the back of the tower until everyone arrived. There was excitement in the air as Leyla kicked off the fellowship week by welcoming everyone and introducing us to Jacqueline (Jacky) Fong, a local entrepreneur who volunteered to take us on a very charismatic walking tour of Kuching and share her insights in to the history of the beautiful Sarawak region.

Using her own hilarious version of the story, Jacky made it clear that we were lucky to be in a city with over 30 different ethnic groups proudly celebrating their traditions. We learned some of the history of Sarawak, the story of the ‘white Rajah’ who ruled the region for over a hundred years in the 1800s, as well as the natural resources that have fueled different people coming to the beautiful biodiversity hotspot that is the island of Borneo. 

The one legged stand is a cognitive trick that helps you remember names!

It’s an UnSchool Fellowship tradition to get to know each other with the one legged stand for everyone to introduce themselves! Despite our sweatyness in the tropical heat, we all got to discover and remember each others names before we jumped on a small wooden ferry boat to cross to the North side of the city. Once docked, we walked through 14 villages, for which our producer Nisha had previously requested permission from local leaders to ensure we were respecting the space and tradition of the area. 

In Kuching, we added boats to our list of ways to get around a city!

With many surprises lying along our walk, we arrived at an abandoned old school to find our first mentors, creative punk activist group Pangrok Sulap, who had set up a renegade art exhibition inside the school for us to experience their amazing artworks. Hanging from the remains of the building, we saw incredibly detailed woodcut prints depicting stories of the past, present and future of Borneo.

Rizo, Freddy and Bam from Pangrok (meaning Punk Rock) Sulap shared their history of being musicians turned into creative actionists who co-create community artwork to depict stories of social change. They walked us through their collaboratively designed pieces, sharing the process and story behind each image.

Each image is created by listening to community stories, and collaboratively engraving them into woodblocks to print with the community they belong to, keeping these stories and histories alive through co-created art.

The next stop on our walking tour took us to the Fort Margherita museum (named after the wife of the Rajah, who built it in honor of her) which helped us understand more about the complexities of the region.

The museum houses the history of the Brooke dynasty, and the guide shared how the ‘White Rajah’ James Brooke arrived in Kuching in the 1800s and took over the area on behalf of the Sultan of Brunei. Later, Japan occupied Borneo during WW2 until the war ended and the Brookes ceded administration as a British Colony. In the 1960s, the island of Borneo was consolidated with Brunei, the Indonesian side of the island, and Malaysian regions of Sarawak and Sabah.

After the fort, we headed back over the river for much needed iced tea and coffee at The Granary to hear more from Pangrok Sulap. They shared more details about their work and process, describing how they get invited into different communities to co-create these woodblock stories with the people who live there. They make political statements to create and help effect positive change, and shared the incredible power of well told stories communicated through art, which is now shown around the world. 

Nisha joins the rapid fire story-telling as we get to know each other through Pecha Kucha style talks.

The rest of our sweaty afternoon was spent getting to know one another in UnSchool tradition, a 3-minute adaptation of the Pecha Kucha format! Once everyone had a chance to tell us about themselves, why they came and what they wanted to get out of the week, including the educators (Leyla and Emma), two UnSchool Alumni co-hosts (Zoë and Valentina) and local hosts (Nisha and Lymun), we all felt energized by the incredible individuals we would learn from over the week. 

Using that energy (and a round of cold drinks to keep us all refreshed) Leyla kept up the pace of the day with an super speed introduction to sustainability and the need for perspective shifts around how we interact with the world around us in order to achieve a sustainable and regenerative future. Bonding in our mutual sweatyness (being monsoon season and all!), we enjoyed our first dinner together at a local restaurant on the waterfront, specializing in the history of the region through food. Just before we headed home for a much needed shower and sleep, we all caught the very expensive (thanks for the info Jackie!) but high energy light show on the Kuching River at the base of the Sarawak State Legislature building which was a great way to send everyone off the first night.   

The Kuching Waterfront Darul Hana Musical Fountain projecting onto the Sarawak State Legislative Building

DAY TWO: Monday 18th November 2019

Day 2 kicked off at our our home for the week, the Borneo Laboratory, a creative co-working space where outside and inside spaces merge with projects from artists featured all around us for inspiration.

Our beautiful home for the week

Using your brain takes a lot of energy, so the fellowships are always well nourished, starting with breakfast. We had tried to start the day with vegan buckwheat banana pancakes, but they didn’t turn out quite as planned… using all our creative food skills, we redesigned morning pancakes into banana bread for afternoon break time! Breakfast was even more fun as the fellows shared something they’ve brought from home - most of which happened to be edible treats!

Tiffany shares her crackers and coffee snack, which is enjoyed by the Chinese Malay

If you’ve visited our website, you’ll have discovered the Disruptive Design Method and know that it’s critical to start issue exploration by mining for information and learning to love the problem. Therefore, the first few days of the fellowship are packed with experiences and sharing by the mentors.

We therefore dove right into with an interactive session on systems thinking and learning how to apply these tools to any problem at hand. Experience is always the quickest way to get to understanding, so the fellows split into groups to discover the power of systems mapping with low tech pens and paper. This fun and accessible systems mapping activity is a great way to bypass assumptions, gain new perspectives, and explore the messy reality of the interconnectedness of everything!

Groups getting into their systems maps

The small teams showing the insights they gathered from systems mapping

After the maps were shared and insights on feedback loops, systems dynamics and archetypes was shared by Leyla and the group, mentor Steve McCoy joined us to deliver an insightful session after lunch on differing perspectives on the business case for sustainability and the power of language. He then challenged the group to think through multiply complex perspectives of issues like palm oil production and deforestation. One of his key points is that addressing these issues is not just about trying harder - we need to imagine what good looks like, rather than what is less bad. 

Steve McCoy talks language, culture, identity, and solving that palm oil problem once and for all.

After a short break to stretch legs and refill our teacups, the groups were challenged to explore Life Cycle Thinking by looking at an everyday product that uses palm oil as an ingredient (spoiler alert: there are so many!). The teams each identified one, then looked at its impacts across the five main life cycle stages that a product goes through. The groups then shared what they found on Nutella, Oreos, peanut butter and liquid detergent. 

Thinking through the life cycle of Nutella

Presenting the outcomes of the life cycle thinking activity

Steve then challenged the groups to, in 30 minutes, try to solve the problem of palm oil! Building on the day’s experiences, they came up with some rapid ideations that built on the day’s insights: reframing the problem is key as there is power in reframing a narrative to raise awareness, banning palm oil products is not the solution as while there are many many (many!) negatives to deforestation, certain people do have some benefit (e.g. farm owners who are able to send their children to university, who otherwise would not).

We like to keep the pace fast in the fellowships, however also value the importance of taking a step back to reflect on what we’ve learned. One of the key duties of the cohosts (who are always previous alumni who want to learn more) is to create a space for reflection at the end of almost every day. This reflection was designed to communicate the purpose, check in with how everyone was feeling, and playfully rank how much each person felt they knew about the topics that had been covered that day. 

Our dinner location

With such an inspirational group of Malay mentors with us for the week, we made the most of our time together by having a mentor dinner. Earlier in the day, the fellows put their names under six topics (community, food, waste, systems, economy and creativity) and on arriving at LePau restaurant (meaning farm-hut) they were matched with the mentor connected to the theme for the evening. There’s nothing quite like bonding over a meal, especially with new experiences for many of the group like fermented durian and sweetleaf! The dinner showcased the traditional recipes of Sarawak and surrounding area - while being 100% vegan too!

Mentors and fellows got to spend some quality small group time together

Look at all those delicious green things!

DAY THREE: Tuesday 19th November 2019 

At the UnSchool, we love adventure! And what’s more adventurous than starting the day with a reality cooking show style challenge in a fresh food market, to get all the things on a seemingly random list of ingredients? The teams that were lucky enough to have local fellows in their group had a leg up with some of the perhaps less familiar ingredients for those not from the area.

Once the groups were made, each person randomly selected notes of money from a hat and there was much excitement to discover what was pulled out and how much they would have to spend. Everyone then had 20 minutes to go and find their ingredients - while being 100% zero waste! The team brought along some extra items to help, such as reusable containers. Instead of being a competition with each other, they were challenged to work as a group to make sure we had everything we needed - they could share the money resources to collaborate, which meant that within minutes people were sharing money and helping each other get what they needed to complete the task. 

Some of the market haul the fellows gathered, ferns from the forest, sweetleaf, and other ingredients to go into our lunch together

The zero waste shopping challenge went down very well with the market vendors!

The seemingly never ending stalls of fresh colourful fruit and vegetables from the forest and farms nearby

We met back at Borneo Lab for our next mentor session with Chris Perry. He shared with us his projects building an edible park, spending time talking about the way to invite people into an experience, the power of aesthetics, mechanisms, community, fermentation, and the compelling role of narrative when it comes to making change. 

Chris Perry builds beautiful, growing, educational experiences.

Once Chris had shared his powerfully insightful experiences, the fellows received part 2 of their cooking show challenge! They came downstairs to see 4 cooking stations and a beautiful table full of the colourful, local and delicious ingredients they had found in the morning. We all then had 1.5 hours to collaboratively cook a beautiful, delicious, 100% vegan meal with the bounty, much of which came from the nearby forests and farms.

Chris was the master chef director taking the lead, guiding 17 people all collaboratively cooking a big multi dish meal packed with nutrients, powerful plant protein, and well designed presentation featuring edible flowers. Prepping stations including chopping, beverages, sauces and cooking, all contributing to the creation of a beautiful and delicious spread of colour and according to one of our local fellows Hani, “there was nothing on that table that was not good!”. 

The day just kept getting better after we had devoured absolutely everything on the table and our bellies were filled with delightful fresh green dishes. Maynard Keyne Langed from Bad Cat Borneo arrived next, and provided a very charismatic history and tasting of Tuak - a locally made alcoholic drink made from fermented glutinous rice, often made at home in communities around Sarawak. He brought us several flavours to try, from roselle (hibiscus flower), pineapple, smoke and even a black pepper version - which made a big splash, and definitely gave us an afternoon wake up, while learning how to properly cheers Sarawak-style!

The history of Tuak and local fermentation

Ooooahhh! Taste testing the delicious flavors!

Now more awake than before, the afternoon continued with exciting knowledge shared by mentor Carolyn Joan Lau from Zero Waste Malaysia and Tak Nak Straw. Carolyn kicked off her session by sharing her story from landscape architect to waste upcycler to zero waste advocate and creative challenger.

Mentor Carolyn inspiring us

Carolyn then challenged the group to go out onto the streets, find single use plastic trash and intervene in it in a way that would bring a different awareness to the problem. Fellows got very creative making “pick up your trash signs” out of trash! Once they returned to the lab, they were then invited to make things out of collected waste and design a communication meme to challenge others to think differently about this ever increasing issue. 

During the reflection session, fellows said that they really enjoyed playing, and using their hands to explore the problem from a different perspective. Everyone was then released for a free evening, where most of the fellows ventured out into downtown Kuching for a shared meal and to soak up the energy of this incredible location. 

DAY 4: Wednesday 20th November 2019

Ramping up the adventure level a few notches for a field trip day is easy when you’re on the third largest island in the world and home to one of the oldest rainforest on the planet. We met early at our home base to board a bus heading out to the Matang Wildlife Reserve. On the way, Leyla challenged the group to do an observational research activity to support the perspective shifting tools we use to more deeply understand the world around us. After a quick bus exploration of research strategies and ethics, we arrived for part one of our field trip day. 

Meeting our guide Dominic and hearing about the rehabilitation center

Arriving at the nature reserve, we were met by our guide Dominic who explained that we were in a rehabilitation center for rescued Orangutan and Sun Bears; many of which have been confiscated from traffickers and from people keeping them illegally as pets. He took us on a walk to meet the animals, which tested many of us in the group’s emotional state. We met several Orangutan (Peter and his other friends), and other animals like Civets, Gibbons (one threw poop at us!), Bearcats and Sun Bears, along with latex trees, pitcher plants, rattan vine and the rest of the eco-system that makes up this rich and fertile rainforest.

The centre is over 25 years old and due for an upgrade which will apparently be happening next year with government funding. Over the years the centre has rehabilitated and returned 18 Orangutang to the wild, and are hoping to double their capacity as deforestation continues to escalate the issue. 

After a much needed snack and mental break at the picnic area, we dipped into the lovely rainforest river for a swim to cool down and make sense of everything we had seen. Once our fingertips had turned to prunes, we moved to one of the sheltered spots for a group check-in. Collectively we shared some mixed feelings that had been triggered by the animal experience, and some more positive experiences from those in the group who had never had to opportunity to be in a rainforest before. Dominic was kind enough to sit with us and respond to our many questions about the animals and the reason why this situation was so bad for them here in Borneo. After a one-on-one X-Map reflection session around the complex issues being discussed, we were ready to move onto the next part of this thought provoking day. 

Leyla facilitating a group discussion about the morning’s experience

By mid-afternoon, we were back on the bus heading to our next surprise location. After a short rest, Leyla and Nisha jumped up and managed to run a game with those who were awake on the moving bus, exploring the tool of Gamification using the example of Rimba - a game that Nisha and Lymun developed to cultivate a love of animals indigenous to Peninsula and Borneo, Malaysia. In our reflection later, we were floored by the retention of information from that session - obviously teaching new knowledge on a bus is a good idea! It’s also a great way of distracting the passengers from the monsoon conditions outside, and the bumpy winding road! 

Our destination was well worth the journey there - we had arrived at the Kampung Panchor Hot Spring. The beautiful natural hot spring is managed by the local Dayak village, the tribe whose name you might recognise as the area where Operation Cat Drop was done in the 1950s! As we arrived to learn about this type of community enterprise, the monsoon rain pounded down adding an extra element of magic while the group sat in the natural hot springs and soaked in the rainforest around us. 

If it wasn’t for the hunt for more food, we could have stayed in the magical jungle hot spring forever. But we all wanted to eat after a long day, so we dried off and boarded the bus to head back into the city. Sounds like the end, right? Not at the UnSchool! Rather than a reflection session, Valentina and Zoë challenged the fellows to practice what they had learned in the day - to design a game. They were asked to self organise into four teams and randomly given folded pieces of origami papers with their parameters for the game design. Each group was given a theme (empathy, curiosity, tourism or social norms), a medium (board game, card game, nontraditional experience or an app), and a target age group (children, teens, adults or elders).

Working on the gamification mini challenge over dinner

The challenge excited the participants and kept the energy levels high and the hungry feeling distracted, until we reached an Indian restaurant who was able to bring out food for all 28 of us (including mentors Steve and Chris) in less than 15 minutes. We were so impressed and grateful to be enjoying the delicious vegetarian delights while brains were active in putting the finishing touches on their games. They only had until 10pm to post their rapid prototype in the group chat. All groups were successful, and a jam packed day 4 was closed while very sleepy people heading to bed.

DAY 5: Thursday 21st November 2019 

A great breakfast was made greater with with local fellow Hani contributing some delicious coconut, red bean, mushroom or garlic buns, and then we dove right into hearing the groups pitch the games they had designed the night before. 

Team one made a board game for kids created to provoke curiosity, building on different levels to free Peter the Orangutan by solving puzzles. Team 2 developed a card game for adults around ecotourism, with the goal to score the lowest on carbon emissions from a trip by making considered transport, accommodation and diet choices. Team three combined teens and empathy to build a non traditional experience called Rumba Room, with levels depicted experiences relating to plant and animal biodiversity, deforestation, and caged animals. Team four had a tricky one - elders, social norms and an app - but they creatively came up with Generational GApp which gamified challenges of social norms for elders to play with other people in their communities, scoring points for rewards. 

Dr Welyn Jeffrey Jehom, an anthropologist from the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, joined us as our final mentor for the week. She had initially wanted to be a fellow, but she was a perfect fit as a mentor, sharing her decade long social entrepreneurial work here in Borneo! Wanting to make sure she adapted her talk to the group and to find out what she had been missing, she asked everyone to recount their favourite moments from the week. It was a simple question that provoked beautiful responses, and even some (happy and grateful) tears! 

Welyn’s session focused on research and indigenous knowledge systems, as well as sharing some of the challenges she has experienced working in academia, and also as an entrepreneur. Over the last few years, she’s been supporting a local group of Iban weavers, to pass on the skill to younger generations and create a fair market. She inspired the group through her storytelling of the process of visiting the longhouses and supporting the community in overcoming challenges in getting their incredible works to market. From her talk, we learned about the Longhouses that Malaysians traditionally live in - semi-detached rooms that house a whole family, with up to 120 families living in one Longhouse! 

After lunch, we were surprised to discover another surprise! Pangrok Sulap had returned to Borneo Lab, this time with their hand etched wooden boards, some tools and tshirts they’ve made. They created our very own UnSchool wood block print, that were then invited to try our hand at making prints with. We spent the afternoon learning how to create woodcut blocks by collaborating on a communal pieces, and even had an impromptu dance party printing our own tshirts. We sang and danced together, using our feet to press the wood block onto the fabric and paper, with music requests ranging from local to Tina Turner to Metallica!  

A collaborative piece was made by the fellows who wanted to try out the cutting process

T-shirt printing is best done by dancing on the woodblock while everyone sings!

Using the last few hours of the afternoon, the group dove into the Disruptive Design Method session in preparation for the challenge, and to fill in any knowledge gaps. Everyone had the opportunity to answer their burning questions (of which Steve had a list of 27!). Knowing the group needed to make the most of their last night off, Valentina and Zoë ran a short reflection session, asking the fellows to share some of the best tips they had experienced in working with groups. The day ended with excitement as the groups for the 24hr Challenge were announced and they were invited to go take some time over dinner to plan the best method of working collaboratively together as a team. 

Leyla and co-host Valintina doing the final round up session on the Disruptive Design Method

DAY 6: Friday 22nd 2019

After a delicious roti canai breakfast, Emma and Leyla provided the 24hr design challenge brief with the solution parameters and presentation requirements. Although encouraged to sleep, they do have to go through the full DDM, getting to a solution on the chosen topic that is collaborative, equitable and sustainable.

Having experienced the issues, challenges and opportunities over the week, the fellows are now equipped with the tools to dive into the problem area. They had the choice to pick from, and develop a regenerative and collaborative co-creation design solution to, were: 

• Forestry use (including deforestation etc)

• Coexistence with animals

• Palm oil production

• Single use plastic proliferation and waste impacts

• Supporting indigenous community economic opportunities

• The diversification and impact reduction of food

The groups started by deep diving into the topics and the morning hours passed quickly with lots of mining, systems mapping and explorations. Some groups had set hopeful timelines (which they wouldn’t all end up sticking to), while others were just going with the flow. By mid afternoon, energy levels were changing and groups started moving around, getting excited by the ideas falling into place during the landscaping phase. 

Getting into systems mapping in the 24 hour design challenge

With the end of the day approaching, dinner took a creative spin on leftovers with a supporting role played by fresh warm naan bread from a restaurant around the corner delivered in a beautiful aluminum engraved tiffin (we have a zero waste food policy and work to stick to it!). The last few hours saw some teams gearing into presentation mode, while others felt lost (and then hopeful - then lost again!) and worked hard into the night to find the form for their ideas. A last shakeup round of feedback from Leyla and Emma saw the teams ushered out into the night, some finding a space to carry on with their projects and some finding the rest that they needed (even if it only started after 1am!). 

DAY 7: Saturday 23nd 2019

Leyla explaining how the pitches will go!

Early the next morning, Day 7 kicked off with groups rushing to get their presentations together, jumping right into the practice pitches for feedback with Leyla and the team. Practice pitches are a great way for figuring out where presentations need to refine their storytelling and approach, making evocative and compelling points stick and keeping the audience with you for the whole journey. Lost of feedback and quick edits were made before we went into our official pitches! 

Team one started the presentations with a fascinating concept called Mogent (which stands for mobile agentizing of a rural nomadic tribe in western Malaysia).

Team 2 created a playful trailer for a internet based show about ocean conservation, using Nisha our local producer (and the creator of the card game Rimba) as the inspiration for the series. Team 3 provided a high energy pitch for a real live mobile virtual rainforest experience for kids to interact with nature in urban settings to ignite their curiosity and build connections with the nature that surrounds them outside the city. Team 4 ended our pitch session with a fantastic concept called comcom.com (also fun to say!) which stands for ‘community composting’ and shared a system of incentivizing composting in large eating places (LEPs)

During the presentation, each fellow had to opportunity to sit behind one of 4 different perspectives and score the presenting group’s concept based from the viewpoint of either cultural integrity, economic sustainability, the flora and fauna kingdoms or equitable engagement. Mentors Steve and Carolyn were also on hand to provide their feedback as well. The pitches had to show that they were feasible within the sphere of influence, scaleable, and capable of making measurable and impactful positive change.

After the winner was announced, the fellows were surprised by a celebratory drink of either Ribena or Tuak that Barbara had brought from a local supplier. With a few long rounds of 'Oooooooohaa...!’ we celebrated completing an incredible week together. But we still had one final surprise, with our cameraman Eugene announcing that his mom had made us all a special local dish called Lei cha for our last lunch together. This beautiful vegetarian platter of rice, nuts, green veggies and a special 7 secret ingredient tea based soup that you pour over the top was just what we needed to refuel for our last moments of the fellowship - a closing reflection session! 

Co-hosts Zoë and Valentina popped up papers on the wall that allowed fellows to walk around and write their memories of the days, the best bits, the stuff that could be improved, funny moments, and the key take homes for them. There was lots of laughter as we all remembered the week and it was all tied together beautifully with a closing circle where everyone shared their appreciation for the people, the program and the shared experiences we had over the week. 

And that wraps up yet another incredible UnSchool fellowship adventure! Our 11th fellowship will be in Cochabamba, Bolivia in October 2020 and applications are open now!

Thank you to all our fellows for helping capture the week in photos, especially Eureka Khong, who is responsible fro many of the images shared here!

Cape Town Fellowship

Our 9th international emerging leaders fellowship happened in Cape Town, South Africa from May 26 - June 1st, 2018. Watch the video of the incredible week we shared and check out the full day to day break down of what we got up to!

DAY 1 | May 26, 2018

HELLO FROM UNSCHOOL CAPE TOWN!

The 2018 Cape Town Fellowship!

The 9th UnSchool Fellowship has launched, and we’ve hit the ground running! We’re all getting to know each other ultra fast speed with a classic UnSchool one legged stand to learn each others names, and it is all systems go for a filled-to-the-brim week of brain-training, fun and change-making.

Cape Town hosted us with warm weather on Day One, after some cold and wet (but very welcomed!) winter weather experienced earlier in the week. Our local co-hosts, Thessa (UnSchool alumni from Sao Paolo) and Wisaal, put the city into context for us, providing us with historical and cultural insights as well as the practicalities regarding the water situation and how to navigate this situation as visitors to the city. The week is set to be thoughtful and provocative in this beautiful and complex region, stitched together with culturally-rich threads.

The sunshine was accommodating as we made our way to the District Six Museum. The museum was co-created and curated by the memories of those who were forcibly removed from their communities and sent to rebuild their homes and lives on the outskirts of the city. It was established as a two-week exhibition which has turned out to last for 22 years... and counting. Aunty Ruth, a former District Six resident and museum story-teller, shared her history around life in District Six and the immense trauma and challenges that she and thousands of other families experienced living through the system. We were all captivated by her legacy and the legacy of District Six - not forgetting the museum. Aunty Ruth’s jovial spirit and incredible story-telling really moved us as a group and provided great perspective.

Aunty Ruth and the Cape Town fellows sit on the memory map of the once vibrant and diverse community of District Six that was disrupted by apartheid.

Bonita, our guide for the museum, explains all the artifacts we see in this informal museum

The fellows and team brought the excitement along to the home base at The Craft and Design Institute, where we got to know one-another in three minute Pecha Kuchas. Nine 20-second slides to share with the group gave us all a more in-depth understanding of each other. We cheered those who ran out of time and encouraged those who found themselves strapped for words. The consensus was that speaking about yourself against the clock surely comes with its challenges!

The fellows get a rapid fire 20 seconds per slide to tell everyone about their work and life.

After our first session with our lead educator Emma, and a historical walk lead by Wisaal and Thessa, we broke injera (Ethiopian bread) together. The tasty and wholesome dishes paired with some wine, water, or Ethiopian tea provided nourishment. The community meal was a great way to relax after an intense first day, to mingle amongst ourselves with our mouths full and our fingers busy. We know that the week ahead will be bombarded with knowledge, challenges, surprises and the anticipation, but we’re ready! The excitement is palpable as Day Two gets underway.

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DAY 2 | May 27, 2018

We got straight into it this morning with the fresh-faced fellows bringing along their artefacts to share with the group over breakfast. The artefacts were precious treasures, trinkets and treats that meant something special or represented something important for each of our fellows; from peanut butter to an indigenous spekboom (bacon tree) plant. Coming together around the breakfast table, we realized just how small the world is and how much we can learn from each other.

There was excitement in the air as we were (virtually) introduced to Dr Leyla Acaroglu, via videoconference. We discussed systems-thinking and change-making before getting into groups to map out some of the social, industrial, and environmental systems that shape our world and our lives. Despite some hesitation, we really outdid ourselves in sticking to the task of creating messy, chaotic and beautiful systems maps in all their complexity. The brain-dump of our collective group’s systems-mapping squeezed out so much juice and the subsequent conversations that flowed really reflected a morning of deep thinking and reflection.

After a refreshing, wholesome, and colourful lunch prepared by the Unschool team (5* star reviews from the fellows!), we hopped onto a Golden Arrow bus also known as “the Bus for Us” which has been servicing the city for 157 years! We left the east precinct and ventured down the highway to meet one of our mentors, Emile YX “vannie Kaap se vlakte” (from the Cape Flats). Emile, who needs no introduction, had a big sense of self, sense of humour, and head of hair! He interestingly started by talking about how he had grown out his hair to its natural state as a part of his search for his identity as a person of colour in Cape Town, South Africa. It turns out that his huge afro matches his unapologetic vibrance and exuberant energy. Since then, Emile constantly found himself going to his creativity and artistry to work his way around the systems that don’t work for him. This has led him to leverage his unconventional teaching methods through hip-hop and dance. He dedicates his life to encouraging and developing youth by equipping them with the personal, practical, (and quite literally physical) tools to navigate social systems in a way that works for them. Emile drew us out of our comfort zones by getting us dancing in a pretty cosy circle – nothing quite like the B-boy’s breakdancing moves though but some fellows were close!

The next adventure had all the fellows curious and guessing where we were off to next. There’s no doubt that the unknown aspect of the Unschool itinerary is part and parcel of the un-learning process! Back on the ‘bus for us’, we headed to a different part of the city, as the sun was starting to set.

All around the world the holy month of Ramadaan is being observed by Muslims. This is a very significant month on the Islamic calendar and is always a special time in Cape Town as the communities are filled with the sharing spirit. Zayaan Khan and her family welcomed us into their family home to boeka (breaking of the fast). As tradition dictates, dates and water were laid out along with savoury treats, fruit, and tea. Zayaan invited us to share our intentions for the UnSchool fellowship with the group, while we rolled date balls. When the clock hit 17:50 it was time to break fast and from then for the entire evening, delicious platters kept arriving from the kitchen. Zayaan shared her story of her identity and how it feeds into the work she does with plants and indigenous food in the Cape. She shared how being aware of those living in the land (and oceans!) can be so replenishing for mind, body, and soul.  She also shared a few tips of harvesting plants from her surroundings to make the delicious tea we were enjoying.

The night ended with the fellows talking about what it takes to be a leader and the internal and external conflicts that arise from leading social change – and all of this reflection with very full heads and stomachs!  

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DAY 3 | May 28, 2018

Day 3 was kicked off with Naadiya Moosaje, who arrived with the tips, tricks, and wisdoms around her journey of social innovation. Any morning sleepiness that lingered in the air was swept away by Naadiya’s amazing storytelling of the trials and tribulations of being a female entrepreneur, in engineering, fashion and the restaurant industry.

She talked about the four types of capital that any entrepreneur needs to successfully start up a mission-driven enterprise, highlighting the importance of community and connection. The fellows had many questions about Naadiya’s experience as an agent of change and were inspired by her honesty and openness. After a quick break, the fellows were invited to address a social innovation challenge which involved picking a local issue from the news’ headlines, breaking down the problem, and then rapid prototyping the solution - all this under 30 minutes! The fellows had to let go of their inhibitions and perfectionism to get ideating, creating, testing! They formed three groups and pitched their 30 minute prototypes on challenging Islamophobia, taxi violence, and linking supporters with resources to those who want to take action. It was great to see what the teams could achieve in just half an hour of messy thoughts, scribbled diagrams, and cut and paste prototypes made out of recycled packaging waste. A great session to get the brain juices flowing for the day and there was still so much more to come...

After another sumptuous spread prepared by the team, we were introduced to self-proclaimed water maverick and shit-stirrer, Bernelle Verster. The Cape Town Day Zero Water Crisis has been an ongoing topic around the world. With Bernelle’s vast experience as bio process engineer, she led us through as session on what the Cape is going through, seeking a deep understanding of the issue around water sensitivity. Many of the international fellows who weren’t as familiar with the practicalities of the drought were surprised to hear about tactics like water restriction devices on water meters that turn the water supply off once the daily allowance is depleted. Bernelle’s proposal is water-sensitive living, or as she calls it, being AquaSavvy.

Unpacking this idea revealed more than just water supply and distribution but also overall water consciousness. After establishing and comparing the options, Bernelle appealed to the fellows to weigh in on her current project and debate the pros and cons of dry toilets vs flush toilets. We used a classic UnSchool game of Verbal Fight Club and embodied various perspectives and roles to work through her idea. She was generous enough to have us give rapid feedback in this fun and interactive debate style, and wrote about her experience at the UnSchool.

Having collectively debated the dry vs flush toilet, the conversation transitioned into a discussion around the bigger issues at play, leading to the need for dry toilets and our ideas around sanitation. Saying goodbye to Bernelle, we then moved downstairs for a reflection session led by Camila, who asked us to reflect on the different ways we’ve been seeing the mentors use unique tactics and tools to navigate complex, challenging systems and make positive and measurable change in the world. With the sun breaking through the welcome rain, we invited the fellows to one last challenge for the day as they were sent off in small groups for dinner. We asked them to try their hand at designing an experience that would help transfer some of the knowledge they’ve learned up to this point to another group of people - peer to peer learning is an accessible and relatable way to engage communities, and we can’t always rely on the bigger system structures in the world. Sometimes you have to dive in there yourself! And with that, we sent them off into the sunset with an early morning ahead for Day 4.

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DAY 4 | May 29, 2018

Day 4! Time flies when you’re learning how to unlearn at the Unschool!

Today was nothing short of incredible. After a quick and tasty breakfast, we’re back on ‘the bus for us’! Heading to somewhere unknown in true UnSchool style, we find ourselves in Langa, the oldest township in Cape Town. Not knowing exactly where we are, we take our seats and are introduced to Sihle Tshabalala, the co-founder and CEO of Quirky30.

Hearing his story of how he dedicated his adult life to overcoming the odds of poverty, prison and violence gives us such a deep sense of inspiration that you can actually feel it in the air. You could quite honestly hear a pin drop as Sihle spoke words of wisdom about the importance of turning the negative into the positive, even in the face of adversity. The fellows are stunned by Sihle’s ‘3-D’ ethos of: dream different dreams. He explained how he was able to see marketable skill-sets in the most marginalised groups, for example; gang members and criminals as some of the most innovative entrepreneurs. This is a key component of his talk: finding opportunity where there seems to be only hopelessness. His life story has such resonance with the journey of a social innovator that our fellows can’t stop asking him questions. If only written words were enough to sum up the insights that Sihle shared with the group, but the hugs and gratitude spoke volumes!

Then we picked up the pace and sped right into a rapid prototyping session with the Quirky30 cohort to come up with quickfire solutions to local problems. We formed four big blended groups of Quirky30 and Unschool fellows alike and got talking about a range of issues that were local to Langa such as violence, agriculture, education, and unemployment (issues that affect us all around the world!). We got our heads together to start mapping out the problem arenas of each one issue. With some deep thinking, head scratching, and colourful scribbling, all four groups did a big collective brain dump which laid the foundation for building a prototype solution in 30 minutes - and with lots of conversation to spare! We heard some fantastic presentations of prototypes but it was the process that was the real learning piece here; synthesising the perspectives and experiences of people from all over the world to collaboratively create a seamless solution! It’s not always as easy as it looks and our groups did make it look pretty easy. Judging by the standard of the ideas, there was real genuine interest to make these prototyped ideas an entrepreneurial reality!

With all our brain juice squeezed out, it was certainly the moment for some yummy South African food which turned out to be a big hit! Thank you to Ciki Washington and her Langa-based catering.

Back on the bus again and it’s time to do some quick reflections on our way to the next destination because there’s never a minute to lose at the Unschool. We rocked up in the centre of Cape Town for our next learning-based adventure. Just this morning we were hearing from a digital programmer, youth worker, motivational speaker, community leader, and entrepreneur, all rolled into one amazing mentor, Sihle. Now we were waiting outside an architect’s office door  waiting to hear his take on how to unite social justice with innovation. Of course, it turns out that we were extremely privileged to have Mokena Makeka as our second mentor of the day. He talked so effortlessly about his career of building buildings with social change in mind. In fact, he blew our minds with the way he saw various socioeconomic patterns and trends shaping our world. Again, we were full of questions to ask him about his work. After a quick tour of his office space, Mokena showed us some of the most prestigious architectural projects that he had worked on and his thought process behind his creative design decisions - inspiring us to think about the ways we can unapologetically bring our authentic selves into our work! Next stop, we visited Cape Town Station where Mokena took us step by step through his creative process of architecturally designing it. We managed to squeeze in a quick sneak peek of the ‘informal market’ that can be found on the station’s rooftop with the mountains making the perfect backdrop to the hustle and bustle of all the market stalls selling all kinds of everything!

He talked so effortlessly about his career of building buildings with social change in mind. In fact, he blew our minds with the way he saw various socioeconomic patterns and trends shaping our world. Again, we were full of questions to ask him about his work. After a quick tour of his office space, Mokena showed us some of the most prestigious architectural projects that he had worked on and his thought process behind his creative design decisions - inspiring us to think about the ways we can unapologetically bring our authentic selves into our work! Next stop, we visited Cape Town Station where Mokena took us step by step through his creative process of architecturally designing it. We managed to squeeze in a quick sneak peek of the ‘informal market’ that can be found on the station’s rooftop with the mountains making the perfect backdrop to the hustle and bustle of all the market stalls selling all kinds of everything!

Finally we decided to walk to the V&A Waterfront and we were able to do some long overdue sunset sightseeing. At the Waterfront, Mokena our mentor continued giving us a tour of the Cape Town city that he knows and that he has played an active role in designing. It was great to have such open public space to run, play, and take lots of photos - the fellows unschooled all their schooling with childlike play, curiousity, and mischief. Finally, it came to wrapping up the day with a quick reflection on all the ways that we can continue to ‘flip the script’ (in true Unschool spirit) on the challenges, obstacles, and issues currently affecting our lives. This was a great way to end the day by thinking about all the ways that we might turn a weakness into a strength and a threat into an opportunity. Reframing is a really important skill that any social innovator needs to have in order to navigate the long road ahead of change-making.Time for some free time this evening and the fellows decided to go a see more of the city with some food in their belly. A great day full of absolutely mindblowing mentorship and teamwork!

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DAY 5 | May 30, 2018

Day 5 quickly jumped into a knowledge-packed day!

As we finished our nourishing breakfast foods, Vuyisa Quabaka, co-founder of Uprise Africa, started his session with a mini networking-style intro by getting everyone in the group to share their professional projects and personal interests. Then Vuyisa continued the networking theme with his tips and tricks for the fellows to leverage their social networks (on and offline!) in an effective and intentional way. We quickly found out why he is one of the top 15 people to follow on social media as he is extremely well connected around the world! Vuyisa gave us the two perspectives on what it is like to be an entrepreneur looking for funding and how it is like to be an angel investor. He shared three different ways to answer the question - how to fund my project? 1) Peer 2 Peer (P2P) 2) Equity Crowdfunding 3) Initial Coin Offering & Bitcoin - which quickly became a hot-topic! The morning ended up with dividing into teams working on what makes an idea investible.

After re-charging with delicious plant-protein Happy Earth People pasta, we kept going with the next big topics: Life Cycle Thinking and Theory of Change. Emma explained the environmental impacts associated with each stage of a product’s life. Clearly deep in thought, the fellows worked through the different stages of products such as a sweater or shoes and we used mapping technique to look at where these products come from, what it takes to produce them, and how they get disposed.

Equipping the fellows for the final challenge, our digital session with Leyla led us all into the Disruptive Design Method (DDM),  and cognitive bias. Her high energy and enthusiasm was what everyone needed after a long day of intense brain activating. Learning with Leyla helped us all to tie together the wide range of framing tools and immersive experiences that we shared during the week.

Before the drum roll to present the final challenge, we had space for free writing reflecting on what new insights and new breakthroughs have happened in these intense few days. The fellows had their pens on a roll as they unlearned the impulse to self-censor and instead jot down their thoughts and streams of consciousness, well past the set activity time. 

The day did eventually come to an end but the challenge was just getting started as the teams were given their brief for the 24-Hour Design Challenge. Everyone left the room excited and already brainstorming on how to tackle the challenge early tomorrow morning!

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DAY 6 & 7 | May 31 & June 1, 2018

The 24-hour Design Challenge has begun! Fellows showed up early for first come first pick on break out session rooms. The challenge now is to time-crunch all the knowledge gained this week, and apply the tools to design a solution to an issue... with the twist of presenting it from the future!

The teams were asked to apply a positive future framing speculative design to their solution. This framework pushed everyone beyond their traditional thought process on delivering a presentation and coming up with an idea. Using the Disruptive Design Method (DDM), the fellows went through an entire journey using systems mapping to find what issues they were collaboratively passionate about and points of intervention.

As the breakout session walls transformed into systems mapping art – teams started to find the problem arenas. One team decided to tackle the fast fashion issue, another team was inspired to look at what makes thriving cities. Two teams, inspired by Sihle (one of our mentors) and his work with Quirky 30, researched on how to flip-the-script on the negative bias usually applied to gangs and prison.

Being at the CBD (central business district) made it easy for the teams to go on field trips being immersed in observational research to check and validate their ideas with the public and also talk with local team members about topics emerging from the rich content in the city. In between snacks were plentiful – we even had pancakes sent from the barakat tradition during Ramadan month! Teams then used the iterative process of DDM to come back with new information and perspectives to apply more systems mapping, landscaping, synthesizing and prototyping to build different solutions for their new insights. They worked late into the night, fueled by a surprise popcorn and ice-cream sundae bar the UnSchool team set up.

Early next morning after some very much needed brain breakfast food (coconut chia banana cinnamon pudding for everyone!), the teams wrapped up the final details for their solutions in preparation for practice pitches with the UnSchool team and Leyla via the internet! During the one-and-one team presentations, Leyla shared her tips and tricks on how to engage and create evocative and thoughtful presentations. With some twists and positive constructive feedback, the teams had time to make some quick changes while working against the clock before their final presentations.

At the final Design Challenge hour, the fellows participated in a community review process. Everyone rotated to review the presentations based on Viability, Change Potential, and Community to represent a different lens to each idea.

The intense seventh day week ended with popping champagne bottles, sparkling water and flowers for our fellows who were fasting. Each team did an incredible job and were very creative in presentations format. The scores were so close, but rounding to the tenth left one final winner! The creative and engaging presentations involving hug exchanges, transporting fellows to New York, and achieved the purpose of creative positive future framing.

After feasting on beautiful and colorful lunch and singing happy birthday to Andy, one of our local team members, we transitioned into a final memory-recalling and reflective session on our insights, wishes and tools to take away. The entire group then ended with a final reflection circle to share final thoughts on the week.  The circle wrapped up with one of the fellows leading a call and response Kausar chant of ‘amandla’ (power) and the group responding ‘awethu’ (within) - a  reminder that the power is within us. With filled hearts and brains, we said our temporary good-byes... the fellows were already planning an after party to celebrate that we are all now part of the the UnSchool Alumni family!

See you at the next UnSchool Change Makers Fellowship!

Mumbai Fellowship

The UnSchool’s 8th emerging leaders fellowship program happened in November 2017 in Mumbai, India. Check out everything that we got up to in this incredible week-long adventure.

DAY 1 | November 11th, 2017

The 8th UnSchool Emerging Leader Fellowship launched in southern Mumbai on November 11th at the majestic gates of the Mumbai Rani Baug. Nearly everyone was on time despite the quintessential Mumbai traffic. Amongst the beautiful greenery and the symphony of car honking, we started off in true UnSchool fashion with a one-legged stand that allowed us to quickly learn each other's names by colluding memory with physical effort.

Walking a short distance to our first adventure, we were delighted by a visit to the magnificent Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum (originally named the Victoria & Albert Museum, pre-independence after Prince Albert who co-founded the museum with Dr. Bhau Daji Lad). We were guided by wonder woman Anita, an incredible volunteer educator who shared her extensive knowledge on the influence of history on arts, crafts and design. The cohort was exposed to the contrasts between function and form, conceptual art and symbolic art. With Anita’s wonderful narrative of the museum’s authentic artifacts, we gained a historic context that fired up our neurons and began the UnSchool-esque unravelling of what we think we know! Did you know that Mumbai was originally a cluster of 7 islands!? Well, we didn’t! There is more to Mumbai than meets the eye!

From the museum we walked through Shoonya Ghar, a wooden installation by contemporary artist Sudarshan Shetty, symbolic of the poetic contrasts within the artist.

At the museum’s Educational Center we shared our 3 minute 9 slide life stories, Pecha Kucha style. And Pecha Kuchas never disappoint! We learned about the group’s compelling projects, diverse domains, unique qualities, and brilliant brains. After agreeing on the consequences when the don’t-be-late rule is broken (oh, what it is? Hmmm, it’s a fellowship secret!), we settled into an always eye-opening core knowledge session on Sustainability with Leyla, and of course, good brain-building snacks.

As evening fell over Byculla, we piled into cabs and started a mini challenge. Through a game of 20 questions, each group had to discover a secret word which served as the lens with which to complete the observational challenge. Through the windows of the cabs and with the prescribed perspectives - such as happiness, creativity, contrast, community - fellows went through a rapid fire observation session while traversing the streets of Mumbai. In sharing observations and insights many rich discussions were had about the power of seeing the world through different lenses.

Next stop was the Flora Fountain (disappointingly covered in scaffolding as it is being restored), our starting point for a short walking tour of some of the incredible architecture and monuments of Mumbai. We compressed into a tight group to cross the road in a pack of humans (thanks to fellow Umang for suggesting this nice little life hack) and meandered through the sensory overload of sounds, sights, smells and excitement of bustling south Mumbai. Through the side streets of Mumbai's burgeoning and eclectic local design scene, we saw many creative sights and soaked in the beautiful chaos of Mumbai while building up a healthy appetite.

Finally we reached our final destination: the creative vegetarian restaurant, Chetana, where we sat down UnSchool-family-style to enjoy a colorful Indian Thali feast, a variety of dishes curated on a delightfully diverse platter, just like the UnSchool fellowship.

Everyone savored the perfectly combined flavors of the deliciously colorful dishes. Toasts were made. Trivia challenged. Stories shared. With new connections and full bellies, Leyla reminded us of the early start for day number 2 (and to not be late, or…).

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DAY 2 | November 12th, 2017

Beach clean up with Afroz Shah

Day 2 of UnSchool Mumbai started off with the fellows sharing their ‘thing’ they brought from home with the group. There were pandan cakes, handmade brass objects, Malaysian wood print blocks, handwoven saris. The varied backgrounds of the group made for such a fascinating culinary and visual show and tell of diversity and culture.

Afterwards, we went straight into a deep-dive workshop into systems thinking with Leyla. She walked through the main concepts of systems explorations, systems dynamics and how they can be applied to complex problem solving and day-to-day life. The group collectively mapped the 3 interconnected systems at play in the world, then Myrthe facilitated the systems mapping session where small groups explored a critical social system.

Once we had pushed our brains into the realm of systems thinking, we filled our bellies with platefuls of delicious veggies cooked up by the team to charge-up for what was to become an incredibly adventurous afternoon.

We gathered outside Of10 eagerly waiting for what would come next. Priyam, our local producer (UnSchool Alumni from Berlin Fellowship) had managed to make some transport logistics magic happen. Now quickly becoming a new UnSchool tradition of frizzle-esque transportation, we got onto an old BEST bus, which would otherwise be functioning as a Mumbai public transportation bus.

This was a crazy surprise to some of our local fellows, who experienced a bus ride in an entirely new light. There were gasps of shock that it was even possible to hire a BEST bus, and shared stories of extremely packed buses and the gender segregation norms they were breaking by sitting on the ‘other side’.

The bus rattled along many Mumbai streets to our final destination of Versova beach, where we met Afroz Shah - fellow UNEP Champion of the Earth - who for 108 weeks has been running the world’s biggest beach clean up. Afroz has cleaned an impressive 5 million kilos of waste together with an incredible collection of locals, school kids and Bollywood stars (amongst others).

Our group of 22 added to over 200 people from all walks of life cleaning the beach. We joined school children, the local mayor and international guests and people from the UN environment program who were shooting a video as part of the global #beatpollution campaign.

We all eagerly donned the recently donated reusable gloves and got right to work, digging deep into the sand to find layers of plastic waste. Everyone was instantly shocked by the incredible amount of plastic bags, sauce packets, tiny lids and other unidentifiable bits of plastic impregnated into the beach. There were even old backpacks, shirts and shoes pulled from the sand. The clean up can only be performed during the low tide, but once you start it's hard to stop. Even as the water started to creep back in around our ankles, we were all busy working together to free the plastic debris from the grips of the packed sand. We talked about the lack of anything else we could find, such as shells or other beach life you are used to seeing. We looked along the the shoreline into the uncleaned part of the beach and saw mounds of trash, much of it being brought down to the ocean from the seven local rivers that connect to it.

After all the cleaning, we were invited to join Afroz and his many volunteers at his house for chai and dinner. As we sat around his home, we heard the inspiring story of Afroz’s passion for clean oceans, stories of the local volunteers who have helped him create a global movement, and the many people who have learned to love nature as a result of doing the simple act of cleaning.

There was magic in the air as we shared our own experience and discussed how such a massive problem can be addressed by taking small actions, and by how using your own two hands you can literally change the world. To add to the magic, we then sat down to the most incredible south Indian feast served on banana leaves cooked by Afroz and his neighbour Mona (with the very effective help from some of our fellows). The community of incredible volunteers fed us till we were beyond full of delicious food. This glorious day and evening ended with a bang --- Just as we were saying our farewells, our hosts popped on a song  called Leila Leila (yes because of Leyla) and Mona insisted on a bollywood dance fest with her and Leyla leading everyone into a mini mosh pit of dancing, clapping and hugging. And just like that, we hugged our new friends and jumped back on our awaiting BEST bus for the long Mumbai night ride home.

On the bus ride back, it was time to reflect and process this crazy and activating day. Humbling, satisfying, inspiring, full, grateful, light were some of the words that fellows used to describe their experience of the day. Myrthe then asked everyone to pair up and spend the ride home sharing our stories of why we had felt that way as the bustle of this beautiful chaotic city whizzed past our windows and reminded us of just how amazing this world is.

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DAY 3 | November 13th, 2017

Day 3 kicked off with a question-filled breakfast where fellows found a small card on their plates and were asked to chat with others around the key question. Zubin Sharma, our mentor for the morning, had planted these prompts as food for thought and a great introduction to his morning session.

Zubin started off by sharing his personal journey from growing up in upstate New York to living and running Project Potential in Bihar (in eastern India). His personal story of discovering his purpose and passion provided the foundation for his session on exploring and understanding our own individual purpose on why we do what we do. He asked the group to pair off and ask each other 5 key questions: Who am I? What do I do? Who do I do it for/with? What do they need? How do they change as a result?

Then the fellows quickly developed a purpose statement in 10 words or less, and shared them back further distilling their vision for their personal change-making career. Zubin shared some magic tips to power them up:

1. Use the silence

2. Speak every word

3. Make sure everyone is with you

Kindness, passion, transition, action and sustainability were all recurring themes in the purpose statements shared by the fellows. Constructive feedback loops within the group increased the strength and conviction behind these statements, making them extremely powerful and convincing.

We then continued to bring our personal stories into a public narrative, to find new ways of framing the stories that engage and activate others. Zubin’s session ended with a reflection on how to tell human stories with dignity and respect, and how personal experiences form the base of powerful stories.

The conversations continued through lunch, a tasty and colourful spread of vegan Indian food made locally by a magician of a chef (she uses no oil, and we could not figure out how she added so much flavour!). Fully charged, we ran through a spontaneous mini workshop with Leyla, who built on the morning session and provided tools to create our own theories of change.

The afternoon sessions kicked off with a visit from Madhuvanti, Design Director of Taxi Fabric, who shared her story as a textile and product designer creating collaboration opportunities for artists. Her organization matches taxi drivers and local artists together to design the interior of taxis with fabrics that tell stories about the city. We learned about their business model, methods, and had thoughtful conversations about culturally influenced branding.

Then it was time for afternoon chai and a ridiculously funny game of biscuit toss that filled the space with laughter and energy as we tried to toss cookie pieces into each other’s mouths. The afternoon progressed into a deep-dive workshop with mentor Dagny Tucker, CEO and founder of Vessel, where we dissected cultural norms, structural violence, the impacts of industrialization, and were given tools to identify leverage points for intervention.

Dagny led the group into the root cause of un-sustainability, connecting it to the industrial revolution and the deep-seated need for conspicuous consumption. We discussed opportunities through social life cycle assessment, and she offered thought-provoking examples of the social and environmental impacts of everyday things like shoes and hand sanitizer.  

The next session, led by co-host Sri, started off with the fellows asking uncomfortable questions to other. This was an experience designed to demonstrate the sensitivities of social research, and to ponder how as researchers we can be less intrusive, more empathic and ethical in how we get to the needed insights. Human beings don’t always do what they say they do, and researchers need to find ways of identifying the actual rather than conceived data. Sri shared some interesting case studies from her work as a Behavior Architect and then introduced the topic of gamification in anticipation for a fun challenge that would be offered later in the evening.

At this point, the group was extremely cognitively stimulated (and maybe a little overloaded!), so we stepped outside where our other co-host, Myrthe, facilitated a reflection session. She focused on constructing the various components discussed during the day and the emotion felt around it. The nature of the session, augmented with the outside space, brought back all the warmth, energy and joy - just enough for Leyla to challenge them to a challenge! ;) Yes! The day was not over yet as the fellows accepted Leyla’s challenge to create a gamified experience in an allocated local neighborhood, in two hours.

The group was split up into smaller groups and each provided with a specific area on the map, a few fun limitations (like only one person in the group can talk, no transport can be used, etc), and various budgets. This was to enable the fellows to apply their learnings on research, systems thinking and gamification to design an experience.

The two hours flew by and each group eagerly shared the bones of their ‘game plan’, to be discussed in more detail on... Day 4 of #UnSchoolMB.

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DAY 4 | November 14th, 2017

An action-packed day in the field meant an early 7am start for #UnSchoolMB. As the last fellow sneaked in the back of our awesome BEST bus in an attempt to avoid the (often rather embarrassing) consequences of breaking the don’t-be-late-rule, we headed out for a series of experiences.

En route, Leyla and co-host, Sri, led a feedback session reflecting on the mini-gamification challenge from the night before. We were entertained as we talked through all the motivations and game mechanics that were drawn upon to create the gamified experiences, while balancing ourselves on the moving bus. Designing games that make change is not as easy as you think it might be, and the fellows helped to dissect the ways in which games can have a positive learning experience.

At the peak of the morning city bustle, we arrived at Mumbai Dhobi Ghat: The World’s Largest Open-Air Washerman Colony and were met by our insightful guides, Suraj, Hitesh and Jatin from Reality Tours & Travels. Before leaving the bus, Leyla took the fellows through ways of respectfully engaging with people in their own community, while seeking to gain insights and understanding. With open minds, we followed the local experts from Reality Tours (an ethical tour company that hires local guides and donates 80% of their profits to educational initiatives in Mumbai's slums) into the Dhobi Ghat.

Home to over 7,000 washermen (or Dhobis), the dhobis clean, scrub, bleach and iron (with an iron heated by coals!) an estimated one million items a day. Their clients include hotels, clubs, caterers, garment retailers and neighborhood laundries. Traditionally, the washing has always been done in concrete washing basins, however in recent years, some wealthier Dhobis have invested in large washing and drying machines, halving the colony’s population. Further automatization is expected, and concern for the subsequent reduction in jobs is a big concern throughout the community.

Manoeuvring between the washing cubicles, fast-spinning tumble dryers, and endless lines of drying garments (in a unique clothespin-free way), we observed a tight-knit community that works and lives in tight spaces. In this incredibly complex city within a city, temples, kitchens, sleeping areas, shops and services blend together in a highly tolerant and interconnected space.

Next we were hosted by Dharavi Diary, founded by Nawneet Ranjan and guided by a mission to empower Mumbai youth, especially girls and women, living on the fringes of urban & rural lower income communities. Through STEAM learning, storytelling and skill-building, they quickly develop skills to become innovative leaders.

We were welcomed by their warm and hospitable students, who guided us through Dharavi (Asia’s second largest slum) showing us several of the hundreds of waste recycling micro-businesses that receive thousands of tons of used plastic, paper, metals and other materials every month to break down and resell. We witnessed ‘jugaad’ in action (the Hindi word describing hacks and workarounds to find flexible solutions), along with the incredible amount of material that we consume, and then have to deal with on a daily basis.

After a locally prepared lunch with the students, served on plates made of leaves, we created mixed groups of UnSchool fellows and Dharavi Diary students to explore the contrasts, challenges and opportunities that we engaged with during the day.

The groups delved into some of the complex realities faced by the people who live in Dharavi, using a systems thinking approach. Together, we explored environmental issues, education, gender inequality, women in leadership, social work and adventure. New insights and beautifully articulated, creative, possible solutions were presented by the groups as they collaborated to gain a deeper understanding of the social and environmental complexities surrounding us. The afternoon session filled us with awe, humility and hope, as we hugged goodbye (for now), and traded contact information with our new Dharavi Diary friends.

Day 4 of #UnSchoolMB was full of new perspectives, fresh insights, and a whirlwind of emotions. We were tired and reflective as we made our way through the ever-present Mumbai traffic… until an impromptu dance party got us jumping around the aisles of the BEST bus as we wove our way through the evening light.

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DAY 5 | November 15th, 2017

Day 5 kicked off with a breakfast-of-champions panel led by Leyla and Emma, and accompanied by three incredibly inspiring local change-makers:

• Perses (Envision,  Earthsoul india and Converging World) develops multiple projects to fight climate change and create positive environmental interventions at a macro level. Among many things, he has developed compostable plastics, is prototyping a Graphene battery for electric cars, a spray that re-nourishes the organisms in the ocean and a program that involves re-foresting Tamil Nadu via wind farm investment.

• Nishi works with Akaar Innovations, a hybrid social enterprise with 2 main initiatives - one which makes affordable compostable sanitary napkins in micro factories run by and for women, and an education arm that increases hygiene awareness, dismantles taboos, and normalizes menstruation (#FreedomFromShame).

• Nimish has developed a clothing and accessory brand, Shift, that makes beautiful artisanal products with a range of sustainable and traditional materials, end of line fabrics, and smart cutting to minimize waste. Remnants left over from cutting are turned into blankets, while fibers left over from blankets are turned into paper. Nimish works with regional artisans from all over India who operate their own small home productions to both support and grow craft traditions while working towards a circular production system.

After a short snack and coffee break, Sonia Manchanda from Spread took the fellows on a dream catching journey. Sonia has developed a methodology, Dream:In, that maps dreams, moving away from immediate needs towards expanding possibilities. She feels strongly that by looking beyond immediate needs, we look to create something that actually fulfills deeper needs and takes the future into account. Working towards your own dreams and connecting to other people's dreams is part of her approach to creating systems that provide equitable opportunities. She aims to sensitize society, to catalyze solutions and to demonstrate results by mobilizing talent and resources.

The fellows went on to uncover each other’s dreams, putting the Dream:In tool into practice. The tool probed us to dig further towards our underlying social impact dreams. Captured on video, the dreams were shared over a wholesome lunch of pasta, vegetables, salads and dips cooked by the UnSchool Team.

Inspired and activated we kicked off our last session with our mentor, Dagny, who asked the fellows to reflect on the experiences of the previous day in 10 words. Tangential word clusters came out of this exercise and included community, connection, chaos, inspiration and learning. The various word clusters brought to light how the same experiences impact each individual differently. This exploration of the plurality of experience triggered the fellows to delve into deeper thoughts on perspectives and possibilities.

Dagny advanced this self-reflective session to a structured reflection on the impact of the individual projects that the fellows are working on in their lives. They were mentored to dig deep about the impact of their projects on the environment through the UN Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA). This 20 minute exercise enabled each participant to create connections in their work, through the lens of sustainability. To round out the session, the fellows heard about Dagny’s project Vessel - stainless steel mugs based on a library system where subscribers pick up and drop off their mugs at convenient participating coffee shops - a disruptive solution to the environmental issue of paper cups.

To bring together the themes of the day, our co-host Myrthe asked the fellows to write a letter to their future selves (which she will mail them one year from today!). She invited them to write in the context of having achieved their social impact dreams, and how this fellowship had contributed to that process --- a memento of their Unschool-ing experience. Reading their own letters one year from now will offer them deeper insights on their growth post Unschool, the struggles they had to overcome to achieve their positive impact dreams, and the sweet spots along the way. Reminding ourselves of the roots of where we started is an inspirational light to motivate further progress.

Setting the stage for the final fellowship challenge, Leyla led the fellows through an interactive session on the Disruptive Design Method (DDM), recounting the experiences throughout the week and exploring the DDM approaches of Mining, Landscaping & Building.

Then with activated brains, the fellows participated in a fun mini-quest designed by our local producer, Priyam. The quest: a hunt for glass, wood, fabric and metal treasures. Contained within the hidden treasures was key information about the challenge teams. Embracing the gamified tactic, the teams found each other and began to identify their problem arena for the final challenge that will culminate the fellowship week. That’s it for Day 5. #UnSchoolMB needs to rest up and recharge those brain cells for the upcoming 24 Hour Design Challenge.

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DAY 6 & 7 | November 16 & 17, 2017

The Design Challenge Day is here! Every UnSchool Fellowship involves a unique design challenge that requires the fellows to participation in a time-crunched challenge where they apply the knowledge they gained throughout the week. In line with the themes we’ve explored this week, they worked with their group to choose a problem arena encountered during the week that they were passionate about diving into.

Team 1 decided to look at dispelling culturally influenced myths around menstruation, Team 2 chose to address the issue of fast fashion, Team 3 explored fostering curiosity, and Team 4 addressed closing communication gaps between generations.

The teams were asked to look at the issues through the week’s overarching theme of collaborative community engagement for positive social and environmental change. With the offer of a possibility to present at the DIF Festival the following week, the fellows had extra motivation to dig deep and present an idea with substance and potential real world impact.

The challenge day witnessed our fellows excitedly getting more deeply immersed into systems mapping, observational research, landscaping, synthesizing, prototyping and documenting. They drew from all the resources at hand, even going out into the public and interviewing people on the street and UnSchool team members about all manner of topics. They worked late into the night, fueled by samosas and Pao Bhaji, a Mumbai specialty.

The next morning, the fellows grabbed some breakfast and finalized their sketches, taking turns practicing their pitches with Leyla. In these practice sessions, Leyla shared her tactic knowledge on how to create engaging and evocative presentations that help share your vision with the audience. She helped the quieter of our community find their voices and the nervous ones see the excitement in their time on stage. 

To draw on the inclusive, collaborative and diverse themes of the week, the judging panel took the shape of a peer review format. Seats were assigned to represent Community Stakeholders, Social Impact Feasibility, and The Environment, with each fellow offered the opportunity to rotate seats and view the presentations through each of the lenses.

The intense week of collaboratively engaged initiatives provided inspiration and support, as each team did an incredible job with their ideas. The scoring was close - in one case only 1% difference! - and a final winner was selected. With such close scores, however, we were all the appreciative recipients of hearing about positively impactful projects with both heart and substance.

The fellowship week thus came to an end with the popping of a giant bottle of bubbles, music, delicious dumplings, and handmade gifts passed around, along with hugs and a few happy tears. Cohost Myrthe transitioned us into a final group session as the fellows reflected on big learning revelations, needs & wishes, and most memorable moments. The entire group then turned inward with an X map activity to identify how to move forward on their personal projects from here.

In the final moments, we gathered in a circle to offer thank yous, gratitude, love, availability for collaborations and acknowledgments of the week’s impact on each of us. Leyla and the team also offered themselves up as peer mentors if any of the fellows wanted help moving forward with their challenge projects. With inspired hearts, we drew out the goodbyes (or see-you-laters) for as long as possible and finally parted ways - now all part of the UnSchool Alumni family.

See you at the next UnSchool creative change-making adventure!

Meet the Mumbai Fellows!

UNSCHOOL MUMBAI

EMERGING LEADERS FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

NOVEMBER 11 - 17, 2017

The Unschool's 8th Emerging Leaders Fellowship Program is happening on November 11th!

READ ABOUT OUR INCREDIBLE COHORT THEN STAY TUNED TO HEAR ABOUT WHAT WE GET UP TO DURING OUR WEEK TOGETHER.

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MEET OUR MUMBAI FELLOWS

Meet the incredible #UNSCHOOLMB cohort of creative rebels and change agents who will join us in MUMBAI,INDIA from 7 different countries!

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COHORT #8

abhinav dey

Abhinav is a maker at heart. He has been running a sustainable livelihoods design enterprise since 2016, Freedesign, based out of rural Bangalore. His design-thinking initiatives include creating and running rural makerspaces, co-creating assistive devices with differently abled, designing water conserving farming methods and designing handicrafts products with vegetables. He has been supported by India Inclusion Foundation, Plus Trust Foundation, International Development Innovation Network, Fab Lab Network, Red Cross (Geneva).

Amy Milhinch

Amy is determined to die well, having lived well. From Adelaide, Australia, she has been a begrudging designer, until just recently where her designer's role seems to have grown some new and interesting arms. Amy's drivers are a commitment to beauty and excellence, a probe for deeper meaning and human/universal connection, and a deep love for nature.

 

Anupreeta Agate

Anupreeta is a product designer and papercut artist with a passion for problem solving and understanding human behavior. With a degree in Product Design from National Institute of Design, India, Anupreeta is exploring the vast field of interdisciplinary design and how it can contribute to adding value to people’s lives. She is currently practicing as a UX designer and has worked on several enterprise projects belonging to various domains. Having worked on projects with themes such as energy systems and design for differently abled people, Anupreeta’s goal is to utilize her design thinking skills & knowledge as a catalyst for positive, social change.

Camila Olmedo Mendez

Camila is passionate about women empowerment and water, and curious about models that can solve social and environmental issues. She thinks that by connecting the dots of our collective intentions, skills and talents, we can create something of greater impact. Her goal is to bring social business to Bolivia and Latin America by disrupting traditional models and creating sustainability. She believes that human beings never stop evolving and need exposure to environments of continuous learning and growth. Through her work with an Austin, Texas nonprofit that implements integrated community development in rural Ethiopia with water, health, education and micro-finance projects, she has learned the importance of including community participation and the validity of data integrity. Camila currently works as cofounder of the organization, Start Americas Together, with the mission to connect the entire continent of America to empower youth to take action and make social and environmental impact. She is also founder of El Agua Es Oro, a project aimed to bring water to the peri-urban area of Cochabamba, Bolivia by re-inserting women leadership roles in the community.

James da Costa

James is passionate about people, technology and social good. He is a Co-Founder of Mandala Group, where he serves as Head of Community. Mandala Group creates socially beneficial mobile applications, connecting low-income and rural communities to essential services such as finance, healthcare and education. Mandala Group has created six Impact apps, including a marketplace app for coconut farmers in Kenya and an education app that enables illiterate mothers to read to their children in India. James loves traveling to unique locations to challenge his own ideas and perceptions, including his travels to Mongolia, Zimbabwe and North Korea.

Kaitlin Hopkins

Kaitlin is an Australian multidisciplinary designer with extensive experience in the education, arts and culture, and not-for-profit sectors. After graduating with a Bachelor of Design (Interior Design) from the University of Technology, Sydney, Kaitlin went on to further specialist studies in visual communication design, obtaining a Masters degree at RMIT University. Her research projects involved using design for good by exploring ways to use spatial design as a tool to better integrate refugees into Australia as well as investigating whether geographic location and socioeconomic status have an impact on a student’s creativity. Kaitlin has worked on a large variety of projects from interpretive and exhibition design, to working with not-for-profit organisations, educational institutions, arts organisations and small businesses that believe in using design for good. She was instrumental in the creation, brand identity and store design for the world’s first pop-up philanthropy store, Impact Giving. Kaitlin is passionate about using design as a powerful tool to enrich, educate and encourage us to lead more thought provoking and socially responsible lives. In 2012 Kaitlin dove headfirst into freelance work (alongside full-time work) on a quest to discover and challenge the power of design in local and regional communities, and hopes to expand this into a full-time career in the near future. Kaitlin also believes in the power of skill sharing and collaboration and dedicates time to mentoring young designers.

Kunal Kanase

"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." - Max Planck. Kunal is a true change agent who embraces challenges and turns them into opportunities. He is a lifelong fanatic learner with eclectic interests. He tries to perceive nature more deeply and in original ways through STEAM learning and strives to cultivate the same approach among students by facilitating learning at the Dharavi Diary learning center. Kunal was born and raised with an alcoholic father and a housewife mother in Dharavi, Mumbai. He was the first generation to pursue engineering studies, however, due to practical reasons and adverse situations in family, he dropped out university education. In those challenging times he discovered learning as a fantastic process to examine and understand the problems he was facing. He developed a passion to find the roots of things through research and critical thinking. Kunal became a hard-core MOOC-learner, and now approaches multi-potentiality through online learning. He is currently involved in the Slum Innovation Project called Dharavi Diary. Kunal enjoys music, art, and philosophy, and loves to find beauty and wonder in the realms of the known and unknown.

Lymun Loo

Lymun is a lifelong scout, who enjoys the outdoors, exploring new places and building things. For the past 5 years Lymun has been immersed in Ecocentric Transitions a social enterprise focused at raising environmental empathy through experiential workshops and projects. Through Ecocentric, Lymun explores farms, hand building and is in involved with a community movement in his neighborhood. Having experienced how each community of practice can become disconnected to others, Ecocentric aims to socialize the values of sustainable communities and environmental conservation through individual and collective action. Lymun feels strongly that people need to see the big picture and understanding the impact of our consumption on the environment, be equipped to effect change, and work together in developing new positive behaviors. He is exploring the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ through appropriate technology and community groups.

Rudri Mankad

Rudri is a computer engineer from Mumbai. An ardent advocate of sustainability, she has been doing her bit for the field in small ways, but now wishes to dedicate her work for the cause. She loves a good challenge and wants to contribute to building a world wherein living sustainably and ethically is the order of the day. Rudri is an idealist and believes that everyone must be unwaveringly responsible towards any task, however insignificant it may seem, for it is the small things that add up to make a difference. She enjoys numbers, reading, philosophy and badminton.

Shubham Shreya

Shubham is a graduate from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, specializing in Communication Design. She's a Certified Usability Analyst from Human Factors International. Her keen interest in systems and service design lead her to UI/UX. Through design Shubham hopes to impact the lives of people in little and big ways. Her go-to medium of expression is still pen and paper. In her spare time, she enjoys singing and binging on Netflix. She aspires to travel as much as she can and surround herself by dogs, love and beautiful things. Shubham is committed to petting as many dogs as she can find and hopes to set up a foundation where she can help animals and the ecosystem in the future. What gets her out of bed every morning is the belief that things can change for the better and that she can be an integral part of making it happen

Tirtha Gandhi

Tirtha grew up in Gujarat and has a background in visual communication. She is passionate about art, design, new experiences, exploring diverse cultures and loves to visit local museums, exhibitions and conferences in her spare time. As a designer, she is currently working at a Mumbai-based design studio that focuses on working in the cultural, social, medical, educational and environmental zones. In the past 3 years she has contributed to a range of projects of varying scales, including the making of a book documenting experiences and conversations at the Kumbh Mela, the largest faith gathering on earth. The scope of this work involved content structuring, book design, information design interventions and curatorial engagement. Tirtha is interested in sustainable and community driven practices, which she hopes to pursue with the tools and connections she’ll gain at the UnSchool.

Umang Sood

From Mumbai, India, Umang’s passions are centred around helping people find their purpose through community and cooperation. Umang is the co-founder at of10, where he hopes to introduce India to the concept of a connected workspace and to the power of networking by creating a synergistic hub for ambitious freelancers, entrepreneurs and early stage businesses. Interested in design, art, music and technology, Umang, plans on harnessing the inherent creativity in these fields and unleashing new products, services and initiatives. With a passion for driving brands to success, Umang keeps a close watch on the emerging Indian consumer landscape. In his spare time, he watches an unhealthy amount of TV shows and strives to push the sartorial limits for men with his ever-expanding collection of pink apparel.

Xander Ong

Leading through serving communities, Xander has the privilege to provide healthcare solutions for many segments of society. He dives deep into complexities in search of connections that co-create value and identity. He believes that positive change comes from connecting and bridging hearts within and between communities. Currently with a senior care organization, Xander leads internal teams and collaborative partnerships to advance care outcomes and business opportunities. He is also active in the startup scene in Singapore, and mentors at an accelerator program to co-design solutions for the future.

Yesha Shah

Yesha is a 23 year old architect from Mumbai. People, space and design excite her. She enjoys traveling and views it as an opportunity to observe different cities and their social structures and to understand how the cities and their people live. Traveling across the various parts of India and across the world has shown Yesha that technologic advancements, despite their advantages, have negatively affected cities.  She finds that cities have become efficient machines but more often than not, have failed to cater to human beings and their desires, while also adversely affecting the environment. This understanding has inspired her to rethink the role of architecture in society beyond that of just designing buildings. She aims to focus her work as an architect to design better social systems, using human-centered design and a design-based approach to create solutions which meet social needs and make cities livable for humans as humans. Yesha aspires to work towards starting a social enterprise which works for and with people to design better places to live, work and to enjoy a public life.

San Francisco Fellowship

April 23- 28, 2017

Meet Our San Francisco Fellows!

The Unschool's seventh fellowship program started on Sunday April 23rd! Meet the incredible #UNSCHOOLSF cohort of creative rebels and change agents, who join us in SAN FRANCISCO, USA, from 8 different countries!

Cohort #7

Abigail Mapua-Cabanilla

Abi is a seeker with a profound mission to build new models that change the status quo, in a world filled with broken systems and inequality. Her founding and establishment of the Hub of Innovation For Inclusion (HIFI), a university-based social innovation space and incubator is a testament to this mission. Abi's practice in the fields of environmental science and social design exposed her to the key importance of listening and empathizing with the needs and values of people.  Her work in academia in the areas of social design and sustainability presented her with the opportunity to cross-pollinate across disciplines, involve students and faculty, and facilitate collaboration and co-creation with communities and their very real challenges. Abi is also Co-Founder and Sustainability Driver at KindMind, an experience design laboratory that helps organizations grow by creating brand moments for their users. Abi is a regular speaker and facilitator of human-centered innovation among universities and corporate partners.

Aleesha Rodriguez

As a passionate abstract and critical thinker, Aleesha questions everything and loves to problem-solve. Her big, burning, world-changing passion is understanding the intersection between ecology, digitality, and economics, with a focus on understanding the discourse and narratives that stakeholders produce to initiate the mitigation of the climate crisis.

Aleesha holds multiple degrees in Ancient History/History, Studies of Religion, and Sociology. Her thesis sought to identify how environmental crowdfunding projects (ECFPs) discursively construct environmental issues on the web 2.0 crowdfunding platform, IndieGoGo, analyzing whether these constructions influenced the success or failure of the environmental projects. Outside of academia Aleesha is a cyclist, a traveller, and an advocate of Effective Altruism, which is about being generous yet diligent with one's time and money to do the most social good.

Alejandra Gomez

Alejandra is an infinitely curious internationalist with a passion for developing strategies that promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth. As an industrial analyst and journalist, Alejandra has conversations with CEOs of leading mining and infrastructure companies, NGOs and strategic governmental authorities. The information is collected and compiled into annual reviews that are unique in the market.

Alejandra currently lives in Mexico City where she graduated with a double major in international relations and business administration. She was raised in Eugene, Oregon in the United States and has a background in leadership training, activism and human rights advocacy. Her passion for change and community organizing motivated her to join an Oregon Latino youth leadership academy named Juventud Faceta at the age of 16. During the program, she was invited to be a board member for the immigrant rights NGO, Amigos Multicultural Services, that organizes the training. She taught social justice workshops at regional and national student conferences, organized cultural and fundraising events, helped develop strategic annual plans and objectives for the NGO and promoted higher education among latinx youth in the community. With increasing interest in Mexico to create better and more sustainable projects, Alejandra seeks to strengthen the connection between social, governmental and private spheres to promote healthier economic growth. She aims to find a middle ground between her experience in the activist arena and in the private sector, to open a social enterprise that can help companies and organizations close the gaps in the country through creativity and innovation.

Amanda Grossman

Amanda lives in and works for the City of Santa Monica in California. For the past two years she has worked in the Office of Sustainability and the Environment with a team of ambitious individuals that strive to set trends and be leaders in the field of sustainability.

Along with sustainability and the environment, Amanda also has a passion for learning about human behavior and how it relates to sustainability, and is working towards a certificate in Sustainability and Behavior Change. She believes in the capacity to significantly reduce negative human impact on the environment by changing behavior (such as diet) from the bottom-up, and because of the urgency of the situation, she wants to activate people and communities now. Her particular areas of interest are sustainable food, food waste, and waste in general. One of her personal goals is to live a zero waste lifestyle.

Douglas Sovonick

Doug’s ultimate goal is to utilize his talents to spread the gospel of sustainability and positively impact our environmental condition. He is a partner and Chief Creative Officer at Deskey, a branding firm in Cincinnati. Presently he and a small group of environmentally conscious people inside Deskey are establishing a branding practice using biomimicry as inspiration to create branding executions that are earth friendly. He lives in a five acre urban oasis in Dayton, Kentucky where he and his wife create art from up-cycled objects.

Drew Robinson

Drew is an educator, a web developer, and a problem-solver. Drew believes that when we approach life with a solution-oriented, growth mindset, we can change the world for the better and is especially passionate about the power of education and is committed to helping teachers improve their practice, advancing educational technology in classrooms, and teaching computer coding to kids and adults. Drew is a Google Certified Trainer and has been awarded the 2016 Oklahoma PBS Digital Innovator, and the 2017 Tulsa StartUp Series - Tech/App Division Winner.

Ellen Kim

Ellen is a peace worker and a human worker with a passion for cultivating wholeness, awareness and connectivity. She holds a Masters in Sustainable Peace Through Sport from the University for Peace and is working towards her Masters in Peace, Development, Security and International Conflict Transformation from the UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies at the University of Innsbruck. She has spent the last six years working, traveling and studying around the world, including living in Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, France, Austria and Thailand. Having worked on grassroots capacity-building projects, as well as with the United Nations, Ellen is curious to better understand the structural factors that lead us to collectively create and perpetuate fractured systems. She would like to explore the intersection between the transpersonal and the political, working to unfold the full human potential in order to re-imagine and transform today’s ecological, social and spiritual divides.

Emily Teng

Raised in Jakarta, Melbourne and Singapore, Emily was inspired from a young age to serve the needs of the community around her. Perpetually in motion, Emily is passionate about all her causes. Her infectious energy resonates far and wide, especially within the communities she has touched. ‘Awesome’ is not just her favorite word but her mantra. It is used to describe everything and everyone. What gets her out of bed every day is the drive to help youth realise their own inner ‘awesome-ness’ and potential to change the world.

Emily is known in Singapore as the “Chief of Awesome”. She currently delivers a program called Beyond Awesome to at-risk students, providing education and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities through work experience and training. Emily’s achievements have been recognised by Yahoo! Singapore 9 Awards, Cosmopolitan Singapore’s ‘Fun Fearless Female’, Singapore International Foundation’s Young Social Entrepreneur Program, the GOOD 100 Global Change-maker and 2017 Australia-ASEAN Emerging Leader run by the Australian Government in partnership with AsiaLink.

James Sarria

James' passions are centered around people and communities.  His professional experiences are focused on designing initiatives for global social change, education reform and building innovative programs to address the most urgent issues facing society. James has life experience all over the United States, Mexico, every country in Central America, several in South America, and Kenya.  His experiences are focused on sustainable agriculture, climate change, agroforestry, and conservation research initiatives.

For the last 8 years, James has been immersed in the work of the Level Playing Field Institute, developing, defining, experimenting and building out the Summer Math & Science Honors Academy in preparation to scale the program nationally.Through his current graduate program in Sustainable Food Systems, James is focused on building sustainable food systems in the United States through leveraging technology, education, and entrepreneurship to drive initiatives for social change. James has a rescue pet ball python, dances afro-Brazilian rhythms, and loves making pesto.

Jessica Bellamy

Jessica graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Louisville with degrees in Drawing (BFA), Graphic Design (BFA), Pan African Studies (BA), and a minor in Communication. As a former Neurodevelopmental Science research analyst at UofL, Jessica now runs her own business that combines grassroots organizing, research, and information graphics. She is the owner of GRIDS: The Grassroots Information Design Studio.  

GRIDS is a for-profit research and design agency that creates works that support social justice initiatives. Their clients are generally nonprofits, social change organizations, and community groups. GRIDS uses an inclusive business model that allows them to provide a wide range of services on a sliding scale. In addition to data collection, data organization, and visual storytelling services, GRIDS offers consultations and workshops on Community Engagement, Access to Information, and Design in Social Justice.  

Matthew Bakker

Matt is from Brisbane, Australia and has a background in Environmental Science. He has worked on projects such as the ‘Healthy Country’ program which aimed to reduce sediment from agricultural land from entering the creeks and streams and eventually ending up in our coastal bays. The implementation of this project used sustainable management practices and took a whole systems approach to improving agricultural land across South East Queensland.

Currently Matt is contracted to work with recognized Aboriginal Groups, who are connected to the land they identify with as the traditional custodians. His primary role involves capturing and implementing effective management processes recommended by the Aboriginal Groups representatives, to protect and preserve cultural heritage attributes that may be impacted by development.

Additionally, over the last year Matt started an urban farm project with a colleague selling their produce directly to the local community through a farm gate stall and local buyers groups. Using his farm as a platform, Matt’s interest with this venture is in improving the sustainability of the urban environment with a particular interest in local food, power production, increasing water quality, reducing air pollution, improving urban flora and fauna and local economies. His goal is to create not only sustainable hubs within the community, but also broader collaborations to proactively help tackle these issues.

Meredith Reynolds

Meredith is a project manager and social design strategist who currently resides in Detroit, Michigan. She is passionate about engaging in projects that promote positive systemic social change. Currently she works on capacity building, marketing & communications, and project management for the Detroit Revitalization Fellows, a program of Wayne State University.

A graduate of Michigan State University, she started her career by working to advance public policy initiatives for nonprofits statewide at the Michigan Nonprofit Association. After this, she oversaw fundraising at AIDS Walk Detroit, raising over $195,000 to fund HIV awareness, prevention and education efforts across metro Detroit. Meredith also served as an account manager for Digerati, a triple-bottom-line IT company located in downtown Detroit that utilizes technology to address talent retention in Michigan. In her spare time, Meredith enjoys riding her bike through Detroit, finding good restaurants to try and picking new cities to visit.

Myrthe Lanting

Myrthe is an idealist and a lover of all things food, India, mind-boggling conversations and unexpected perspectives. She has an educational background in Textile Design and Design Cultures and works for a social startup, Starters4Communities, that helps young graduates kickstart their value-driven careers, and amplifies the impact of community-driven projects. She is fascinated by the idea of design as a “push activity” towards better futures, and is on a mission to design and scale better processes instead of purely looking for solutions to the problems at hand. Her main interest currently lies in urban food systems.

Nicholas Cobb

Nicholas builds on his humble roots to lead and align people around a common purpose of positive impact, and shared values for growth and progress. He strives to amplify his individual power by empowering others to take on shared challenges. As a young leader, Nicholas feels fortunate to have been able to gain experiences across diverse sectors --- the public sector in the Massachusetts Senate, the private sector within a financial institution and a consulting firm, and the nonprofit sector through his AmeriCorps VISTA service in the greater Los Angeles area --- and he aspires to continue to incorporate such a balance throughout his life. Consciously making the decision to not enter business solely for financial gain, but as a way to find meaningful work and make a positive difference in the world, he believes business and its leaders play a powerful role in shaping society. In his travels to numerous countries, he has seen firsthand that businesses and corporations are often more powerful than governments. These experiences confirmed his own hypothesis that future leaders will be better equipped to tackle the problems of tomorrow by being successful in operating across geographies and sectors today.

Paros Huckstepp

Paros started on the pathway of design at the age of 14 when the woodworking shop at his school was turned into a computer-based design room. Having completed his Bachelor of Design in Architecture in 2012, Paros sidestepped into his career as a landscape architect. This role afforded the opportunity to work closely with architects, interior designers, and property developers – each with their own perspectives and priorities. With the belief that design has the power to change the way people interact with each other and their environment, Paros is investigating, integrating, and initiating positive social change through his work in landscape design.

Rosemary Broad

Rosie is passionate about effecting social change. Originally from Feilding, a small town in New Zealand, she currently works for the Ministry of Health in Wellington where she activates her I passions about improving health outcomes and health care access, particularly for Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand who continue to suffer from an unequal access to resources. She is committed to making positive change and finding different solutions to improve Maori health outcomes.

Rosie is also a keen conservationist who loves a good hike in the mountains and experiencing New Zealand's fantastic wilderness.

Susanne Peterson

Born in Silicon Valley before it was referred to by that name, Susanne came into the world with an abundance of energy, curiosity and heart. She is a natural creator, idea generator and has an immense love of people and possibilities. Susanne is a practical optimist, believing in the potential of our shared humanness to make the world a better place and knowing it’s going to take time. Through a circuitous career path, she found her way to 10+ exciting and successful years in high-tech and then turned her attention, skills, and passion to working with non-profit organizations focused on critical social justice issues (she’d love to tell you about the organizations sometime). She loves “making things happen” and is extremely excited to be part of Unschool San Francisco.

Theresa Edick

Theresa was born and raised in New Hampshire. She attends Colby-Sawyer College, a small liberal arts college where she studies environmental studies and sustainability. Her recent endeavors include exploring the cultures behind sustainability and social change towards environmental impacts. Theresa is a young change-maker with a vision to live a sustainable lifestyle and lead a cultural shift towards sustainability through education and knowledge.

Tibora Girczyc-Blum

Tibora was born with her eyes open. She is an asker-of-questions, a seeker and an adventurer. She likes to make things and take things apart. Tibora finds inspiration from the complexities in the world and is informed through her experiences as a visual artist, educator, entrepreneur, community organizer, creative reuse proponent and world explorer.

Vanina Howan

Vanina is a clothing design graduate from California College of the Arts. During her studies, she focused on sustainable design and was published in 7x7. She currently teaches at CCA and is working on starting her own creative sustainable practice.

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San Fran Day 1 - April 24, 2017

On Sunday, twenty fellows from eight countries descended on the beautiful Yerba Buena Gardens in downtown San Francisco, to kick off the #UnSchoolSF Fellowship, our weeklong emerging leaders program for creative rebels and change agents.

#UnSchoolSF Fellows & Team!

Leyla started the day with some cognitive trickery, challenging Fellows to remember names and facts about everyone in the group, while standing on one leg! By leveling-up the challenge and marrying physical exertion with memory, we’ve etched each other’s names, fears and favorite things into our minds forever.

After getting acquainted, the cohort took a merry march to TechShop, a community-based DIY workshop and fabrication studio. A fantastic tour of the studio, where ideas become reality, got the fellows and team psyched for an inspirationally explosive week.

Getting our saftey gear on for a Techshop SF tour

Techshop tour

We then dove into getting to know each other better with our rapid-fire review of everyone’s lives and passions, using a hacked Pecha Kucha-style format. Cramming a life’s journey into 9 slides and three minutes was a constraints challenge, especially since people with an UnSchool attitude often have more lives than a cat! Aussies are representing hard at this UnSchool fellowship (Leyla, the founder, is from there!), and we also have fellows from the Bay Area, Manila, Mexico City, Detroit, Boston, Oklahoma, Singapore, Vancouver, Kentucky, Amsterdam and New Zealand! There’s a convergence of community and creative change-making in this fantastic group of doers and innovators, with fellows ranging in age from 21 to 60! Life experiences include being a radio DJ in Singapore, studying textile making in India, founding a Makers Space in Manila, launching a community farming business, along with sociology and behavior change degrees. Collectively we’ve traveled the world dozens of times over and engage in a wide range of methodologies to make change happen. Best current job description? “Aspiring beam of light”

Sharing our life in 3 minutes!

Susan shares insights in herself (she can do cartwheles!)

After an hour of getting stoked by our fantastic new friends’ passion for making the world work better for all of us, we rolled right into Leyla’s first session – an overview of ‘sustainability’ at breakneck speed. Reminding us that everything comes from nature at some point, Leyla used awesome stories of humanity’s hubris, like Biosphere 2 (a somewhat disastrous attempt to create a complex ecosystem in a dome) to highlight our dependence on this fragile rock. Introducing us to concepts like fractals and self-similarity (Leyla LOVES triangles), the session ended with the idea of the movement towards the circular economy – a regenerative nature-mimicking global economic system instead of the linear make-use-waste world we’re living in (and destroying). Time to flip the script and change the narrative about conspicuous consumption! Whatever this week holds in store, these fellows are ready!

Tenderloin tour with Del Seymour

For the final act of the day, “the Mayor of the Tenderloin”, Del Seymour, led a walking tour for us covering the history of the famed district, along with his personal relationship with drugs and homelessness and giving back to his community. Fellows saw beautiful and historic locations like UN Plaza, where the United Nations charter was created, and the LEED-certified Federal Building, as well as the Christian Women hotels where single women lived in the 1920s and 1930s in San Francisco if they didn't’ want to “get called a whore.” Since its heyday, the neighborhood has become notorious for drug use and homelessness – a trap Del fell into, and has devoted his life to helping others avoid.

Del founded Code Tenderloin, which helps people with criminal records and drug histories get jobs in tech, as well as The Gubbio Project, which serves as a place for “Sacred Sleep and Sanctuary” for 300 unhoused individuals every day. Clean for nine years and counting, Del’s on multiple boards and works on homelessness for the city of San Francisco. Based on his experience, Del warns local kids “you can’t TRY drugs. They’re stronger than uranium.”

After Del’s thought-provoking and inspiring story, fellows were getting hungry and ready to debrief on the first day’s delights at length, over biryani and saag paneer at Little Delhi.

The week will be full of UnSchool adventures, challenging change-making concepts and community building around how we can each activate our sphere of influence and participating in helping make the future work better for all of us. Stay tuned...!

 

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San Fran Day 2 - April 25, 2017

Day Two kicked off with a deep dive on Systems Thinking, as Leyla guided the fellows through the complex, chaotic and beautiful ways in which systems exist in the world. Complexity is one topic mentioned a lot at the UnSchool, as a tool for understanding and activating change. Our fellows got to experience this first hand as they identified and then mapped out an array of complex systems.

Leyla sharing her wealth of nowldge on systems thinking

The stocks and flows of systems are like the tap and drain in a bathtub. Water stocks the bathtub (or system) from the tap. Water flows out of the system through the drain. When the tap is running, and water is entering the system as a stock, there’s different outcomes depending on the state of the drain. If it’s open and the water can flow out that’s constant - but if the drain is clogged, the water will build up and overflow. There’s a third option, where the drain is clogged and the tap is turned off, maintaining a steady state of a full bathtub. The rate of the tap also matters: is it rushing or dripping? The different possible water pressures is a metaphor for how behavior changes over time - we can’t assume that water will always flow at the same rate, or people or systems will behave statically. Of course, the world is more complicated than a bathtub.

Leyla waxed poetic about the miracle of sprouting lentils as an example of emergence – taking an item that looks dead in the cupboard and introducing water and light to sprout life. That’s the emergent, life-giving property of the conditions.

Systems Mapping exercise

Next, fellows took on a Systems Mapping challenge – choosing topics like nationalism, race, identity, community, and religion.

Granulating these complex concepts down to the next level was the final activity before lunch. Interconnected circles mapping helps to explore and connect the different elements of a system by writing words on individual pieces of paper and then connecting them out across a large circle. This allowed fellows to drill deeper on individual nodes within the systems. UnSchool Day 2 was definitely a crash course in complex, dynamic and interconnected thinking!

Dynamic full table systems mapping!

The team had prepared an incredibly colourful and nutritional smorgasboard of locally sourced yummy vegetables. A few of our fellows said they had never seen so many vegetables in one sitting! #PlantBasedPeoplePower #SoMuchKale

Our first AMAZING UnSchool style vegtable-centric lunch

To fill all the crevasses in our brains and stomachs, we shared stories and snacks after lunch. A fellowship tradition is to bring something from home to share. People always interpret this in beautiful ways - vegan chocolate from Melbourne through to Korean sweets and impossible-to-solve puzzles. We learned about the Coastal Salish loon, how delicious vegan chocolate can be, and that someone always brings maple syrup to a fellowship (this time it was surprisingly not a Canadian).

Fellows share what they brought from home

After delicious treats and conversation, it was time to explore another scintillating subject – Gamification and Game Theory. What makes people want to do things, or avoid them? How can we use cognitive behavior theory to help people achieve better outcomes (whatever that means)? What are the principles of game mechanics, modes, mechanisms, and motivators that we can apply in everyday life? [One anonymous fellow may already be planning exercise interventions for her significant other – watch out, partners!]

NYC Fellowship Alumni, Adam Little leads a session on rapid prototyping

For a final fantastic session, UX designer, UnSchool alum and prototyping master Adam Little (UnSchool NYC alum and UnSchool Berlin Cohost) gave a sessions on the “Five Tips for Prototyping Your Next Great Idea,” followed by a fun and active prototyping design challenge. Six teams were given real local SF businesses with imaginary expansion ideas, and had to develop the prototype pitch using user feedback solicited from other people in the group. With prompts like creating a Nest thermostat service for climate deniers, Blue Apron for Tinder dates, and Lyft for Hummer owners, the prototype challenges were sassy and demanding.

Getting into the prototyping session!

Pitching our prototypes abck to the group

After teams presented their fantastic ideas, it was time to reflect on the day with the cohort. Jessy and Regina used a Mad Libs-inspired format to facilitate the session. (For those of you who haven't had the joy of playing, Mad Libs is a fill-in-the-blanks word game that results in hilarious stories.) One of the winners was “If Cognitive Science had a spirit animal it would be a hedgehog because it’s prickly and amazing.”

Venina and Susan share a monent

Fellows were then split into five groups for the evening’s final activity – dinner together in the Mission district of San Francisco, with a twist! Each team received an envelope with a secret challenge, to be completed and shared with the group tomorrow morning. Can’t wait to find out what these fun folks are tasked to disrupt!.

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San Fran Day 3- April 26, 2017

Day 3 was such a big jam packed day we had to break it up into sections!

Day 3, Part 1: Prototype-Aganza!

We got started by play-testing the gamified prototypes that teams created over dinner the night before. Play-testing is crucial because the way you would play a game isn’t necessarily the way other humans will. Leyla shared that she first designs with herself in mind, how would she play the game, and then tries to create a universal design.

Fellows share their experience game designs

One team’s game started from the assumption that most people don’t like going to work on Monday mornings –  those employees should probably check out UnSchool! Sadness for people’s 9-5 drudgery aside, the team’s intervention asked employees to create engagement ideas that would inspire them. Fellows got into the game, and everything was going swimmingly until it was time to vote for the ‘best’ idea – everyone just voted for their team’s ideas! Leyla called it an “immediate design fail,” pointing out when you design a game like this you have to have a rule like “you can’t vote for yourself, or you have to vote for someone else – because humans will always vote for themselves.”

Another team created a game to help people clean their houses - with a motivator being that your ex-partner is coming to your house for a party in one minute. Four fellows gamely rushed to clean up paper confetti strewn across the floor that represented a ‘mess’ - until the designers started removing participants from the game to add pressure! We learned that next time, we’ll create pressure by adding another rule using our words, instead of physically moving people through space - consent is key when designing behavior change experiments!

It got a little bit weird at one point! This is why playtesting is SO important!

 

Day 3, Part 2: The Future is Already Here

Next, we had a fast-paced session from strategic futurist, gatherer, and mom , Nancy Giordino, who distilled decades of experiential design for the group (she may speak faster than Leyla!).

Nancy’s company #playbig helps visionaries “play bigger”, and was inspired by the quote “Your playing small does not serve the world.” Instead of containing ourselves, Nancy challenged us to reach for the stars with an attitude of “humble audacity” - the winning combination for true leaders of the future.

Mentor Nancy Giordino shares her incredable expiernce with us all

“We’re only 1% into the technological digital shift – it’s like seeing a mountain and not knowing how big it really is.” The next 20 years are going to challenge what it means to be human, and Nancy gave a run-down of some truly amazing people, organizations, and companies that are working on fundamentally shifting the playing field of the world in various ways.

Wondering who the movers and shakers are? Then you should definitely check out People You Need To Know (PYNK)! As Nancy pointed out, “This work is not solo. You have to have friends! Amazing people like Leyla!”

Nancy encouraged us to stay curious and connected as we live through a future of exponential, constant disruption that will challenge most of our assumptions about how the world works. She’s excited to see whether we change our success metrics from “terrible” ones like GDP to a more relationship-driven, circular economy-promoting measurements. “We can serve people or stalk people with these technologies - especially AI!”

She left us with a few questions for consideration. Will ethicists be involved in developing the artificial intelligences of the future? Will inclusion be incorporated? “The choices we make are not agnostic,” so without diverse decision-makers, you end up with catastrophic failures like Siri’s original response to sexual assault questions. More recently, Elon Musk’s OpenAI is going to use Reddit forums to teach AI language -- even though some Reddit feeds contain some terrifying attitudes towards women and minorities. Quoting William Gibson, “the future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed.”

Fellows broke into groups of 3 (triangles again!) and brainstormed “RIFF”s - a list of what Relieves Me, Inspires Me, Frustrates Me, Frightens Me?

Day 3, Part 3: Inclusion & Equity for Civic Change

After another plant-powered super-spread, fellows got laser-focused on equity and access with design luminary Antoinette Carroll, Founder & CEO of the Creative Reaction Lab. She started by having fellows complete a 60-second challenge, answering the prompt: “I will make ______ better by _______.” She asked fellows, “What are you doing to build the world that you want to create? How do we make it a better world for others and not just ourselves?”

The incredible Antoinette Carol gave an awe inspiring and activating mentor session

Creative Reaction Lab works to “co-create solutions with Black and Latinx populations to design healthy and racially equitable communities,” and their flagship program is Design to Better [our Community]. They also just released an Artwork for Equity campaign, offering free postcard designs that anyone can download and use to contact government officials and business leaders about racial justice.

Antoinette lives in St. Louis Missouri, where the racial segregation and income inequality in St. Louis is so extreme that the BBC did a mini-documentary on the “Delmar Divide,” a street where boarded-up houses face gated mansions. She shared about her experience and intervention in the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown Jr in St. Louis’ Ferguson neighborhood in 2014, which was followed by historic Black Lives Matters protests. “This was the day that people in power had to remember they had forgotten about others below,” she told us. Two weeks after Brown was shot to death, Antoinette’s organization hosted a 24-hour design challenge for youth that resulted in ideas that are still implemented, like Cards Against Brutality, which is integrated into high-school curriculums as a teaching tool.

Antoinette touched on cultural truths like “The Talk” – explained here by Reading Rainbow’s Levar Burton – when African-American parents explain to their kids how to act to try and avoid being shot by police officers in everyday situations. She also encouraged everyone to see the new film 13th, a documentary about how the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery actually led to a mass incarceration epidemic.

Six Tips for Engaging the Community for Social Justice, from Antoinette

Tip 1: you have your craft, talent, and expertise. Determine your mission.

Tip 2: Don’t live in a fishbowl

Tip 3: Collaborate, Collaborate, Collaborate (don’t be afraid of skills unknown}

Tip 4: Think participatory. Create for engagement.

Tip 5: Always consider the impact of diversity: craft, identities, thought, etc. Dissent encouraged.

Tip 6: Use your expertise to build and disrupt power. Share it.

Leyla and Antoinette had a momentary mind-meld over the phrase “don’t dictate - curate” (a Leyla original that Antoinette will be using moving forward!). Designers shine brightest when co-designing and collaborating for change - we love C words too!

Then we broke into groups to do some “Hierarchical Word Mapping”, exploring a few light concepts like Poverty, Gun Violence, Sexism, and Racism.

Fellows got deep discussing the intersections of culture, privilege, and power. The only man in the sexism group discussed how anti-feminism makes him protective of his mother, aunt, sister – the women that raised him. The gun violence group had a fellow from Singapore in it, who said “I totally couldn’t relate to the conversation. We don’t even have gum in Singapore, never mind guns!”

Day 3, Part 4: Time for a Magic School Bus Field Trip!

Inside the magic School Bus adventure!

For a special treat, Leyla took us on a Ms. Frizzle-esque adventure in @Gillibus’ Yellow School Bus - a dream come true for some fellows. We got time to meet in small groups with our mentors while we rocked out to tunes on the way to San Mateo. Our final stop was @KITCHENTOWN, a food startup incubator and commercial kitchen! Co-founder Dan gave us a tour of the myriad entrepreneurial ventures he hosts in his space, and our favorite waste-food chef Phil from ReGrained worked some superstar magic creating a delicious salad out of UnSchool’s vegetable trimmings while we sampled his beer waste protein bars. We all built our own delicious Thai rice wraps, paired with delicious sauces and juices Dan generously shared with the group. Finally, it was time to head back to San Francisco, buzzing with excitement, and ready to hit the East Bay tomorrow (after getting some rest)!

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San Fran Day 4- April 27, 2017

Day four started out with a challenge for the fellows to find their way out of downtown San Fran, over the bridge to Oakland! We met up in the heart of the city, known for being densely populated with artists. Our first experience of the day was a visit with Qeyno, an inclusive innovation company focused on tech education. Qeyno’s Headmaster CEO Kalimah Priforce told us about their mentor-driven programs to help kids learn code, where students coming up with inspiring ideas such as an app to help stop bullying. Tech Equity week, Hackathon, and Moonshot are groundbreaking ventures at Qeyno to feed imagination, passion and “empathy spillover”, while creating opportunities for high potential youth in low opportunity situations.

Kalimah sharing his wisdom with us

In the middle of hearing the inspirational stories of their student body, Kalimah casually dropped the fact that Prince (!!) had been a client, and helped them change the conversation from planning for worst case scenarios by imagining the best case scenario. We had a collective moment to soak up the magic of Prince (!!) via Kalimah before transitioning to learning about the Early Learning Lab. Director of Design & Innovation Sheetal Singh found a few volunteer fellows to role play various perspectives of the community, shedding light on the complexity of dealing with early childhood education. The Lab especially focuses on children before they reach grade three, which has been shown to be a strong predictor for the life path that a child could take. Early Learning Lab experiments with modified design thinking practices for bringing parents and caregivers into the loop by rapidly prototyping ways to provide positive outcomes for these young kids.

Fellows doing Leyla's observational research expeirmetn

After a vitamin packed fruit and tea break, we formed two groups and half went for amazing tacos at Xolo (because our brains already needed more fuel!), and participated in an observational research activity with Leyla in Lake Merritt park. With this activity, we had the opportunity to notice the ways we differ in how we view the world, each person sharing their individual way of observing and documenting spaces. It was a revealing look into the way each of our brains work, and how important it is to be able to recognize how we all view the world through lenses influenced by our own experience in it.

Mentor Jermey McKane fits a neuro feedback machine to a fellows head

After tramping around the East Bay, Fellows arrived at the Humanist Hall for a mind-blowing (and mapping!) afternoon. Our mentor Jeremy McKane is an underwater cinematographer who believes “the shortest path between two humans is art” and makes “motion pictures for mindfulness.”  Jeremy brought his mind-controlled digital art installation, LUCiD, a biofeedback device that looks like a telephone operator headset and can Read. Your. Mind!

Fellows lay on blankets in groups and watched Jeremy’s art projected on the Hall’s ceiling, taking turns wearing the headset. The raw brainwave data is then fed to meditation and attention algorithms that play different film clips. When you’re distracted, you see trash floating in the ocean, and facts about plastic. As you reach a meditative state, you see beautiful underwater scenes of whales and dolphins. As your concentration continuously shifts between mindful and distracted, the videos change, and even more amazingly - your mind created new synaptic pathways! After a few minutes, it’s easier to bring the beautiful underwater footage back on the screen. But Fellows also felt the pressure of their own and other people’s expectations to succeed, making it harder to relax.

Watching the ocean from the ground

Jeremy’s passion for the ocean and its creatures was clear, saying he always tells kids “superheroes exist! There’s animals that can fly and see through walls!” Did you know that dolphins have x-ray vision, and can tell when women are pregnant using echolocation? Jeremy believes that, because of climate change and ocean degradation, “We have this finite moment in time to fix the oceans because I believe the next 10 years will dictate the next 10,000 years. I truly believe that.” Quoting Sylvia Earle, Jeremy said, “now’s the best time to be alive in history, because we have the best chance to make a difference.” (For more insights from Jeremy, and to learn about what's really going on with ocean plastic, check out this interview between him and our founder, Leyla.)

Fellows then broke into small groups to help each other workshop real-world problems in our lives. Each fellow got to speak about a problem area in their lives for 2 minutes, then got 10 minutes of feedback and additional questions from the group. Provocative questions prompted people to dig deeper, and we all received great ideas about how to disrupt and design better solutions to work and personal issues, while experiencing the benefit of peer mentorship.

Peer-mentoring sessions

After an inspirational day of beautiful stories about people and the planet, Fellows got to perform 90-second scenes that incorporated design concepts, film genres and emotional prompts. Co-host Jessy shared her love of improv with the group during the daily reflection, pointing out things that improv and design methods have in common – trusting the process, pulling on observations of the world around us, and realizing there are no mistakes, only gifts. Fellows were game, trusted the process, and came up with some fantastic scenes! The Team’s Period Piece about Making Change involved a time-machine trip to the French Revolution. A Film Noir/Systems Thinking skit involved a Fellow smoking cigarettes while trying to stop a bathtub from overflowing (a callback to Leyla’s stocks and flows metaphor), and three Fellows played the chemical change-agents oxytocin, serotonin and dopamine in a Coming of Age story about Cognitive Behavior.

Co-host Jessie lead a fun packed afternoon session!

When the skits were over, we called it a night, and fellows were left with tantalizing instructions to meet extra-early in front of Embarcadero (for ???) the next morning!

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San Fran Day 5- April 28, 2017

James takes a selfie of all of us at the Embarcadero

For Day 5, Fellows met at the Ferry Building to go on a surprise field trip. After walking along Embarcadero and hearing the Bay’s environmental history, we arrived at Autodesk, a multinational software corporation with the type of fabrication labs that designers dream about. Our tour guide told us that the shop is open to all employees, and “our job, with access to this space, is to make awesome.” We saw 5-axis CNC routers and 3D printers of all sizes, as well as a wood and metal shop with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Fellows were delighted a few moments later when a fully “functional” R2D2 showed up in the next room! The proud designer came down to show us her paces - designed to be R2D2’s girlfriend in a film, the robot could “bleep bloop blurp” and move around.

Meeting R2D2's GF at Autodesk Pier 9

Autodesk works at the convergence of machine learning and robotics - with projects like MX3D, a machine-designed bridge, and a LegoBot that has taught itself to pick up and assemble legos (is this the beginning of the robot takeover?). Other highlights included KidMob’s “Superhero Cyborg” project, for kids with limb differences to design body mod’s to be their best selves and show their true colors. One girl developed a unicorn spike arm with a glitter cannon, that can break, hinge and be put down, with a spot for a phone so she can text. Autodesk also helped design a new prosthetic, which costs a tenth of conventional designs, for a woman that won medals at the Paralympics, and they have open-source projects like Instructables, where you can teach yourself how to do thousands of amazing things for free.

Massive cnc routers doing to work at Pier 9

We tore ourselves away from the very touchable prototypes to experience an out-of-this-world experience – a discussion with a real live astronaut! Ron Garan has had experiences from the heights to the depths, having lived in space and underwater. Since leaving NASA, Ron’s dedicated his life to our ‘pale blue dot,' and you can read his thoughts on our beautiful fragile planet in The Orbital Perspective: Lessons in Seeing the Big Picture from a Journey of 71,000 miles.

Many astronauts become outspoken environmentalists after traveling to outer space and witnessing our magnificent and fragile planet, but Ron believes “you don’t have to be in space to have an orbital perspective.” The problem is “we don’t understand how interconnected we are,” and Ron is working on some collaborative solutions. He wants to“figuratively transport people to the higher perspective” through projects like Overview, a free 20-minute video about seeing space, and through his MOOC (massive open online course) Introduction to the Orbital Perspective. Ron’s also the chief pilot for World View, a balloon-based space tourism company. Ron wants everyone to see that we are “one people traveling on one planet towards one common future.” Ron’s newest project is Constellation, a collaborative project to figure out where we want to be as a society in 2068. Ron’s forming a coalition to speak with world leaders and heads of industry to develop an “operating system for civilization” to present to the UN general assembly.

Astronaut Ron Garren beamed in from Arizona where he was busy doing flight testing but made time to drop many words of inpiration on us all

One Fellow asked what Ron thought about Elon Musk trying to colonize Mars. Ron isn’t on board, especially if it’s because we trash Earth. It’s easier to stop destroying our planet than trying to colonize another one, especially since all the materials would have to come from earth!

Jennings leads a Story Dice session with us all

For our final fantastic session of the day, fellows got to learn from Jennings Hanna, an interactions designer. He regaled us with stories of consulting for companies like Code for America and Etsy, and played the trailer for his current work on Star Wars Battlefront II with EA. Wanting to work with “information rich, instead of simply data rich” design, Jennings uses tools like story dice and ethnography to develop more divergent design solutions.

Jennings told Fellows, “at the end of the day what makes me tick is when I shift stuff.” As a consulting designer, companies frequently don’t take your advice though, or if they do it’s years later and they don’t tell you about it. So make sure you love what you’re working on, and don’t ever compromise your ethics!

Fellows show their attempts to make the origami, lets just say it could have been better

After Jennings shared his four-step process of Discovering, Validating, Building, and Shipping, he had fellows break out and try a partner communication exercise called Listening Lab. One person took notes on the ways in which their partner worked through constructing an origami giraffe with only a visual instruction sheet provided. Together, teams attempted to complete their paper animals in the allotted time and learned a lot about how we all communicate and listen in different ways. Jennings believes we need to get better at storytelling, so fellows got to try out Story Telling Dice as our final activity. After collaboratively telling a story about gremlins living in a castle that has internet, each fellow got to roll the dice for a personal reflection. One fellow reported, “this fellowship has made me uncomfortable in a marvellous way.”

We ended the day watching the poem "Shoulders" by Shane Koyczan and The Short Story Long to reflect on the power of narrative (eyes were misty), then gathered to reflect on the last five days. Each Fellow shared their thoughts on one activity the group completed, and we were all amazed by how much we’ve accomplished in a few short days.

Finally, the fellows were assigned teams for the 24-hour design challenge, and sent away with a prompt to discuss their personal teamwork strengths and weaknesses before they dive into full challenge mode, all day tomorrow!

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San Fran Day 6 & 7- May 1, 2017

For an extreme finish, Fellows were split into four teams and given a 24-hour Design Quest focused on ethics in tech: “How do we ensure that technology works positively for the planet and people? Your intervention has to be capable of having impact at scale and also be actionable by you and your peers.”

IDEATION!

The design brief set parameters that the interventions would have to be:

• Applicable to the current system

• Actionable by you or your peers

• Executable within 12 months

• Applicable and accessible to the community and not rely on government interventions/regulation, the approval of a grant, or funds, etc.

• Able to be replicated by others in a way that maintains its effectiveness

• Impactful at scale

Teams mapped systems and connections, ideated throughout the day and late into the night, prototyping intervention ideas. When we closed the space at 10 PM, teams scurried off to continue brainstorming through the night and early morning.

Saturday morning dawned and Fellows arrived at The Laundry. Each team had 10 minutes  to pitch their interventions to a panel of three judges, with 10 minutes of feedback from Adam Little, Jennings Hanna and Judi Brown. Our mentors Jeremy McKane, Nancy Giordano and Antoinette Carroll also joined the final presentation via video chat!

The first team, B.B. Winston psyched us out with a creepy pitch for invasive tech apps (that scarily were based on real-life apps) and presented their three-step strategy for addressing tech ethics: 1) Awareness (by messing with people) 2) Understanding (this kind of tech is bad), and 3) Application (a pledge for tech ethics).

Pitch sessions!

The second team’s pitch involved “Taking Back Our Data,” giving control to individuals to charge advertisers and corporations for using their data. They also recommended using crowd-sourced big data to run disaster response and distribute real-time information and opened it up to the audience to explore what other (positive) things we could do with this kind of collectively shared information.

The third pitch opened with a question to the group, “When was the last time you were wrong? Afraid? Annoyed? Embarrassed?” The team told a story of the history of capitalism, profit, and control and proposed an empathy intervention for software developers that centered on a hackathon for solving ethical problems.

Last, but not least, Team Four invited us all to “take a moment to think about how tech makes you feel.” Excited? Nervous? Life-saving? And “how should tech be”? Paper was passed out and feelings were scribbled. The group designed a viral campaign to engage the question with the hashtag #iwishtechnology, inspired in part by Antionette Carroll’s Dear Oppressor project and Before I Die.

After deliberating, the judges came back to award a winner: the #iwishtechnology team! Judges loved the fact that they had “shipped” their idea – sharing it with their social media communities and getting people to answer the prompt. One judge said “you shipped shit! Early and often is my motto with prototyping.”  The simplicity and possible scalability of the idea were two other key factors that secured them the win.

Time for celbration and proseco!

Once teams had received their prizes, Fellows gathered to raise their glasses of Prosecco and sparkling juice to cheers to another successful UnSchool fellowship. A final meal awaited us upstairs, and after eating, Jessy gathered us for our last reflection exercise.

First Fellows broke into pairs and used appreciative inquiry interviews to create “X-maps” of the Ideas, Obstacles, Tactics, and Outcomes each Fellow envisions for achieving their next disruptive social change intervention. (We look forward to seeing who can activate their outcomes first! See what we did there? A little competition can gamify any challenge!) Fellows then wrote a colorful shared narrative of the intense week we shared. Flip charts for each day had four quadrants - what happened each day, what was funny and/or amazing, what could have been better, and what did you learn? The answers ranged from whimsical to serious, literal to figurative, and had people laughing and even misting up at times.

A final thought from each of our fantastic San Francisco Fellows, and then they were out the door to enjoy more bonding (or napping) in the sunshine! It was a magical journey, including yellow school buses, walking tours of the Tenderloin, and memories to last a lifetime.

We miss you all already, are excited to have you in our growing #unschoolsalumni community, and can’t wait to see what these seeds grow into!

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WATCH THE AMAZING DOCO ON

SAN FRANCISCO FELLOWSHIP!

Christchurch Fellowship

Watch the Christchurch Fellowship Doco

January 23-28 2017

Meet our Christchurch Fellows!

OUR CHRISTCHURCH FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM STARTED ON MONDAY JANUARY 23RD, 2017! MEET THE AMAZING #UNSCHOOLNZ COHORT OF EMERGING LEADERS, CREATIVE REBELS AND CHANGE AGENTS, JOINING US IN NEW ZEALAND FROM 8 COUNTRIES!

Charlene Leong

Charlene is fascinated with how the world is becoming progressively more integrated with technology. She is seeking ways to diversify and upgrade her breadth of technology related skills and knowledge in order help find effective efficient solutions to the big complex problems we have today. Her goal is to find ways for technology to improve education, nature and processes in everyday lives. Currently studying a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronic Computer Systems Engineering [Mechatronics], Charlene is vibrant, curious and loves learning about people and how to make their lives better!

Esther Whitehead

Esther Whitehead is a dedicated change-maker, through both policy and community engagement. Esther lives and works in Queenstown, and works passionately in the fields of special education reform and environmental sustainability at both a local and national level. Esther provides workplace consultancy in the area of diversity of learning, and with a fellow trustee designed 4D schools, promoting: Get it Right for Dyslexics – Get it Right for All. Esther is the co-founder of The Anti-Plastic Population, a local group which backs sustainable businesses and acts as a change-agent through encouraging and developing community cohesion. A keen writer, Esther produces content on special education for Ministry of Education and the Dyslexia Foundation, as well as publishing monthly articles on environmental sustainability in The Source Magazine, and regular articles for Te Awa Green Party magazine. Esther holds an undergraduate degree in Ecology from the UK, and a post graduate degree in Special Education from Massey University, NZ. Esther is currently employed as the Managing Trustee of The Dyslexia Foundation of NZ, an NGO advocating for educational reform in NZ schools and workplaces.

Gina Louisa Rembe

Born and raised in Berlin, Gina moved to Amsterdam to study fashion production. Disillusioned by the lack of ethics and sustainability, she moved into the branding course (arguably not much better). During five years in London, she honed her skills commercial consulting whilst volunteering for The Do Lectures (storytelling events in the woods) and Good For Nothing (social enterprise hackathons). On her return to New Zealand she joined the Enspiral network, a group of social entrepreneurs prototyping distributed ways of working, organising and decision-making. She's been part of the team leading the youth wellbeing Lifehack for the past three years.

Jasmine Wong

Jasmine wants to live in a world where everyone lives sustainably, isn't afraid of but embraces change and diversity, and where there's unlimited coffee and puppy cuddles. She's currently in the corporate world trying to convince her clients that doing business sustainably is a win-win-win for people, profit and our planet. Ultimately, she would love to run her own social enterprise.

Jessica Bradish

Jessy lives in Oakland California and is a self-proclaimed eco-comic and sustainability nerd with a love for renewables. Her background includes multimedia communication, project management, sales and training. She earned an Environmental Policy degree because she believes climate change is no joke and went on to complete an MBA to be a #nastywoman in the old boy's network. Right now she is developing her game Climate Oasis and working on her consulting & comedy.

Kareena Harris

Kareena is originally from Christchurch, NZ, and moved to Wellington when she was 12. She studied Graphic Design before stumbling into the world of entrepreneurship with her company The Misprint Co. She loves working to turn waste paper from businesses and schools into good-looking notebooks and saving carbon emissions and water! Kareena is really enthusiastic about social enterprise and doing business while doing good.

Karthiga Kanesha

KK sees herself as a futurist and a doer. She is passionate about building better futures, creating and up-lifting potentials to enhance wellbeing and curiosity in communities. She comes from a health sciences background with a master's in public health. KK believes that change comes from within and that by providing people with the tools and choices necessary, people and communities can be empowered to activate change for the good.

Laura Taylor

Laura is proud to call Christchurch her home and to be part of its renaissance. Big ideas and creativity have always been part of her life. She is a practical idealist - an improve-aholic, fascinated with complex systems and finding ways to make things better for people, cities and the environment. Growing up in the country under big skies with giant planes heading to “The Ice” has given Laura a deep sense of guardianship for the Great South, and led her to graduate in soil ecology and Antarctic studies. Her passion is in learning how people participate in the public realm --- the “shared living room” --- of the city and take responsibility for it. As a placemaking advisor, parent and global citizen, Laura thinks it’s really important to reflect on our legacy and how to create lasting change that keeps rippling good outcomes?

Louise Krstic

Louise is a landscape architect from Melbourne Australia, with a background in the design of large scale infrastructural projects and interdisciplinary collaboration. Louise's love for traveling and outdoor adventure has fueled her passion to create sustainable cities, challenge societal apathy and affect positive social change. She has a Masters degree from The University of Melbourne in Landscape Architecture where her thesis explored the sociopolitical context of Melbourne's waste crisis. She designed a strategy to decrease waste generation and harnessed NIMBY opposition to a new landfill to challenge apathy and create positive social and environmental change. Fascinated by the city and it is systems, Louise sees the urban environment, its people and their behaviours as crucial in tackling climate change. She believes that design has a responsibility to challenge conventional thinking and provide alternative visions to the world’s wicked problems. Louise is currently researching the connection between disruptive digital technology and the built environment. She aims to harness problem centric, agile and innovative approaches employed by startups to create human centred design solutions that can create positive environmental and social change in cities around the world.

Lucie Drummond

Lucie, from New Zealand, has a background in corporate sustainability and law. She has an LLB (Hons) and a BSc, specializing in environmental science, both from the University of Auckland.  In her current work on sustainability within business, Lucie is bringing together her experience from a broad range of energy and environmental legal matters with her recent experience in strategy and transformation. She is interested in the application of design thinking both in and to businesses, to effect change.

Lucy Roberts

Lucy completed a Bachelor of Fine Art at the Queensland College of Art and worked in the arts for 15 years in Australia, UK and Germany. After successfully implementing a cultural change at an artist collective in Melbourne, she moved into corporate change management and completed post graduate studies in Organizational Change to increase her understanding of how to analyze and manage change. She currently works in business transformation strategy in the utilities sector. Lucy’s career/ life goal is to be involved in influencing cultural and social policy to build a more sustainable society in Australia. She loves the challenges of planning for change and increasing people’s ability to change.

Nidhi Singh Rathore

Nidhi is a designer by day, and data visualization enthusiast by night. She likes to bridge information gaps, through digital and print media, and also likes to explore the boundaries of interdisciplinary design and learning from others. Nidhi was born and raised in Allahabad, and spent her childhood traveling all over northern India. She studied at the National Institute of Design for Undergraduate Studies, specializing in Graphic Design and exploring other branches of visual communications. Her passion lies in information design and data visualization, especially visuals that talk about everyday life. Currently Nidhi works at a startup that applies technology to logistics, an industry that stretches the country's inefficiencies in its present form. She is also working on her own venture, a web and print platform for users to talk about their surroundings, social issues, and experiences. When she finds some spare time, Nidhi enjoys reading, illustrating, taking online classes, and running.

Paul Dickson

Paul is the Founder and Chief Go Getter of a charity called OKE Charity, an organization that aims to “grow mighty kids” by achieving an initial goal to get every primary and intermediate school in Papatoetoe to grow their own fruit & veggies by 2018, learning essential life and social skills in the process. With a background in project management, and business efficiency and effectiveness, Paul began his career in the automotive and power generation industries and he has worked in a number of countries around the world for large multi-nationals. While working in the power industry in New Zealand, Paul became increasingly frustrated with the lack of positive relationship building and the “do as I say and don’t ask questions” attitude within his professional community. He decided to make a professional change to use his flair for the unconventional and organizing to make things happen and created OKE Charity and its main fundraiser, the Head2Head Walk. OKE Charity has six Papatoetoe primary school gardens yet to establish in order to reach its 2018 goal, and Paul is committed to deliver.

Philippa Pell Goodwin

Philippa is a 26 year old from Dunedin, NZ, but spent the first half of her life in Zimbabwe. She has studied both Nursing and Visual Arts, and has a wide variety of interests including sewing, writing, dance, cooking, illustration and design. Philly’s passions tend toward social change, justice, community health, and increased education and opportunities. What excites her is seeing ideas come into fruition, and seeing people's gifts emerge with growth and encouragement. She wants to work with people, creativity and change.

Rochelle Surendran

Rochelle is passionate about growing resilient communities in Aotearoa which showcase innovative solutions to the big problems facing our globe. Co-founder of Love Local (www.lovelocal.org.nz), a charitable business with a focus on making affordable, locally grown produce available to Invercargill families, Rochelle wants to see growth in social enterprise, where businesses are designed to benefit communities rather than to simply make a profit. In her work as a facilitator of family violence prevention programs, Rochelle uses her skills to motivate people to make positive change in their lives and relationships.

Ryan Niese

Ryan Niese is a 24 year old from a suburb of the San Francisco Bay Area. He is an energetic and active soul who has always preferred sports over studies. However, entering high school in the wake of the Inconvenient Truth made it difficult for him to avoid a passion for change. He focused his energy toward engineering for a better future which led him to receive a B.S. in Ecological Engineering from Oregon State University. Along the way he has developed passions for Christ, rock climbing, and playing. Ryan focuses on fully appreciating the built and natural worlds. His life/career goal is to apply integrated solutions at the heart of communities where they'll create lasting change

Samantha Mackay

As an artist, adventurer, change facilitator, and life coach, Samantha believes that creativity is the key to unlocking our humanity and that as life become more automated, humans become more disconnected from themselves and the world around them. Samantha stepped away from a legal career to help people reconnect to their inner spark. She designs creative learning challenges - whether in the bush, the office, around the kitchen table or a super comfy chair - that enable people to reconnect with themselves and their world. Observing that business leaders also struggle with this disconnection, her consultancy, More Human, helps leaders step into the shoes of the people in their ecosystem, to design and build organizations driven by human-centric values.

Stephen Hay

Stephen has been self-employed since the late-80s, moving around the world with his work and seeking out opportunities to make a sustainable difference within large organizations. His world-changing passion is to rebuild organizations from the bottom-up blending classical (non-violent) social anarchism with the best research on hierarchical structures. He seeks to ensure organizational change is safe and does no harm: to the people involved, to the environment, to the organization itself. He met his French wife in Angola while they were both working for the Red Cross and they’ve been in NZ since 2004.

Stephen Nicholls

Born and raised in New Zealand, Stephen studied Visual Communication Design in Wellington before completing a six month internship at Amnesty International in Auckland. Currently he is expanding his skill set in the market research and customer engagement field. His aim is to be a cross-disciplinary professional with skills in design, research and sustainability and to bring those skills into the fight for human rights in NZ and around the world.

Sukanya Mishra

Meera is currently rethinking and redoing everything that she didn't get to decide as a child or do when she was younger, including deciding to contribute towards creating a sustainable planet. She is a sustainable development and living enthusiast who enjoys reading, writing, art and speaking.

 

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Christchurch Fellowship Day 1  January 23, 2017

Ready, set, go! The Christchurch fellowship kicked off on Monday afternoon with a buzzing cohort of 20 fellows from 6 different countries.

Bec, our city host (and UnSchool Alumni from the inaugural NYC fellowship in 2014) gathered us in the central city at Te Pou Herenga a Waka, a stunning installation that symbolizes bringing people together – an appropriate starting point for the collective journey our fellows are about to embark on.

After a brief overview of the city and program, the walking tour began with Bec and our co-producer, Nita, at the reigns. The tour highlighted innovative interventions that have been established in the central city post after the major 2010 and 2011 earthquakes, including the ReStart Mall and Arts Centre. Our final stop was conveniently our first home base for the week, ArtBox.

Once we arrived at our ArtBox, we jumped straight into getting to know everyone’s name and an insightful fact about them, by playing the UnSchool's signature kick off game, the One Legged Stand, which uses a little bit of cognitive magic to make the new information stick. With 20 fellows and 7 team members all standing on one leg, the challenge of having to process cumulative information in a physically uncomfortable situation proved that the magic trick worked - the group nailed the names and facts. Even Leyla made it around all 26 with only some slight confusion (for the first time she was challenged by a fellow to remember everyone's names and facts!) .

Then we dove straight into our mini Pecha Kucha intro sessions, with each fellow and team member having 3 minutes and 9 slides to tell us their life stories, passions and everything that floats their boats.

Craig, our co-host (UnSchool Melbourne alumni, and NZ local), used one of the slides in his presentation to give the fellows a visual preview of how they might feel at the end of the week: minds blown with ideas popping out of their heads, vomiting out glitter/amazing ideas and concepts you can’t wait to share with others, and new versions of themselves starting to emerge (but less green than in the picture). Double high five to Craig, our co-host, for his amazing visual style :)

Next, we rolled straight into a deep sustainability discussion, led by Leyla, and a series of group conversations about how we can achieve sustainability globally. Some great views were shared collectively as we teased things out.

After we wrapped the session up, we set off on an adventure around the central city. We stopped by a gigantic interactive arcade game and wandered on to meet Peter from Anteater, who had a surprise mid-walk snack to satisfy any rumbling stomachs: native farmed locusts, seasoned with garlic and chili. Even the most skeptical of fellows were amazed at how delicious they were.

We powered on, taking a moment to check out the 185 Chairs installation, paying respect to those who lost their lives in the February 2011 earthquake. We also explored the ‘Cardboard Cathedral’ designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban – it was inspiring to see the way materials can be used in innovative ways, and how Christchurch is designing for adaptive use in unique ways.

The most exciting interactive moment we shared on our first jam packed day must have been at the  ‘Dance-O-Mat’, a large-scale pop-up dance floor in a repurposed space. When you pop a $2 coin into the old laundromat machine and plug your phone in, music flows through loudspeakers and you get to boogie it out in public on the dancefloor. It was the perfect opportunity for fellows to shake off the day and get their groove on (as you can see by the photos, we had a load of fun - get it?).

As our downtown city walking tour was drawing to a close, the fellows and team were happy to arrive at Thai Box for dinner as the group had worked up an appetite from all the greeting, talking, walking and thinking and dancing! This new restaurant reflects how businesses in Christchurch have been re-established through innovative architecture. With some delicious food, a glass of wine (from one of our awesome partners, Peter Yealands!) and bellies full, we called it a night after our busy first day of #unschoolNZ.

Bring on tomorrow!

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Christchurch Fellowship Day 2  January 24, 2017

Day 2 kicked of with a healthy shared breakfast, and a caffeine boost thanks to Sherpa Coffee and Nature Matters Milk. As per UnSchool tradition, fellows and team members then took turns sharing something special that they had brought from their hometowns, ranging from songs to sweet treats, Californian beer and a jar of 140km/h wind! The team turned it out!

This was followed by a chat with Mark McEntyre, senior Design lecturer at Ara, who helped establish our home base, ArtBox. The modular space was developed to create change, evoke community response and explore new ideas after the Canterbury earthquakes.

Like clockwork, we flew straight into a systems thinking session. With the fellows already having some systems knowledge under their belt (thanks to the online classes they took before joining us for the fellowship), we were able to go straight to the nitty gritty of understanding complex human and regenerative systems.

Framing the session around education systems, the key message boiled down to having agency and autonomy over what you are exploring – so that you don’t deflect responsibility of the things you can’t control. Best quote, so far, comes from Leyla: “We’re all rebellious savages deep down inside.”

After absorbing the key points, fellows broke into groups to cluster map their view of an education system, discovering hyper-cluster points and sharing their insights with the group.

The Leyla quote qouta gained a point in the discussion with, “Check yourself before you wreckity-wreck yourself”. *mic drop*

That felt like an appropriate moment to pause and refuel – before we ‘wreckity-wrecked’ ourselves. We shared a picnic lunch of delicious salads in the sun, and were able to quench our thirst with some Karma Cola.

Hungry for more (information that is), we turned to our first guest mentor, Nick Gerritsen – and he definitely satisfied the fellows' appetites. Speaking about his background in radio among other ventures, one key message was “if you get your audience right, you can compel them to change”.

Nick shared so many gems with everyone, it is impossible to document them all. The fellows were absolutely buzzing from this session. Before Nick set them off on a group challenge, he left us with “you as individuals can all change the world.” That’s what we are here for, right?

Our final guests for the day were from the Live the Dream Fellowship, a 9-week social enterprise accelerator program in New Zealand. Fellows of that programme, Tia and Tane, ran the session. Their primary focus was to reconnect disengaged Maori youth with their culture.

After describing the four pillars of Whare Tapa Wha, a traditional Maori health and well-being model, conceptualised through the essential cornerstones of a whare (house) and based around hinengaro (mind), tinana (body), wairua (spirit) and whanau (family), Tia and Tane threw it out to the crowd to see what our values were.

In groups, fellows presented their key values, some of which were showcased with more songs (bring on UnSchools Got Talent?). Tia and Tane closed their session with a traditional haka that captivated the room.

To wind up a long day, fellows were given not one, not two, but three tasks. We ended with co-host Craig’s reflection session ‘Brain Food’. Fellows responded to question cards that asked things like “What I am hungry to learn more about?” and submitted their cards into our “brain box”. At the end of the activity, we tossed around and gobbled up a pretty fresh UnSchool salad.

Speaking of salad, it was time group fellows together and send them off too some great dinner locations around Christchurch. Before leaving, fellows were handed an envelope - surprise challenge time!

...Stay tuned to find out what our UnSchool fellows come up with!

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Christchurch Fellowship Day 3 January 25, 2017

We switched up our venue for Day 3, starting off at YMCA’s Papa Hou - Treasure Box. The stadium space has been developed as a stop-gap due to the lack of arts facilities in the city, and it was a perfect location for the day.

Fellows gathered outside before we led them upstairs, where a scrumptious homemade blueberry pancake breakfast awaited them (Pancake breakfasts are an UnSchool tradition – Natasa was our pancake extraordinaire this time, and she did not disappoint!). While devouring the delicious spread, and powering up with some Sherpa Coffee, the fellows showed us the results of the previous evening's dinner challenge.

Fellows had been tasked with discussing a series of questions, which lead to the surprise that they had to pitch themselves as superhero teams, using their individual and collective change-making abilities to make the most dynamic range of super powers. Too much happened to explain it all – but it included rapping and telekinesis.

Our first mentor of the day, Raf Manji, shared his take on the iceberg model - while the bit on top highlights the immediacy of the present, there are still so many interconnected systems happening underneath the surface that go unnoticed. Raf suggested we find the achilles heel of the system, to try and get inside and change it.

Leyla then guided us through a whirlwind experience in gamification and game theory, relating it to the way in which we strategize to make change. The fellows asked a few too many excited questions as we packed up and headed off on a little walking adventure to our secret lunch location.

We were treated to an incredible, well deserved after our sunny day walk through the park to the soon-to-be-opp[ened Gatherings restaurant. We had the honor of being the first group to share an incredible vege-centric lunch in the intimate space. The owner and creative mind behind the Gatherings concept is Alex (who despite not being able to join us, left a beautiful note explaining the concepts of locally sourced vegetable-centric food). His brother Jo, was our host and chef for the day and after being served a warm coffee and reading Alex's note, we were invited to break the bread as a celebration as the first guests, fellows and team tore and heartily shared out the local sourdough before bowls of beautiful fresh summer gazpacho arrived for us to devour.

We all then enjoyed a lovely walk abck to the YMCA along teh park, discussing all manor of fasinating things inspired by our healthy planet-friednly lunch and by the inspiring day so far.

After lunch, we were joined by Jennifer Whitty, a sustainable fashion researcher from Wellington, who guided the fellows through climate impacts and changes in relation to consumption. Fellows brought along one garment they love and one they don’t wear often, and discussions ensued around ethics (there was some unavoidable style commentary too).

Next up was an interactive experience from Fi (a Melbourne fellow alumni), who explained her alter ego Senorita Awesumo and her experience with sustainable fashion using zero waste techniques. She wowed the fellows with her interpretation of zero waste.

Fi prepared a magic box of textiles, destined for the landfill, for fellows to reimagine. They were challenged to create a series of upcycled products which they presented back to the group after just 45 minutes. Everyone was impressed – despite the long day, creativity flowed and ideas focused on the opportunity, not the problem.

After the quickest clean up you have ever seen (because the YMCA was booked for a dance group) we progressed to a sunny park experience where Craig led a session on the jam-packed experience, with pairs of fellows sharing their joint top three highlights of the day. Closing out with the tune of bagpipes randomly joining us, we talked about the adventures we had all had.

As the sun set, we made our way over to The Gym, not for fitness, but for a surprise dinner party. The rep from Yealands wine, who is generously covering our wine for the week,  shared amazing things about their business, including stories of regeneration and sustainability, and also told us about babydoll sheep (look ’em up!). As the fellows were learning all about Yealands, the team was working behind the scenes and pulled off a home cooked meal for 30 people, which seemed to just magically appear in front of us.

As we played the secret dinner party game, evilly or brilliantly designed by Leyla, we uncovered the tactics and tools that we covertly use to influence the people around us. The game and the discussion that followed were both hilarious and insightful. As we started to wind up the event, we reflected on the long and deep thinking day.

And yes... it is only day three!

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Christchurch Fellowship Day 4 January 26, 2017

Day 4 started off with a beautiful breakfast at XCHC's cafe, which prides itself on locally sourced seasonal food. The Operations Manager, Preston, spoke to us about XCHC, a startup space for the creative industries, and how it incorporates both sustainable and regenerative practices into its business.

Next up, we chatted with Brie from The Ohu Project and Juliet from ReKindle. The fellows were eager to learn more about the unique approaches these organisations are taking to rebuild Christchurch in a sustainable and ethical way.

After our bellies and minds were full, we headed to The Commons – a welcoming, ever-evolving community space that connects people to the inner-city and to each other.

We took to a makeshift grandstand, where we were joined by Ryan Reynolds, the co-founder of Gap Filler  (the crew that created the Dance-o-mat and arcade game we played with on the Day 1 walking tour). He led us on a fascinating exploration of community engagement.

Riveted by our morning of unique guests, fellows chatted about the resilience of Christchurch, under the trees on the Avon riverbank. After eating a hearty lunch and quenching our thirst with some Karma Cola,  Leyla led a session on the power of research – aka curiosity in action –  and how we can use it in more effective ways. Splitting into 2 groups, fellows were given an observational research challenge.

Short for time, we jumped in Green Cabs and headed to the suburb of Spreydon to the start our afternoon session. Groups were challenged to apply the research strategies they had just learned in a real world setting as they went off to speak with local community members from The Court Theatre and ECAN.

Back at ArtBox, our homebase for the week, Leyla was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the fellow groups with their new strands of community knowledge. She laid out a huge piece of paper for the groups to start mapping systems and landscaping the connections.

After a final talk with Ben from Banquer, it was time to call it a day... Almost. Of course, we couldn’t skip Craig’s reflection session! Fellows chose the word that resonated with them the most from this list: intervention, repurpose, perspective and observation.

Collectively discussing their choice and writing statements about why, fellows then chose the word that least resonated, and responded to it. We wrapped it up by describing the day in just one word.

And that was a wrap for Day 4 –  fellows were given a free evening to process everything that has bombarded their brains so far.

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Christchurch Fellowship Day 5 January 27, 2017

Day 5 of #UnSchoolNZ started off at our homebase, ArtBox, with a brilliant breakfast and a (much needed) caffeine hit from Sherpa Coffee. UnSchool fellowship programs are intense, so our team always makes sure that everyone is fed, caffeinated and ready for the next session!

Our pieces of brain food from Tuesday's reflection session magically reappeared on the walls of ArtBox (thanks to Craig). Fellows digested the brain food (and real food) over breakfast, reflecting on their journeys so far – funny conversations inevitably ensued.

After breakfast, we had an incredible morning session with our guest mentor, Rebecca Mills, a sustainability innovation specialist. She kicked off her session with a focus on “new ways of being and seeing, and practical innovation methodologies to create a more beautiful, equitable world”.

Rebecca shared a wealth of knowledge and experience with the fellows – describing her work with The B Team, discussing planetary boundaries and talking about ‘sticky donuts’. (Yes, really.) A statement that really resonated with the fellows was that ultimately we should be “living on the earth as if we intend to stay.”

Rebecca told us about the five things she believes someone needs in order to be a successful changemaker and her “jump up and jive to transformation methodology.” As the morning unfolded, she set a selection of group tasks, such as putting measurements in place to create your ideal world. With her help, fellows worked on applying the concepts she presented in a  tangible practice approach.

Rebecca's session beautifully tied things together, as it illuminated how all the concepts we have been exploring this week can be applied to real-world scenarios.

Making the most of another sunny summer day in Christchurch, we enjoyed a picnic lunch (this might be the most picnics we have had in a single fellowship so far), fueling up on an amazing variety of healthy goodness, including a freshly picked green salad from co-producer Nita’s own garden. Everything really hit the spot and the fellows were charged for Leyla’s final session for the week.

Leyla took fellows through a crash course on the disruptive design method and then unpacked other concepts and arenas that would help equip fellows for the last important part of the UnSchool fellowship (spoiler alert... the 24-hour challenge!). Reading the room, she shared her wisdom on systems mapping, life cycle assessment, disruption, problem-solving via problem loving, and procrastination as a tool for motivation (this led to an ‘ah ha’ moment for many!).

Putting systems mapping into practice, the fellows dived into a connected circle mapping exercise focused on guns and law (their choice, not ours!). Clusters of chaos were created.

The session continued into the late afternoon with Leyla’s ten golden rules of ideation and, by the end of it, our UnSchool notebooks (cover designed by our fellowship intern, Megan, and printed by The Misprint Company) were bulging with incredibly useful information and ideas for making change.

Fellows were then challenged to pour their creative juices (which were really flowing at this point) into an ideation session focused on guns. With the systems mapping they had done earlier laying a foundation for all the nuanced connections around guns and law, fellows dove in, thinking up ideas for creative interventions. After everyone pitched their ideas, we rounded it off by playing an empathy game, which Leyla used to demonstrate the application of the Disruptive Design Method in action.

After the game, fellows hopped into a reflection session with our fellowship co-host, Craig. This time it was focused around four symbols (brain, eyes, hands, heart). Each fellow had to choose one symbol that they wanted to reflect on and share their thoughts with the group. Craig even themed his outfit, wearing his symbols cardigan!

Just as they thought the day was done and dusted, we had a little surprise for the fellows… the announcement of the 24-hour challenge! Fellows were put into teams and given the first clue about the challenge: their client would be the Christchurch City Council. UnSchool Team members, who had already participated in a challenge like this, shared some insights on how to effectively collaborate within the team challenge dynamic, and, with that, fellows were sent off to eat dinner and prepare for the two days ahead. The actual challenge will remain a mystery until 9AM on Day Six…. Check back to see how it all unfolds!

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Christchurch Fellowship Days 6 & 7 January 30, 2017

Day 6 snuck up on us so quickly! And if you're familiar with our fellowships you know that Day 6 means one thing... the Design Challenge begins! For our 24-Hour Challenge, fellows team up and work together, apply all that they have learned and uncovered during the week, to address a client's design brief.

We kicked it off at our challenge home base, BizDojo, an excellent brand new co-working space in downtown Christchurch. We arrived to the beautifully bright and clear space early, allocated work rooms for teams and then gave fellows the challenge brief, which they digested over a nutritious homemade breakfast.

Fellows were excited by the challenge brief, developed in collaboration with Christchurch City Council (CCC). The brief outlined a problem statement, location context, considerations, parameters and supporting information that the fellows could work with while applying the Disruptive Design Method to explore how to develop creative change interventions.

The CCC challenge outlines a quest to create a circular economy vision for Spreydon in Christchurch, a community suburb. Their goal is to achieve a circular economy by 2050, which would, in turn, allow for a rapid transition to a “one planet” city. Currently, Christchurch is a minus five planet city, and thanks to the great work of the CCC, there is a strong desire to find unique ways of becoming a planet positive place!

Each team was given an opportunity to ask questions to guest speakers – Phil Clearwater, CCC Councillor,  and David Boothway, CCC Strategic Asset Planning Manager – to mine out as much additional information as they could before they tackled the complex problem areas at hand.

David summarized the issue with this great quote: “We don’t have a pollution problem, we have a design problem.” David and Phil demonstrated their passion for the city and it’s future, and it was incredibly valuable for our fellows to share time with them. After the question session closed, and fellows set off to get to work on the challenge!

Teams jumped straight to it, and the walls of each of their rooms were hit with an explosion of systems maps. Lines and connections were drawn in all directions as they began to tease out leverage points.

Teams put the first two phases of the DD Method into practice as they mined out the problem elements and systems mapped the identified elements in order to landscape the potential intervention points.

Leyla and Bec went around helping agitate the thinking of the groups, pulling together strands of ideas and helping the teams think through dynamic and complex systems interventions. They reminded people to think about the big vision and the tangible micro interventions that will help build it over time.

Leyla then jumped into the kitchen to help prepare a delicious dinner using the giant silverbeet brought in by our local team member, Megan. The mood was surprisingly relaxed but, as the evening progressed and Leyla's review sessions approached, groups started to push themselves through the rapid ideation sessions and got ideas flowing.

Late at night, the UnSchool team went around checking in with each group before packing it up for the night.

First thing in the morning, teams had to deliver a practice pitch of their proposals. While things had started to take shape, there was still a lot of work to do. Leyla helped teams illuminate gaps in their propositions and provided fantastic feedback on how to create strong narrative presentations that paint the vision of possibility in the judges' minds.

The 24 hours were up in a flash and it was time for fellows to pitch their concepts to a friendly judging panel, made up of mentor Rebecca Mills, the Chief Financial Officer to Christchurch City Council, Carol Bellet, and Councillor Phil Clearwater.

Presentations on how to intervene and lead Christchurch to become a one planet city included using insects laundromats and beer. Yes, teams took on the disruptive design concepts and turned them into amazing propositions of how to change communities, design eco systems services and facilitate mindset change for healthy communities.

Before marking the end of presentations with the popping of champagne, the UnSchool team had one final surprise. Throughout the week, the fellows had been very vocal in making sure our team does everything they do, so we revealed that we had completed the challenge too! Our fellowship team delivered a presentation for a “One Planet card” systems intervention with gamified elements of civic engagement and ecological footprint reduction. .

We then cheers'ed with some tasty bubbly from Yealands and enjoyed a multicultural New Zealand themed lunch spread, covering a diverse range of cultures – from the very kiwi cheese roll, to dumplings, sushi, local cheese and salsa, all topped off with mini pavlovas.

An impromptu dance party began and, after fellows got down to ‘Happy,’ we moved onto the final installment of ‘The Craig Show.’ For our final reflection session, fellows, in groups of three, contributed what they had learned, what challenged them, the most memorable moment, and a one-word description for each day over the intensive seven that we shared together.

After the collective brain dump was over, Craig asked fellows to summarize the day and report summaries back to the group, reflecting on all the adventures and discoveries that were made this week. We then gathered in a circle and shared our closing thoughts with the group before we parted ways. There were tears, laughs and a gigantic group hug before fellows jumped on flights and bikes or headed to the pub for a final celebratory drink.

...And that’s a wrap for UnSchools Christchurch! Thanks to the incredible team, all our amazing partners, collaborators and sponsors and a BIG THANK YOU to our 20 fellows for joining the adventure and sharing their passion for making change. We're looking forward to having them in our global alumni community of creative rebels working to make positive change in the world.

And that's a waap on another fantastic cohort, a bunch of incredible adventures and change in the making.

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Watch the doco on the brain-bending week we had in Christchurch 

Berlin Fellowship

Watch the video of the Berlin fellowship

Meet Our Berlin Fellows

Our Berlin fellowship program started on Saturday 8th October where we meet our cohort of 20 incredible new fellows, all joining us for our 7-day immersive program in the wonderful city of Berlin! They came from 12 countries, for our jam packed adventure week in all things systems, sustainability and design for activating positive social change!

READ ABOUT OUR FELLOWS AND THEN READ ON TO SEE ALL THAT HAPPENED AT THE BERLIN FELLOWSHIP WEEK!

 

Aglika Georgieva

Aglika is the partner and project manager at Geomarine, a small environmental protection and natural resources consultancy company in Bulgaria. She has a background in the development of environmental and social impact assessment for large scale infrastructural projects. She has a Master's degree from Cologne University (Germany) in Media Science, Psychology and Cultural Studies, and is currently working on the thesis surrounding Environmental Protection and Sustainability at the University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy in Bulgaria. She would like to build a platform for promoting innovative and disruptive ideas of how we can make a change toward more sustainable future with our day to day involvement and behavior.

Ahmad Kalaji

Ahmad is a journalist with a degree from the University of Damascus, in the Syrian capital. He was part of several groups in Syria to spread awareness about freedom of speech and participated in protests against the Syrian regime. He had to flee the country in 2013, to Dubai, where he started working with a Syrian opposition TV station– his job led him to travel to Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, where he visited refugees camps and shot news stories. Now living in Berlin, he is currently volunteering with Moabit Hilft, a local NGO that helps refugees here in Germany.

Alexis Rhyner

Lex grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, United States, and fell in love with Latin America upon her first visit to Mexico at the age of 12. She studied Spanish and Portuguese Language and Culture, traveled and volunteered throughout the continent. She was hampered by major issues such as poverty, sexism, racism, organized crime and political unrest. Inspired to take action, she is about to begin her MSc in Development and International Relations, specializing in Latin American Studies at Aalborg University in Denmark. Her hope now is to utilize the new knowledge and skills to work with locals to inspire grassroots movements throughout the continent.

Ameenah Sawwan

Ameenah is a Syrian activist and journalist from Moaddamiyeh, Syria, who has highlighted human rights violations in besieged Syrian areas. As she worked on her testimony of the chemical massacre in Damascus suburbs, she was a part of a widely published advocacy campaign in the United States. She is now producing pieces involving unique stories from inside Syria to show the face of a country no one can see now. Ameenah is a freelancer with Reuters.de and an editor-in-chief with the German initiative WirMachenDas.Jetzt.

Ana Carolina Falcão

Ana grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and is an Industrial Designer. She was involved in a variety of social impact related projects through her school work and started using different design research methodologies and a design thinking approach to creating empathy with users and communities to improve the outcomes of her projects. She developed her thesis, “Lemba Lemba”, in partnership with UNICEF, whose purpose was to improve educational conditions of children through furniture. She continued her academic studies with a Masters in Business Design, at Domus Academy in Milan, and has been volunteering at PACO, a collaborative design studio focusing on design education and social innovation. She worked directly with the Design School for Children and also in an international challenge called “what design can do,” in which they work to integrate the refugees into their new European communities.

Anja Sisarica

Anja, from Serbia, completed her PhD in 2015 on the topic of Creativity Support in Games for Motivated Learning at City University London, Centre for Creativity in Professional Practice. She holds a BSc and MSc in Computer Science from University of Novi Sad, Serbia. During her studies, she was a visiting scholar at Sapienza University in Rome, Italy (BASILEUS EM-ECW), Bremen University, Germany (DAAD) and Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria (CEEPUS-II). Now she is working as User Researcher at Signal Media Ltd. in London, exploring how financial communications professionals interact with information when monitoring news and brands' reputations.

Brittany Myers

Born and raised in Canada, Brittany recently moved to San Francisco after spending the last decade in New York City. She is a creative strategist with a background in human-centric research, experience design and communications. Her projects have spanned a variety of categories, including product design, brand positioning, and community revitalization. In 2010 Brittany earned her MSc in Marketing in Dublin, Ireland. As a runner and climber, she's fascinated with the learning potential that challenges in extreme environments can offer. While trekking in the Everest Region in 2015, she experienced the Nepali earthquakes firsthand and it changed her life. She has since been involved in various relief and awareness efforts for Nepal, including a benefit she created to help small business owners get back on their feet. Brittany is excited to learn about how design and systems thinking can more effectively create change, and actively seeks to make this a bigger part of her work and everyday life. She is also studying psychology part-time, and currently works for a design consultancy in California.

Carla Ramírez Sosa

Carla, from Puerto Rico, graduated from Pratt Institute with a BA in Industrial Design and a minor in Sustainability Studies. She's passionate about design for social impact, and sustainable design, but also very curious about design for behavior change and transition design. As a human-centered designer and researcher, she wants to work on projects that attempt to further social, cultural and environmental goals. When she's not designing for complex problems, she feeds her love for craftsmanship by making objects, exploring different materials and learning new techniques.

Cristina Anaia

Cristina is from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and also has a Lebanese background. She recently graduated from the Industrial and Interaction Design program at Syracuse University. Over the past two years, she has been using her skills as a designer within the communities she's part of. She has been working with Beirut Design Week (BDW) in Beirut, Lebanon, promoting Lebanese design, and also been involved in a dual language program for Latin-American children and an intensive English program targeted towards resettling refugees in Syracuse, New York. In one of her projects, she explored how people learn and exchange languages, and how strangers interact at airports. She looks forward to working and exploring more about interdisciplinary design research, UX research, the relationship between language and culture, refugee resettlement, language education services, and the implementation of design thinking into school systems.

Ellen Comhaire

Ellen, from Belgium, has two master degrees– one in Graphic Design from the School of Arts Ghent and another in Moral Sciences from the University of Ghent. She's currently studying Product Design, and working with drawing movies and illustrations for organizations with 'good aims'. She worked as a counselor in three prisons, supporting prisoners through individual chats from a humanistic point of view and setting up group projects. She was also a project leader on administrative simplification (cutting red tape) in my city government– making up strategies, leading projects, giving workshops (LEAN and GTD-based), organizing events and contests for sharing and recognizing good practices. As a volunteer, she has a five years experience as an instructor in youth movements, organizing events and giving mostly playful workshops to young people; four years as board member of the Human Rights League, a supporter of several animal rights and welfare organisations, and she started a Facebook Page to support and stimulate awareness, conscious living, and solidarity.

Erin Kremser

Erin is an American multidisciplinary researcher, international program manager, and aspiring social designer. In her most recent role, Erin worked on the Foreign Fulbright Student Program, a U.S. Department of State-funded scholarship program that brings international students to the U.S. for graduate study. She is currently in the midst of a career transition and is working to better understand the use of design to shape how organizations, services, and systems are built in order to ensure more impactful social change.

Janine Sara Morton

Janine, from Australia, is the Coordinator for Community Development in Children’s Ground, Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory. Children’s Ground is a First Nations led organization that has a radical approach to addressing extreme inequity and disadvantage for Australia’s Indigenous community. Janine is also the founding Director of a Melbourne based not for profit, JEM - which addresses social justice issues, such as homelessness, discrimination, and everyday ethics through innovative and holistic projects, led by young people for their local community. Janine has her Master in International Health, through Monash University, her Bachelor of Ministry, and is currently over halfway through her Nursing Degree. Janine hopes to use her new-found clinical skills to compliment her public health background, with the aim to further facilitate systemic change amongst communities where there are poor health outcomes combined with inequitable access to mainstream service provision. Janine has a particular passion for women’s rights and wellbeing. Janine enjoys peppermint tea, the ocean and going camping with her husband and two beautiful children.

Jasper Ryan

Jasper is a student from Sydney, Australia, studying Civil Engineering combined with Creative Intelligence & Innovation at the University of Technology Sydney. Excited to learn, eager to play, Jasper is tired of wondering what ideas could or couldn't have worked; he wants to start challenging sticky problems and creating novel and sustainable solutions.

Lien De Ruyck

Lien is from Belgium and works as a freelance creative strategist, social storyteller, and travel journalist. She is fond of cross-industry thinking and more eager than ever to help organizations and companies to rewrite their stories. She is specialized in 360° communication strategies, innovative concepts and ‘human content,’ which she believes is the missing link between pure content marketing and human-centric design. Currently, she is designing impact-driven campaigns and concepts for clients as Welzijnszorg (tackling national poverty) and VRT Start-Up, the national public-service broadcaster for the Flemish Region and Community of Belgium. Turning slogans into reality, always striving for innovation and social impact, her big dream-in-the-making is the launch of her own creative change agency: a network-centric, purpose-driven agency that guides brands to become true human brands, striving for social impact, bringing social stories and activating citizens. She is building her own method toolkit with 4 new human marketing P's, to make that dream tangible and shareable.

Lucy (Haojia) Chen

Lucy, from Australia, studies Communication (Media Arts and Production), Creative Intelligence and Innovation, and German at the University of Technology Sydney. She is extremely passionate about education, environmental issues and loves the outdoors. In 2016, she received the Queen's Scout Award and has since continued to pursue her dreams of creating a positive change in the world through volunteering with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Greenpeace, and The Learning Project.

Lucy Chen

Lucy, from China, tells us that she grew up as a 'good kid' and now she's exploring the road not taken. A founding student at an innovative college, Minerva School at KGI, she is traveling to 7 countries to study over the course of 3 years. Currently living in Berlin, she's working on creative objects to understand concepts like nomadism and interactive empathy. She's curious and fascinated with Emotion - Cognition interactions and Learning about Learning. She believes in Design x Technology for social good. She often falls in love with questions and design starting from discomfort, disconnect, and discrepancy. She's also a nomadic photographer. Intentionally seeking serendipity and beauty, she is looking for opportunities in Education Innovation space.

Maja Juzwiak

Maja has lived in Brazil, Switzerland and the US, and traveled to Australia, New Zealand, and various countries in Asia, Europe and America. She studied international management and has a business background, but is now moving towards the marketing and start-up scene. She is passionate about photography, psychology, healthy food, extreme and 'normal' sports, adventures, traveling, and reading. Sustainability themes and cultural diversity are parts of her daily life.

Majed Almansoori

Majed, from the United Arab Emirates, is the Managing Director of Bond’s Abu Dhabi studio. He studied Electrical Engineering at Purdue University and Marketing at INSEAD. He has a strong entrepreneurial mind and is dedicated to changing the perception of design in the UAE. By bringing Bond to Abu Dhabi, he strives not only to bring Finnish creativity to the UAE but also to combine the design cultures for greater synergies. He is also the Application Marketing Specialist at Borouge, responsible for Marketing strategy development and implementation. In the past he served as Founding Partner of JSQ International Distribution. Majed was selected by the Ministry of youth to be the UAE youth representative in the 2014 World Youth Forum and 2011 UNESCO youth forum. In addition, he gave an inspirational speech at the Chechnya Youth Forum in 2015.

Priyam Vadaliya

Priyam is a design researcher and design thinker from Gujarat, India. She graduated in Industrial Design from National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad in January 2016. While studying design in a premier institute in India, and practicing design after that, she has worked on varied design projects in the Indian context, from Low Energy Lifestyles for Sustainable Living to Social Innovation in Infant Nutrition and Breastfeeding. She was recently selected for Design Now Summer School at School of Design Politecnico di Milano, which was focused around FabCity: building products and services for Urban Resilience through Manufacturing. She also worked on a project around building new economy and cryptocurrency for the city. On of her recent projects is “Innovate Inside: Towards Creative Prison Industries,” working with NID and Design Against Crime Research Centre (DACRC), UAL, London, aimed to build inmate resilience through creativity and reduce the crime rates in a city. Currently, she's freelancing and working on projects around her interest areas, which are Design for Social Change, System Design, co-creation and the idea of design from objects to a way of thinking and how it connects to different domains.

Stefan Burlacu

Stefan is a product designer from Chisinau, the capital of the Republic of Moldova. While studying Industrial Design at the Technical University of Moldova, he met a great lecturer and tutor that has helped him become the designer he is today. After his graduation, his desire to make stuff that matters was strong and he started to do what his intuition was telling him: he activated his career on a freelance basis doing product design and also graphic design. He tends to like to design objects that communicate, help people, and also have an impact on their minds in a positive way.

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Berlin Fellowship Day 1

October 9, 2016

And… we’re off! The fellowship officially began Saturday afternoon when our amazing cohort of 20 fellows, who are joining us from 12 countries, met us at the Berlin Wall Memorial Strip.

Our local host, Kathleen, welcomed the group and provided some cultural and sentimental context for where we were standing — above a tunnel that connected East Berlin to the West, in front of a memorial where the wall used to stand.

Our local host, Kathleen, explains her experience with the East / West divide growing up in Berlin.

After a short introduction to the program and the city, we walked as a (BIG) group over to our home base for the week, AHOY! In AHOY we played the longest round of one-legged stand game that we’ve played so far (with 20 fellows and 7 UnSchool team members, this was truly an endurance test). By the end, our legs were a little sore but we totally remembered the names and weird facts of everyone in the room– thanks to the cognitive trick of making something stick by learning it under more challenging circumstances (in this case having to stay coordinated and balanced on one leg while thinking, talking, remembering!).

Some coffee helped us gear up for a rapid-fire series of Pecha Kucha talks. With each person getting 3 minutes to tell us who they are, what they’re all about, what they do for love and for money, what their burning passions and current challenges are, we ran through the group getting to know everyone a bit more than their One Legged facts had revealed.

Our cohort is filled with some seriously impressive humans from a wide array of backgrounds participating in change in diverse ways in their own domains. From mountaineering, to working with non-profits supporting Syrian Refugees here in Berlin, to ceramics, to actively encouraging creative industry in the Middle East, to contributing to the slow food movement, to raising millions of dollars for nonprofits through hand drawn greeting cards, to creating conceptual stools inspired by PacMan and… the list goes on. We can’t wait to see what type of collaboration comes out of the week.

For our second adventure in large-group-travel-to-a-secret-destination, our team led fellows on a walking-metro-bus-walking journey to a surprise location: Bauhaus-Archiv, a museum and library that houses artefacts from Germany’s world famous Bauhaus.

The Bauhaus was a college of art, architecture, and design that existed from 1919 to 1933 and is regarded as the 20th century’s most import design school, founded by Walter Gropius who also designed the Bauhaus-Archiv in Berlin. We were lucky to get a private tour, led by the Archiv’s Scientific Specialist, Ms. Güldner. Her passion was contagious as she explained how Bauhaus tore down silos and brought together artists, designers, architects, engineers, and more to create a new vision of society– how they instigated a movement around art, design, and engineering being more than it had been previously.

One of the chairs on exhibit, designed by Marcel Breuer, really struck us. Despite being nearly a hundred years old it seemed to be just as contemporary and modern as any chair you might buy today — and if you wanted something like this you might expect it to cost thousands of dollars. But, Breuer’s chair, when designed in 1925 was intentionally functional and affordable– the vision was to create beautiful household items that every German family could afford.

Our visit to Bauhaus-Arhiv and guided tour reinforced themes that we will continue to explore throughout the week including a critical approach to the products we bring into the world and the role that these products play in the lives of everyday people. We love the concept of creativity being a catalyst for something more than the institutions want it to be, and Bauhaus was one of the inspirations for the UnSchool, so we were thrilled to get to explore the archive, history and spirit of it.

BauHaus Re Use

The tour wrapped up at BauHaus Re Use, a building constructed with materials from the original Bauhaus in Dessau, where our team had set up for a surprise evening of drinks and tapas.

Surprise tapas at BauHaus Re Use

After a night of spirited conversations and a few spontaneous dance moves, we called it a day and left Bauhaus to rest up for Day 2.

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Berlin Fellowship Day 2

October 10, 2016

After a fueling up with breakfast (Kathleen made waffles!) and coffee, we kicked off Day 2 with what felt like a collective birthday party – everyone shared treats and gifts from their homes and shared a bit about where they’re coming from.

After a fueling up with breakfast (Kathleen made waffles!) and coffee, we kicked off Day 2 with what felt like a collective birthday party – everyone shared treats and gifts from their homes and shared a bit about where they’re coming from.

We then dove straight into a session on what sustainability *actually* is. Leyla broke down green framing, why the doomsday perspective of sustainability and fear framing are problematic, life cycle assessments, end of life bias, and more. Here are a few key notes:

·         Sustainability is not about hugging trees. (Here’s a case for reframing it.)

·         People tend to have an emotional reaction to sustainability instead of a rational one but we are in a “dynamic interconnected reliant relationship with nature” so it’s really something we ought to think rationally about. Eating breathing and drinking water are not optional choices, they are life support systems for us – not protecting them is irrational.

·         Sustainability is about understanding how to make the best decisions with the resources we have to sustain life support systems on this planet. This, is a matter of intragenerational and intergenerational equity as, to quote the Brundtland Commission, sustainable development is really “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

·         We live in a finite planet with finite resources. Your ecological footprint reflects how many planets we’d need to not use more resources than we have, if everyone on earth were to live your lifestyle. Thinking about yours helps you connect your lifestyle to the impact of all the individual decisions you make in terms of consumption. (You can calculate yours here: http://ecologicalfootprint.com/ )

·         We humans tend to have an end of life bias, because that’s the part we see. Waste is framed as bad and stupid – we are taught not to litter and are encouraged to recycle. While we shouldn’t litter and should recycle (or aim to be zero waste!), often waste and end of life is not where the biggest impact is.

“Simple and painless” actions often don’t lead to the positive spillover (of people doing more and more, better and bigger actions) that organizations and government’s hope for. On the contrary, these simple and painless behaviour changes may allow for people to check their “did my part” box and excuse them from taking other more meaningful actions – they could even lead to a rebound effect (think about someone recycling to “do their part” but then consuming more plastic bottles because they think it’s okay because they recycle).

When our sustainability session came to a close we dove into a session on Systems Thinking, exploring how it overcomes the human reductionism that comes out of linear thinking (the Newtonian view of the world). To quote Einstein, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”  

Leyla stressed the importance of developing a 3-dimensional perspective– of being able to look down through the microscope at the micro level, up through the telescope and out through a periscope to get the lay of the land. Systems thinking stresses seeing the parts and the whole (whereas reductionism sees the world in parts) and embraces the fact that everything (EVERYTHING) is interconnected. If we fail to see the connections and come up with narrow solutions we risk a whole lot of unintended consequences. As Peter Senge has said, “Today’s problems are often yesterday’s solutions.”

With all of that in mind, we did an activity where everyone had to list all the systems they could think of. While it was fairly easy to think of social and industrial systems, people struggled to identify ecosystems after the first few. This remade the point that Leyla rose in the morning – that we tend to be disconnected from how reliant we are on natural systems.

Fellows chose different social systems and worked to map them intuitively. After mapping elements of their chosen system that they could think of and then began drawing connections between them. Considering the connections, they were able to draw some key insights about the system they were mapping. Reflecting on the exercise, we discussed how almost every node could be connected, how many connections have cause and effect relationships, and how reinforcing feedback loops have snowball effects within their systems.

With our heads recalibrated to see the invisible systems all around us, we headed out for another surprise field trip. After a pause en route to briefly discuss Checkpoint Charlie (as we passed it), we ended up at MIITO’s design studio. Partners Nils Chudy and Jasmina Grase welcomed us with tea and then dove into a talk on their journey from design students to designers. Their journey (and coincidentally, seeing Leyla's TED Talk!) led them to their current project: MIITO Precise, an award-winning energy-efficient (and really beautiful) electric kettle that heat liquids directly in the vessel through induction.

Did you know that 165 million cups of tea are consumed every day and 65% of tea drinkers admit to overfilling their kettles? The cumulative outcome of extra energy required in 1 day could light all of England’s street lights for 6 months! This was something that we had discussed in our systems thinking session, so it was exciting to meet two designers who are actively working on addressing this.

Jasmina said that the “Biggest challenge as a designer is to change human habits.” They knew that with MIITO their approach would have to be more than just sustainable. They sought out to create a new type of kettle that would be a conversation starter, not only energy efficient but also cool, beautiful, fun to use, and rewarding on a personal level. (Which we’d say they totally pulled off – the MIITO kettle is super sleek.)

As they shared their process, they also gave our fellows some advice:

·         Learning = motivation. See the whole experience as an adventure. Make life your school and give yourself assignments to DO things and learn from them as you go.

·         “Fake it till you make it – test your revolution.”

·         “Time is luxury – innovation takes time that we don’t have.”

·         “Astronaut thinking – take it one problem at a time.” When you’re dealing with what seems like an impossible situation or an overwhelming amount of obstacles – tackle them one at a time and it will become doable.

With MIITO's redesign of the tea kettle as inspiration, fellows were asked to rethink other machines. Groups were formed and each one chose their challenge blindly (from some very mysterious bags).

Groups were asked to consider what flaws their product have, who the primary users are, if it was a necessary item, how it could be less wasteful and if it could be replaced. After some work-time, teams dynamically pitched their redesigns of a speaker system, a blow dryer, a fan, and an iron.

From MIITO, we split into two groups and embarked on walking tour adventures throughout the city, which invited our fellows to see the city through different perspectives.

One of the walking tours was led by Klaus and Louis, from Querstadtein, a German organization which aims to break down the stereotypes about homelessness by telling the individual stories of those living on the street while creating a dialogue between the homeless and the housed people that share communities. Klaus, who lived on the streets of Berlin from 2001 to 2009, shared his personal story, the circumstances that forced him to live on the streets, his day to day experience of getting by, and how he was able to get off the streets and rebuild his life . After struggling with alcohol addiction and losing his job, Klaus found himself sleeping in a park in central Berlin. This became his life for 8 years and, now that he’s on the other side of it, he gives tours like these to help lift the invisibility veil and bust through people’s assumptions.

Klaus walked us through his old neighborhood and helped us understand his daily routine, how he got by collecting glass bottles and the social services that he interacted with. He also shared touching stories about people in the neighborhood who got to know him and gave him the support and encouragement that helped him move into a shelter and then become sober again. Our tour with Klaus helped us understand the people and systems that too often get overlooked, while experiencing Berlin from a unique perspective.

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Berlin Fellowship Day 3

October 11, 2016

We started off the morning with a continuation of systems mapping, led by Leyla. She went over some systems mapping tools and stressed the importance of understanding causality ("That's just the way it is" is bullshit! There is always something leading to something else!). We explored feedback loops, tragedy of the commons, burden shifting and rule breaking, and then we dove into the 9 Rules of Systems Thinking. The session reinforced the idea that small changes can lead to big change if you understand the systems and take advantage of the leverage points (think trim tab!).

Then we were joined by mentor Rym Momtaz, who shared her experience as a producer for ABC and led a fascinating conversation around the connections between things like Brexit, World War II and the current Syrian war. Rym talked about the role that journalists and storytelling play historically and in the contemporary landscape. She talked about how in the past her press jacket would serve as protection in war-torn places, but now it makes for a target.

In sharing her experiences of exploring ways to flip the narrative, Rym asked each of the fellows to take 5 minutes to write a narrative introduction to themselves, as if it were written by a journalist. Fellows then paired up, swapped their stories and interviewed each other. Rym facilitated a wonderful group conversation where people shared their insights about each other and teased out the ways in which we can use narrative to build empathy and shift the status quo.

While doing Rym's narrative experience we started to smell something savory and delicious: a vegan laksa that the UnSchool team cooked up! We loaded our bowls up and enjoyed a very yellow and tasty lunch, fueling up for our next session with our mentor Janet Gunter, an American/British activist, Anthropologist and co-founder of The Restart Project.

Janet shared her personal narrative, everything from playing unsupervised as a child to her time living in East Timor to her current work now. She challenged us to explore our relationships with the natural world and think about our "way in" to sustainability – as she says if we are to really embrace it it's necessary to have a “personal” connection with it.

Janet's connection, and her outrage with planned obsolescence, led her to start the Restart Project– "a people-powered platform for change, helping demand emerge for more sustainable, better electronics".  After hearing about what goes on behind the scenes of planned obsolescence, fellows were given various electronic products, tools (screwdrivers, pliers, etc.) and were asked to take apart their products, documenting each step of the way and looking at how each material is made (we had some visual guides to explain various technical components and resources that go into different materials!).

A lot of fellows were surprised by how hard it is to break a product down – screws are hidden, obscure tools were required etc. The activity also demonstrated how incredibly difficult Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can be because it requires a deep understanding of very complex manufacturing processes (though existing online data can make it easier to make estimates and assumptions on it).

After wrapping up the product tear down debrief, Leyla jumped right into a rapid-fire introduction to gamification (really rapid as we had just 10 minutes before we needed to depart on our next adventure!). She shared strategies for creating gamified experiences that engage participants, involving a mix of mechanics, mechanisms, modes and motivators.  Fellows were then grouped into teams and each team was given a unique, random, design-a-game challenge:

"Design a ______ for  _____ that incorporates _____. The purpose of your game is to teach someone else one of the new learnings you had this week."

Each team drew cards from 3 different buckets to fill in the blanks for their challenge and had less than an hour to design a game and prepare their demo for the group. Because we had to move on to the next destination, teams had the added challenge of designing their games while riding the metro.

After a couple metro delays and twists (fellows didn't seem to notice or mind because they were so engaged with their game design!) we made it to our next destination: BSR Headquarters. Their Head of Innovation talked us through how the company manages Berlin's waste (ALL of it!)– which is really quite fascinating. From designing waste disposal products and processes to be accessible to people who are physically challenged, to working to overcome issues with people separating waste, there is really much more creativity that goes into waste management than one might think. We got to go on a mini-tour of the innovations they're currently working on and learned about challenges, the future of waste management, as well as end-of-life stage in general (it's not every day you see where garbage goes after you bag it and hand it off!)

Back at Ahoy, each team had 2 minutes to demo their games– there were a lot of laughs and claps involved. Teams used creative ways to role play their game experiences, which ranged from TV game shows about storytelling to a systems thinking card game, to an app children could play to understand the materials that go into their products. Interestingly, no two groups chose the same learning to focus on!

The games were the official end point of Day 3, though most fellows went out on group dinners together.

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Berlin Fellowship Day 4

October 12, 2016

Day 4 was one that exercised our bodies as much as our minds…. We walked 12.5 km together before the day was done! We spent the first few hours of the day on an incredible “Urban Commons Tour” which started out at Prinzessinnengärten, a vibrant urban vegetable garden and community space. After exploring the garden and learning about its origins (it used to be a wasteland) and aspirations, we explored Tempelhofer Feld which used to be an airport and is now an amazing public park.

Our last stop on the tour was Am-Urban, an old hospital that was transformed into a “Bau-Gruppe” (co-living space) thanks to 140 parties pulling their resources together, buying the vacant hospital and then working together to codesign it (quite a feat to co-design with input from over 100 people!).

The walking tour – which has since been referred to as “the most epic walking tour ever” – led us to Malzfabrik, a former brewery turned into creative event space. We ate a farm-fresh lunch family style on a table long enough to accommodate all 25 of us. After warming up and filling up, we walked next door to visit EFC Farm, an aquaponics farm that produces resource-friendly and high-quality food for the local community. We sampled some of their delicious tomatoes and learned about their use of aquaponics, an environmentally friendly food production method that combines aquaculture and hydroponics. We saw how their dual circulatory systems allowed the farm to grow fresh vegetables and raise fish in a mutually beneficial way.

Back at AHOY we had a mentor session with Julia Kloiber, an activist who leads open data projects in collaboration with the government, private sector, and civic tech community. She discussed the need to overcome the “geek bubble” in tech and coding and to be more inclusive. This led to an interesting conversation on designing with people instead of for people. Julia ended the session by having the fellows practice a stakeholder mapping activity and apply the technique to projects they are currently working on.

Fellows thought they were going to a restaurant but we led them through the garden at AGORA (a center for contemporary practices) and up a few flights of stairs that opened onto our secret dinner party. Lights were low, candles were lit, music was playing, wine was opened, and all seemed fit for a relaxing romantic evening… until the team announced an experimental dinner game that was designed as a fun way to explore tough global environmental issues: "So You Think You Can Design?"  

Our alumna cohost, Mariana, had been invited to participate in Low Carbon City Forum (which is happening now in Medellín, where she lives) and, with the forum as inspiration, she was challenged to designed a game that would connect our Berlin fellowship to it. She adapted Designercise and created a ridiculous and fun TV game show of sorts wherein teams were challenged, throughout rounds, to design a solution in response to a sustainability-related problem.  The initial challenge didn’t seem too tough, but 5 minutes into it, the team announced that there was a roadblock– a new scenario was added to their problems. The game continued over a delicious veggie-packed Turkish dinner that our team has cooked up, and our team continued to add layers of complexity to the game. In addition to a LOT of laughs, the game encouraged fellows to stretch their brains, practice rapid prototyping and evolve new techniques in storytelling (after a half hour they were informed that they would have to perform their ideas without breaking their assigned character roles!).

Lots of fun was had, the team adopted alter-egos and became the judging panel, and the dinner room was turned into an electrified stand-up space of sorts. Teams gave 5-star performances as they acted out their problems and proposed solutions, incorporating and overcoming the roadblocks they were given. Ideas ranged from cross-species collaboration to bee farms to weather-related family planning. At the UnSchool we are really into pushing boundaries through experimenting with challenges and mixing up the status quo, so this dinner really allowed for the fellows to see idea diversity in action.

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Berlin Fellowship Day 5

October 13, 2016

Fellows started off Day 5 exploring in two groups. Kathleen's group walked along the Spree River, with Jan, the co-founder of the Flussbad project, which is working to make the river swimmable again. Up until the 1920s the Spree River was a community space used for bathing but it was shut down as the river became too polluted via industrial waste and personal litter. The project is about much more than swimming and fun (though it welcomes that as well with its annual test swims!) as it has a strong political dimension: It is about reclaiming the city center for Berliners, and making public water accessible to the public again.

Whereas a lot of the city's funds and efforts are being directed towards projects that remember the past, and Flussbad's project – filtering the water and building a shore so it can be reached – is one that looks towards a sustainable future.

Leyla's group went on an Observational research excursion through Alexanderplatz, looking out for and taking notes of all the systems and design decisions around them. (Trampolines built into the street were a definite highlight – a great example of how play can be embedded into the city landscape!) One fellow said that this observational research activity "blew her mind and rearranged the way she thought about the world."

Back at Ahoy, after everyone had a chance to fuel up (coffee! snacks!), Leyla dove into a hybrid session that combined 3 key modules of the Disruptive Design Methodology: Making Change, Cognitive Science, and Language & Influence . We explored what motivates people, walked through various theories on behavior change, effective PR(opaganda) campaigns, some cognitive science and more. Did you know that oxytocin (the "love hormone") and cortisol (the "stress hormone") regulate each other? (So if you’re incredibly stressed out and your cortisol levels are high, you can lower your stress by seeking out oxytocin; an 8-second hug will do the trick!)

One key take-away from the session was that it is a waste of energy to focus on changing somebody’s behavior; if you want to change people’s behaviors you have to understand the systems they operate in and change the norms that they subscribe to.

Before wrapping, fellows did a quick partner activity based on word-associations, revealing the power of language and building empathy.

After lunch, we had a very interesting session with our mentor Nynke Tromp, a social designer who is passionate about the power of design in counteracting social problems. She invited us to question what "normal" behaviors are, and how design mediates our relationship with the world. (What's the difference between normal behaviors in an abnormal world and abnormal behaviors in a normal world??) She shared some thought-provoking insights on our self-oriented attitudes and made a  case for how a more social-oriented mindset is beneficial not only for people around us, but also for ourselves.

We reflected on how every-day products end up changing our routines and, on a bigger scope, our lives.  Then it was workshop time! Fellows worked in teams and explored different ways in which design could be used as a key tool for creating change around issues like obesity, aging populations, organ donation and vaccination.  She spent time with each of the groups giving on-point feedback to help them adjust and reframe ideas.

We wrapped the day with a reflection session and tried to keep a mellow vibe as the fellows were pretty exhausted at this point. Sitting in a large circle, our alumni co-hosts, Adam (NYC Fellowship) and Mariana (Mexico City Fellowship), facilitated a group conversation about activities and learnings from the week. Next, each fellow did an individual reflection and wrote down some of their most valuable learnings. They shared with partners and identified shared lessons. The sheer variation and quantity of sessions throughout the week gave each participant a lot to think about, and the synthesis that began to happen during the reflection revealed many interesting ideas and connections.

Before everyone left for the day, we dropped one more surprise on them… the 24 Hour Design Challenge! Leyla introduced the challenge (24 hours to use the disruptive design methodology in a real-world setting), gave them a brief overview of the client, SINGA Deutschland (a local organization that supports refugees in Berlin) and put the group into teams. The challenge officially kicks off in the morning with pitches happening 24 hours later, so the fellows left Ahoy with a free evening to explore Berlin together (or go home and sleep).  

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Berlin Fellowship Day 6 & 7

October 15, 2016

The 24-hour design challenge had been introduced the night before, and finally in the morning teams got what they had all been waiting for… the brief! The UnSchool team had worked with the challenge partner, SINGA Deutschland, to craft a brief that included a problem statement, constraints, requirements and background information that the fellows would have to work with while applying the disruptive design methodology to come up with an intervention for positive change.

SINGA supports refugees coming to Germany and connects them with locals to work on projects together, with a particular focus on helping refugees build businesses. One of the major challenges that SINGA faces, which the fellows had to address, is how bureaucracy and systems inhibit access to key services that people need to settle in and really live and grow (professionally and personally) here in Europe. For example, newcomers can not rent apartments, can not get credit, etc. Vinzenz from SINGA came to Ahoy in the morning of Day 6 to introduce the organization and answer questions that the fellows had about the brief. Then teams were given their own temporary offices here at Ahoy and the 24 hour countdown timer began!

As minutes and hours ticked away, teams applied various approaches to exploring the systems and agents tied to the problem. Walls and table were covered with systems maps, stakeholder maps, storyboards, and more (Edding had generously provided us with these amazing “magic-charts,” large static writing sheets that cling to surfaces and can be erased and reused!).  Emotions were high as teams worked under the clock, to tease out leverage points, resolve team dynamic challenges, ideate ways that SINGA could intervene to increase access for refugees, and prototype their best ideas.

Leyla and team members made rounds throughout the afternoon and night, agitating teams to embrace the messiness, reframe, “cut through the frothy stuff” and prototype with something physical. At midnight we called it a night at AHOY – teams were given free range of what to do next (work through the night or get some sleep to have an early start). At 8:15 we were back at AHOY and back in action. Fellows did “working breakfasts” and prepared for practice pitch and feedback sessions with Leyla.

When the 24 Hours were up, fellows had to pitch their ideas for interventions to a panel of judges, which included Vincenz, from SINGA.

Fellows gave engaging presentations on a range of interventions and received critical feedback from the judges. After they were, done a judge’s choice was announced and then ellows moved about the room to select a popular choice winner. We then popped some champagne to celebrate and gave out prizes!

After celebrating, we had a delicious vegetarian lunch, cooked by a Syrian catering company here in Berlin (thanks to SINGA for the recommendation!). After satisfying our post-challenge hunger, we dove into a reflection session, led by our alumni co-hosts, and looked back on all 7 days of our adventure together.

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Now that you read about the week, watch the doco we made on the people who come to the UnSchool 

São Paulo Fellowship

 June 20-27 2016

Meet the fellows!

On Sunday, June 19th, we kicked off our São Paulo fellowship program with these 16 emerging leaders, creative rebels and change agents, joining us from 8 countries!  

 

KALINA JUZWIAK

Curious, creative, explorer, artist, designer, illustrator. those are the main things that define me, but not necessarily in that order or with those labels. I am working on different projects that involve my multidisciplinary layers. since 2013 i lead a studio called kaju.ink, which is mainly focused on personal branding - which I call identiting. my artsy side takes me to creating patterns, painting walls and canvas'. the studio and the artistic projects often cross paths and projects with other creative minds. I have a blog, called comTijolo, which goes around subjects such as performance, entrepreneurship, sustainability, reuse of materials, design, and a balance between mind and body, talking about holistic habits. I  am also engaged in some horizontal projects, movements and companies, always using my organizational and creative skills to tell visual stories Website

VALENTINA FERRARI

Is a product designer who is chronically unsatisfied with how systems and things work. She is very optimistic as to how design can improve processes in our society in a way to create better experiences and a higher life quality. Valentina is currently working with packaging design. @valenferrari

GIULIANNA LOUIS

Born in Brazil, but grew up in Switzerland, and had a global education. Ever heard of third-culture kids? Well, I’m one of them. Now I curate beautiful images and brands for a living. Always value great aesthetics, and am very lucky to be able to create some interesting stuff in the process. At my core I'm a curious and creative person, very energetic and extremely organized, who believes that understanding our culture can offer socio-economic alternatives within it. Website

Matheus Pinheiro de Oliveira e Silva

Graduated in Bachelor of Tourism but followed his heart on social entrepreneur. Co-founder of the social project called Meraki Group which aims to empower and develop leadership, communication and empathy on GenY. Founder and writer of inRoutes travel blog, a project which gained life after his 1-year learning experience in senior high school in Indonesia by Rotary International and 3 months volunteering in India. He is an agent of change of World Merit and Head of Communications in World Merti Brazil. Co-organized the first Startup Weekend Change Maker in a poor neighborhood in Guarulhos. Passionate by social impact he studied and holds certifications in social entrepreneurship, design thinking, business model, theory U, human-centered design, social innovation, leadership, interpersonal intelligence and effective communication by Stanford University, MIT, Acumen, UCLA, Artemisia, Mastermind and Clinton Center for Teaching and Learning. Linkedin | Project | @ma_tai

 ISABEL CHENDER

I have trained extensively in the tools of authentic engagement and the use of graphic language to illuminate and apply them in my work as a social/ environmental consultant and graphic facilitator.  I work in both the international community development and public engagement/social innovation sectors; social and environmental sustainability is the unifying theme. I’ve lived in Guyana, Chile, and Ecuador working in project design, execution and evaluation to support community-led health, language, and environmental sustainability awareness and education. In Canada, my experience as a community engagement strategist led to work across sectors to create a movement across Nova Scotia  towards a culture of self-reliance and collaboration. Right now I’m living in Brazil to pioneer a project in the Amazon rainforest to combine alternative methods for social change with community-led development to train sustainability leaders. You’re already a relative of mine if you’re part of the MSLS, Art of Hosting, Deep Democracy, ALiA institute, systems thinking, the natural step, and complexity science networks/communities. Likedin | Project

Natália Franzon Catarino

I am an enthusiast of the creative economy. My work transits between design, communication, management, art and entrepreneurship. I’m passionate about new ways for business models and education systems, and found in Design Thinking a route to make that change. I founded a creative lab in Londrina - Paraná - Brazil where I was born and raised. The Look Up - Creative Lab is a place to empower people with entrepreneurial mindset, creative tools and self-knowledge through immersions, workshops and courses based on collaboration and experience learning. I’m graduated in advertising and specialized in sales management, but found my real passion after an executive program in Hivelab, where Design Thinking really changed my way of thinking and the course of my career. Linkedin | Website

Thessa Bos

A non-native to South Africa, Thessa traveled, lived and worked in three different continents before arriving in Cape Town ten years ago. With degrees in journalism, international relations and business, an insatiable curiosity coupled with an innate affinity with connecting to people; Thessa embarked on a career in journalism, policy and project management. Driven by her passion for design and motivation to contribute to the local economy, Thessa co-founded KIN in January 2010 to change the world - beginning with the business of art, craft and design in South Africa.  In 2013, Thessa was offered the irresistible opportunity to coordinate the Dutch Embassy's World Design Capital 2014 program, and build relationships between Dutch and South African design and innovation. She is currently the Deputy Consul General at the Netherlands Consulate General in Cape Town. Website

Aziz Camali

Since 2008 I play with design, strategy and love in my company, DZN here in Brazil. Since I realize and decided to be an unspecialist, I started a different and transdisciplinary way to learn, create and implement my career and self-evolution, trying to redefine business and education models, and people´s life perspective, starting with mine. Website

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São Paulo, Day 1

June 20, 2016

Yesterday we kicked off our 4th emerging leaders fellowship in São Paulo! The adventure started out in the very cool district of Vila Madelena, at Batmans Alley, an open gallery whose walls artists have been adorning since the 1960’s.

Our powerhouse team (who, from the looks of it could also make it as an indie band if this week doesn’t work out), set up camp there, waiting to greet our 16 fellows as they arrived from 8 different parts of the globe.

From left to right: Leticia, Sara, Arturo, Regina, Leyla and our super host, Luisa

After a brief chat about word preferences between poo, poop and cocô, we started off with the one legged stand game, which is becoming an UnSchool tradition. Through it we learned a bit about everyone in the group, and tested our endurance. Our fellows impressed us with their memory skills, especially Victor, who went last and didn't break a sweat as he recalled the names and facts of all 20 of us (fellows + team). He didn’t even confuse our host Luisa and her co-host Leticia, who coincidentally both came dressed as cheese-loving mimes!

We then walked over to Ecobeco, to visit a group of architect entrepreneurs. They outfitted a house with sleek sustainable design solutions, and showed us a drool-worthy example of urban eco-living. We received a tour from one of the founders, Rafael Miranda (also founder of Ecoeficientes),  who gave us the scoop on some of the cool designs-- garden beds that can survive 3 weeks without water due to clay beads in the base, solar powered ovens, tetra pak walls that made up the side of his office, and more! It was like exploring an engineer’s secret eco-wonderland full of solutions for the future.

Next, we headed to the newly-opened Casa Madalena, the headquarters for Yunus Social Business. It isn’t a co-working space, but rather a house designed to accelerate purpose driving companies. There, we jumped right into our rapid getting-to-know-you 3 minute Pecha Kucha’s (our full team even got up to do it!).

Each Pecha Kucha blew us away in one way or another, with incredible storytelling, personal journeys and slick design left, right and center. We got inspired by fellows’ projects and experiences, laughed as some of them showed us their adorable childhood photos and funky hairstyles, and we even shed a few sneaky tears as Regina told a story about how her spirit animal was a sloth which has grown wings and is about to fly!

(What? Sloths can fly? Not typically. But watch this space, because this sloth is going to soar!)

After sharing our journeys of how we ended up in Sao Paulo together, we took a brief break to prepare ourselves for our first dose of knowledge transfer. Our epic powerhouse founder, Leyla, started off the learning journey by giving us her brain-stimulating introduction to sustainability. You could literally see the synaptic changes start to occur, as the fellows learned that biodegradable cornstarch cups aren’t actually more “sustainable” than plastic cups (BOOM). Leyla also walked through what sustainability is (hint: it’s not about being a tree hugging hippie) and busted some of the dominant myths around sustainability:

1. Biodegradable is best?

2. Humans act rationally?

3. Packaging is bad?

4. Sustainability costs more?

One insanely fit fellow, Caroline, realized how “blind” she has been about the way the world works, but Leyla assured her it was okay because it’s not a permanent form of blindness and because that's what the UnSchool is all about: pulling the rug from under you and providing you with a new lens of seeing the world!

After getting unschooled on sustainability, we went off to a local bar to share food and some much appreciated wind-down drinks to relax after the hyper-stimulating brain-activating day. This local bar had a telescope on the roof, which some fellows played around with, looking all directions (not just up)... It’s only the end of day one, but we already know we have a cheeky bunch of emerging disruptive designers on our hands this week!

If you want to check out the mischief we get up to, you can find us on snapchat, instagram and twitter by searching "unschools" ... team members, fellows and mentors will also be posting across social media with the tag #unschoolsp!

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São Paulo Fellowship Day 2  

June 21, 2016

Day 2 started off at House of All, a coworking space that also has a laundry mat and coworking food shop! It's a cluster of several cool little buildings that have been converted into a coworking space, a shared laundry mat, a co-kitchen space for chefs, and a “house of learning” (a space for hosting educative programs like ours)!

Leyla continued to lay the knowledge foundations for fellows with a fascinating dive into systems thinking. Our fellows explored what systems make up the world and Leyla explained that “everything is interconnected – and that we live in a dynamic chaotic world that makes order.” Huh? Chaotic order? That seems a bit contradictory, right?

Apparently not! As we unpacked systems thinking, exploring human systems, industrial systems and ecological systems, it all started to make sense. Everything is interconnected.

Our founder, Leyla, is a brilliant knowledge sharer – she has this unique ability to make you see the world in a completely new way. She shares things that somehow seem to make complete sense while simultaneously leaving you questioning everything you once thought to be true.

In order for the fellows to develop a better understanding of systems thinking, they grouped off to do their own systems maps of education, status, the agriculture system and gender. Our super bright fellows dove into the exercise and started to break down their allocated systems and started to see the complexity of their systems.

Just when the fellows’ brains looked like they were going to explode, we took a lunch break in the courtyard and fueled up with delicious vegan food. Over lunch, we tapped into another UnSchool tradition and everyone shared something they had brought from their home towns. Our global fellows brought maple syrup from Canada, kangaroo jerky from Australia, healing oil made from plants from the Amazon, homemade Chilean honey and tasty crickets from Mexico. Two of our Brazilian fellows, Murillo and Victor, graced us with an excellent Samba performance!

After the sharing, we jumped into our afternoon session with mentor Luisa Santiago. Luisa walked us through what seemed like her entire life journey, revealing that she has always seen herself as a (disruptive) misfit that has followed her gut. This gut instinct has led Luisa to be a journalist, a surfing gypsy in Australia, an environmental manager that scored her first job in the sustainability space in a huge consulting firm.

Luisa shared that the start of her career was so successful because she was “the person that did all the jobs that no one wanted to do.” For example, she’d jump from one part of the world to another at her organization's beckon call, from Africa to the deep Amazon to advise on sustainability within a male-dominated mining industry.

Luisa now spearheads the circular economy in Brazil and has put Rio on the list of 100 Resilient Cities. She also told the fellows that she sees “Social gaps as constant stresses that make us weak” -- an interesting way of looking at the inequality across the globe.

Luisa shared her session with Tomas De Lara ( her self-proclaimed partner in crime). Tomas blew our minds talking about gaia theory, B Corps, dragon dreaming and the thorus. He also talked through how he gets organisations to shift to a new model -- one of natural leadership instead of defined hierarchy. In addition to eliminating hierarchy, this model shifts the company’s economic model as people are paid based on the size of their family, for example.

Tomas then facilitated a peer-to-peer pitching competition through Open Space facilitation, wherein our fellows had 1 minute to pitch an idea that they wanted help with. Ideas ranged from sustainable alligator farms, to amazon retreats, to teaching the homeless to code, and beyond.

After a long and somewhat confusing voting process, we worked as a group to explore and support selected projects, including incorporating sustainability and systems thinking into a 21-day retreat that our fellow Isabel will run in a few weeks in the Amazon. (Yes, our fellows are amazing powerhouses and already have rad projects brewing.)

Our co-hosts Sara and Arturo then led a timeout for the fellows. As alumni, they know the process intimately themselves, know how intense it is, and know firsthand that fellows appreciate time to stop and process what they have been learning and doing. Everyone went around the group providing a word that described how they were feeling 1.5 days in. We had fellows feeling stimulated, emotional, anxious and ready! We then formed a circle and basically got super pumped about the changes we want to make.

Sara and Arturo, our UnSchool Alumni, host the first reflection session

After our reflection timeout wrapped, we walked back to Casa Madalena where we shared a surprise dinner with our mentors Tomas and Luisa. Two of our Mexican team members, Regina and Arturo, co-cooked for us so we enjoyed an utterly delicious veggie-centric Mexican dinner. But, before we dug in to eat, we received envelopes with secret missions -- by opening them we implicated ourselves and agreed to play this sneaky game throughout dinner. It was fascinating and at times hilarious to see the ways in which people strategized to complete their random missions.

Fun times as we cheers at the UnSchool Secret Dinner Party (mexican themed!)

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São Paulo Fellowship Day 3

June 22, 2016

UnSchool Sao Paulo Fellows and team

We had an extra early start on Tuesday, Day 3 to prepare for an intense and long field trip day. We stocked up on an energetic breakfast, we all herded onto an (un)school bus and embarked on a trip to visit “Villa Nova Esperança,” an organised community located an hour and a half outside of São Paulo.

While the bus navigated São Paulo's traffic, we received a great introduction to the community from Miguel Chaves, who works for Coas Facado, one of the community partners.

Maximizing our time for knowledge transfer, while on the bus, Leyla engaged the fellows with a quick session on Research Strategies, diving into the types of research, ethics and approaches to exploring what she calls “curiosity in action.” After getting through the key research content, the conversation ended up turning into a bus-wide debate about empathy and gender!

As we all debussed, Miguel welcomed us and introduced us to some tools, helping the fellows understand their surroundings and tap into their curiosity about the community.

Once in Villa Esperanza, we toured the Innovation Center and community gardens, which employ several people from the community. One of the community members, Ignacio, took the fellows to Villa Esperanza’s sustainable garden, where recycled materials such as PET bottles and tires are used to build garden beds and hearty plants grow through the clay soil. We were all pleasantly surprised when the secret garden door swung open and revealed such a lush and vibrant place.

Over some hot cups of coffee, the community’s leader, Lia, greeted us with a fast paced story about how the community was formed. (An awesome fellow, Valentina, took on the role of translator as Lia did not speak English and some of our fellows and teammates do not speak Portuguese.) Lia was pretty badass; when she met us she pulled up on her motorbike, and (more importantly) had just come from a meeting with the state in which she was fighting for the community’s right to stay.  She also spoke to us about how important authentic leadership, purpose, and passion are for generating real and sustainable change.

Fellows Alex, Isabel, Natalia, Victor and community leader Lia having a deep chat

One of our mentors, Mayra Fonseca, who was also in the community with us, then introduced a narrative-based research project. Fellows were asked to split into four groups, each group sitting with a community member for an in-depth discussion, which was a beautiful opportunity to understand a new reality from both perspectives.

Whilst all of this was going on, two of our team members, Regina and Leticia, spent several hours cooking up a storm (and dancing) in the kitchen of the resident community chef, Val.  They made a giant feast of local and traditional dishes for our group and community members to share.

After lunch, we visited the community’s innovation center, run by TeinPi. This center is a place where everyone in the community, from 7 year olds to 70 year olds,  can find the tools, guidance and support to create and build solutions that will solve their everyday problems or enhance their opportunities. We got to see some crazy wooden machines in action, such as a glass bottle crusher, a modular lamp, and even a PET string maker. We also noticed trompos were pretty big there.

The amazing community garden

Then, we packed back into the bus and journeyed back to São Paulo, landing at the Red Bull Station. A contrast indeed, the Red Bull Station is set up in an old abandoned building, which used to function as an electric station. Awesomely, the building now fosters emerging artists (in their recording and art studio) and supports 16 social innovators.

We took a brief tour through the station and when we reached the roof we couldn't resist the opportunity to snap another group shot!

Mayra Fonseca, our Mentor from Brasis, then continued with what she started in her morning session, as she talked to us about Brazilian culture and her approach as an anthropologist. She shared different lenses to approach culture and explored how words can tell your story.

Mayra explains her project to the group

Then our dynamic alumni-turned-co-host duo, Sara and Arturo, pulled the fellows together for a dynamic debrief session. After what was a beautiful yet intense day, fellows shared their key insights and explored how the experience has changed how they might try to be social innovators, moving forward. They spoke about how “exchanging” and genuinely interacting with communities, instead of pushing ideas onto a community is a much better approach.

Since we had a free night to reflect and regain energy, many of the fellows went off for dinner in groups and the team went back to their beds for a sleep, a very long sleep.

Fellows arrive at Red Bull Station, an old electrical station downtown

What will we get up to tomorrow!!!???

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São Paulo Fellowship Day 4

June 23, 2016

Wednesday started off with one of our tastiest UnSchool traditions: a pancake breakfast! Being in São Paulo, this time we cooked them up Brazilian-style with tapioca starch.

With full stomachs and sugar buzzes from the dulce de leche (out-of-control amazing caramel sauce), we hit GO on the day. Ruy Lopes de Barros welcomed us at The Impact Hub and gave us the scoop on what they’re all about. He told us that they work as “connectors of social innovation.”

Murillo and Mohammed chat over breakfast

What does that actually mean? At the Impact Hub, they feel responsible for connecting community and running towards “coherence” by trying to improve communities around the world. Ruoi explained that “We need more disruptive thinkers to help break barriers in society” and that is why he was so excited to host the UnSchool!

Leyla and Ruy from the Impact Hub introduce the session

Then... Boom! We took off into a fast-paced session, wherein Leyla explained that “reflection is a feedback loop”  through which you’re evolving and building on what you did previously. We then jumped into her favorite session, gamification and game theory. Fellows started to explore what game theory is and looked at how monopoly was originally designed to demonstrate the evils of capitalism (it seems like the game potentially had the opposite effect).

Leyla went onto explain that play is not just for kids, and that work is her play! She must be onto something because even Plato agreed to this as he wrote “life must be lived as play.”

The takeaways were:

1. You need to know the rules before you can break them

2. Gamification is using game mechanics in non-gaming environments

3. Curiosity is the gateway drug to changing the world

We then had an incredible mentor session with Dr. Stuart Candy, an experiential futurist on a mission to bring foresight to life. He’s aiming to use immersive, participatory and guerrilla futures interventions! He is awesome (in case that wasn’t obvious based on the last two sentences), currently serves as the director of the Situation Lab and is a professor at the world’s first hybrid-design foresight program at OCAD University in Toronto.

Stuart Candy UnSchool mentor

Stuart lined our fellows up like sausages on a barbecue and asked them to identify if they feel Optimistic or Pessimistic about the future. He then asked the fellows to identify if they feel that they personally can have an impact on this future. All this set up a live human matrix of optimism, pessimism, and everyone’s own perceived ability to have impact on their future. Fellows then spoke about why they put themselves where they did on the matrix. (Note: the game was originally invented by Peter Haywood, from Swinburne University in Australia).

After a quick caffeine recharge, Stuart started to talk about how he is a “professional futurist” and explained how he helps people to think systematically and creatively about life. He framed it as a way of creating museum’s of tomorrow. Instead of reflecting on the past, as museums do, his process allows for reflection about the future! (If you want to see some of our favorite futurists’ projects, you can check out his blog.)

Mentor Stuart Candy wrapping up his session

Stuart then went into a guerrilla futurist activity (sounds a bit wacky, but bear with us). It’s basically the interface between tactical media and strategic foresight “because this allows us to imagine futures for ‘serious purposes.” How better to break this down than to play the Thing from the future game? We don’t know, so that’s what we did. It was a fast-paced, creative and fun way to explore solutions for the future.

The fellows came up with some quirky, yet awesome solutions to fit their randomly generated scenarios. Here are just a few of the ideas fellows came up with: “mood boobs,” poo-art (we told you early on that our fellows are cheeky), and a chip you can put on your face to change the way you see people, so you are no longer irritated by their frustrating habits!

Playing the Thing from the Future

Stuart closed with some insightful comments like “Be the change you want to be, and simulate the rest.”  (That’s Ghandi x Futurism, people!) He also said that it’s important to show people the future and not just tell them what it could be. He believes that the gift  we can give to those we interact with, is the invitation to think more broadly. After our session with him we are for sure thinking more broadly -- thanks for the gift, Stuart!

One team did a beautiful visual journey for their product tear-down!

After that, we had another amazing mentor session with Kyle Wiens. He is the CEO and Co-founder of IFIXIT.com, the repair community for open source materials and product tear downs. His explanation of the IFIXIT mission, to make repair sexy, took our fellows on a pretty exciting journey. He virtually proceeded to dissect random machines, with the procession of a surgeon.

Kyle also spoke about how repair is way more efficient than recycling, which makes sense because as you extend the life of one product, you don’t need to replace it and consume more. So…. reduce, reuse, REPAIR, recycle! (Ultimately repair and reuse help that super important first one of reducing.)

Kyle explains some tricky design work as one team does a tear down

Linking back to our mentor Luisa’s work, Kyle spoke about the importance of creating a circular economy for our products. Which, obviously includes repair!

He also spoke about the importance of innovation. For example, he asked us to think about major drivers for increasing the number of women enrolled in school. Would you believe one of the drivers was the Washing machine? Because it frees up so much time and the house chores like washing clothes used to be (unfortunately) the woman’s responsibility.

We then got our hands dirty to understand what’s inside machines and why repair is important. Fellows were given a coffee machine, a camera, a phone and  a 64-bit driver kit to perform a tear down. Two of our fellows managed to use their MacGyver skills to fix an alarm clock in the process! Fellows then rated the repairability of their allocated item on a scale from 1 to 10.

Victor and Thessa take apart a broken laptop

Once the rating had wrapped, Sara and Arturo surprised the fellows with a “reflection time dance.” We think the fellows must have have gotten confused by the term reflection, because in the beginning they all mimicked what Sara and Arturo were doing (maybe their dance moves are just that good). After dancing it out a bit, our alumni-turned-co-hosts pulled their reflection group together and provided fellows with 4 hats: feeling, facts, caution and benefits. Fellows went around in groups and discussed what they had learned with respect to their various hats during the day’s sessions.

Group dinners with the mentors around town

After reflecting and removing their metaphorical hats, fellows were treated to small dinners with our mentors. The fellows were divided into three groups, and each group had dinner with one of our amazing mentors -- Garance Choko, Kyle Weins or Dr. Stuart Candy.

Fellows Valentina, Kalina and Anastasia

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São Paulo Fellowship Day 5

June 24, 2016

We started off Day 5 in the super slick Barco Art Gallery, where Leyla jumped straight into a session on theories of change, cognitive biases and the Disruptive Design method, which is a 3-part iterative process involving:

1. Mining (problem loving)

2. Landscaping (systems mapping)

3. Building (ideation & intervention)

Sounds a bit like a construction process right? It makes sense when you’re trying to design, or in our case disruptively design.

Leyla shared her “do” philosophy -- as in “just fucking do it” (unless it’s going to kill somebody, she muttered under her breath, “in which case don't do it”). She also stressed that “every problem holds its own solution” and if you spend enough time with the problem (loving the problem) you can discover that.

Leyla went into a session about ‘Making Change,’ which began with a conversation on what change is. It turns out change is not so easy to define! Fellows then broke out into pairs and dove deep into one-on-one discussions to unpack the problems of their choosing using various systems mapping tools.

Guli and Marcela connect over their projects

One of our fellows had a major breakthrough about one of her previous projects using the tool (which we loved seeing because that’s one of the primary objectives of the program)!

Just as our brains were going to explode we moved onto a quick session on cognitive biases. We learned a bit of neuroscience, explored the fight or flight response, and Leyla revealed one of her greatest fears (SPIDERS!).

We then went into the theory of change, followed by ideation and prototyping. Talk about a transdisciplinary rollercoaster!

To close out our brain-filling morning session, we played an empathy building game that Leyla designed as part of her gender equity research.

Victor and Marcela play the empathy game by Leyla

After a quick bite to eat, Larisa, who runs the Barco Art space, introduced us to the space. Barco Art is a cultural centre that allows for cross-pollination between actors, painters and other artists. With artwork changing weekly people come back frequently and there’s always something new to see!

After getting the lowdown on the space, we started a mentor session with the epic Garance Choko, a strategist, participatory designer and the founder of Coda, a global network of grassroots problem solvers who exchange “How To’s” across continents. Garance talked to the fellows  about what they have learned so far and what they are still looking to learn. One fellow, Gulie, shared that she is “learning to say what she thinks and not what she knows.” With a pulse on where fellows are at, Garance began a session focused on building social and economic systems.

Garance Chocko engages the fellows in her participatory design practice

Garance also spoke about all the different hats she wears within park design, health care systems in the UK, and global network building. She works at the intersection of public administration and innovation feels there is a constant tension between work and life. Garance then explained how she uses her unique skillset to intervene in systems (for example, capacity building in the Democratic Republic of Congo).

Next, we jumped into a workshop session so that our fellows could embed their morning learnings. The fellows spoke about projects and / or programs they are currently working on and came up with main themes around how they could connect these ideas together. Fellows regrouped based on their key themes and new groups went through a process of clarifying their common issues, looking at the root causes, and “pushing through the froth.”

After understanding the root causes, fellows mapped the key stakeholders who are impacted by or are impacting the root issues. This helped everyone get a systemic view of their selected issue.

Our pop up street party!

We then took the fellows outside where they were greeted with a pop-up mini street party bar. As we were winding down over some afternoon drinks, the fellows were presented with their design challenge. This cohort’s challenge is in partnership with Transparency International….Stay tuned to see how our fellows go and what they come up with in the next 24 hours! The clock is ticking and the countdown is on.

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São Paulo Fellowship Day 6 & 7

June 26, 2016

Day 6 = Design Challenge Day! Fellows received the design brief for Transparency International, an NGO formed by a global coalition of international chapters seeking to find corruption, worldwide, through local actions. The organization works with governments, businesses, and citizens to stop the abuse of power, bribery and secret deals. As you may know, these issues are of particular importance in Brazil right now!

At 9AM the design challenge was revealed: Design an intervention that increases the population’s literacy and engagement around corruption. Once they received the briefs the timer was set and the 24-hour challenge began!

Bruno from Transparency International briefing the fellows on the challenge

After having a quick review of the design brief, each team of fellows had a 10-minute question and answer session with Bruno Brandão, Brazil’s Transparency International representative. Responses were shared openly so that one team’s questions would help all teams get a more detailed understanding of how corruption affects Brazilian social sphere and how this International Coalition of NGOs seeks to have influence. Strategic questions led to more clarity on governance, LATAM Culture, Transparency International’s vision, and the main issues the organization deals with every day.

After the Q&A sessions, fellows split into their allocated groups and began to tackle the challenge of responding to the design brief while applying the new knowledge and skills that they uncovered during the last 5 intensive days!

We saw lots of systems mapping and exploration of the problem arena as teams started to apply the Disruptive Design Method of Mining, Landscaping and Building.

Systems mapping, UnSchool style

While the groups were mainly working autonomously to find emerging opportunities for interventions that create change, Leyla provided some extra creative agitation to help the ideas crystallize and come to life!

Teams run through their ideas and get some last minuet advice

The groups worked in the space until late evening and afterwards many of them went off to teammates' houses and continued working into the wee hours.

Teams put the finishing touches on tehir concepts

Day 7 = pitch day! We all reassembled at our home base (the excellent Impact Hub SP) bright and early for each team to run through a practice pitch with Leyla, providing key insights, advice on presentation styles and storytelling techniques.

Leyla helps the team prepare with practice pitches

After all the practice pitches were done, the judges assembled and we crammed into our pitch room to watch all the final presentations as a group!

The judges preapring for the picthes

The fellows did an incredible job at articulating their interventions for activating a shift in the perspectives and attitudes towards corruption in Brazil. They shared a wide range of creative solutions that could be implemented within the next 12 months by Transparency International.

One of the teams doing an amazing job pitching their systems intervention

Once all the pitches were done, we popped some local sparkling wine to celebrate, did a collective cheers and awaited the judges feedback.

The judges then announced the winning team— the one they thought most effectively met the criteria of innovation, feasibility, impact and sustainability. There were a lot of hugs as we celebrated all the teams' achievements! (They really were amazing ideas!)

Leyla shares a congratulatory hug with Murillo, one of the fellows on the winning team

Our final piece of the UnSchool puzzle was a reflection session that consolidated all that we did during this crazy, amazing week! Leyla’s co-hosts Sara and Arturo shared an amazing compilation video of all our snapchats from the week and the fellows then summarized all the things that happened on each of the 7 days!

Summarizing all that happened this week in the final reflection session

Isabel, one of our amazing fellows, did an incredible graphic recording of the feedback session!

Isabel live graphic recoridng our reflection session

Then, after many more hugs and tearful goodbyes, we all walked off into the São Paulo sunset (so beautiful!) and headed back to our many corners of the world to continue to activate for positive social change!

And that's a wrap on another amaing UnSchool fellowship week. What will we get up to next time?

Melbourne Fellowship

Jan 23-29, 2016

Meet our Fellows!

Our 3rd fellowship was in our founder's home town of Melbourne, Australia, meet the 16 fellows who joined us for the week-long brain-activating adventure!

In just a few days #UNSCHOOLMELB kicks off in Melbourne, Australia! Our team has been busy putting the final touches on the incredible week-long adventure we'll be embarking on January 23rd through 29th. With all ready and set to go, it's time to present our amazing cohort of 16 creative rebels and change agents that will be joining us for our Melbourne Fellowship Program in sustainability, systems thinking, disruptive design and creative change making:

Christopher Brew

Chris lives in Sydney, Australia. Currently, he is working in a collaborative, peer-based social justice initiative at UTS. He has an interest in systems thinking, collaboration, poetry and new models of teaching and learning. @stofbrewChristopher says: “I’m excited to be part of the Melbourne cohort, and I’m looking forward to immersing myself in an environment full of people working on change-making and systemic disruption.”

Fiona Clements

Fiona Clements is Senorita AweSUMO – Zerowaste textile design, Just Atelier Trust – Community Engagement for sustainable fashion. Conscious consumer advocate, Craftivist, Pakeha, Kai Tahu, Clan Gordon.

Fiona says: "I'm excited to start 2016 off with a BANG!, a chance to expand my thinking, find tools to help my community of Dunedin and New Zealand to grow a sustainable fashion industry and cultivate some disruption for good measure" Instagram  Twitter

Sara Rickards

A Biomedical Scientist and Environmental Engineer, Sara currently works as the Education for Sustainability Manager at Macquarie University and is an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. Additionally, she recently completed a fellowship with the Centre of Sustainability Leadership and a few months ago did a TEDx talk on 'How to ninja-neer a sustainable future'. Sara's ultimate goal is to be a disruptive change agent - creating a world where people are no longer viewed in terms of income and accumulation of possessions, but by their restorative impact on the planet.

Sara says: "I'm excited to meet Melbourne's cohort of disruptive change agents - with the intention of figuring out how we can leverage each other, to have a restorative impact on the planet. I want to be challenged, motivated and inspired! I also want to make some friends along the way - the more ninjas in this ever growing sustainability army the better!" Website  TEDx Talk

Koel Wrigley

Koel is a recent graduate of Melbourne University with a Masters of Urban Planning. She has empowered youth in Australia, South Africa, and Vietnam to be environmental leaders and drive positive change in their communities as part of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Australian Ambassadors for Development, Fossil Free Melbourne University and many others community groups.

Fiona says: "I'm most excited about working with the incredible mentors, building great skills and networks to support my future work in community engagement for sustainability." Website   

Jay Boolkin

Jay is passionate about creating positive social change and believes in the power of social entrepreneurship to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems. While living in Cambodia as an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development, Jay founded Promise or Pay, a web-based platform that motivates people to make positive behavioural changes while creating a more engaging and empowering way to donate to charitable organisations. In 2015, Jay was selected as one of Australia’s top 50 young social entrepreneurs by the Foundation for Young Australians, received a Innovation Fellowship from the Myer Foundation, and was selected as the Young Entrepreneur Finalist in the Sydney SHINE Awards.

Jay says "I am excited about joining the Fellowship and the opportunity to connect with, and learn from, other aspiring changemakers and experienced mentors"

Alexia Estrellado

Alexia is an all-sorts. She is interested in all sorts of things, people and places. She focuses her creative practice on building engaging programs that experiments with interdisciplinary collaboration and community cultural development. She is currently the Community Connector for the Indigenous Digital Excellence (IDX) Initiative where she works with a great team to develop learning experiences that celebrates 60,000 years or more of Indigenous innovation with new and emerging technologies.

Craig Scott

Craig is the Head of Design at Otago Museum in Dunedin, New Zealand.

What's Jay excited about? "From meeting awesome people, to sharing, debating and deconstructing ideas, I’m excited to embrace this experience. I can’t wait to be able to implement what I learn in a professional and personal sense after the fellowship." Instagram  Linkedin  Website  

Mim Kempson Anda

Originally from Perth, Mim moved to Melbourne to study a degree in photography, but in 2014 she moved to Montreal where she studied journalism and wrote for the university student newspaper. She returned to Melbourne in July last year to complete and graduate from RMIT's Bachelor of Professional Communications, and is about to embark on an internship at Vogue Australia after the Un-School Fellowship.  

Mim says: "What better way than to learn about sustainability and social change than through the people who live and breathe it? It'll be such an extraordinary experience being mentored by those who are helping to shape the world in wonderful ways. I am also looking forward to exercising my brain in ways that tertiary education hasn't challenged me with"

Abby Rees

Abby is PunkPDs Principal Consultant, a self-confessed ‘education junkie’, University Lecturer, Education and Empowerment Writer, Behaviour and Change Specialist and artistic thinker. Abby is also a Performance Architect for a wonderful company called Yellow Edge. In this role she leads individuals, teams and organisations through developing their own outstanding levels of dynamic leadership. As a senior facilitator, executive Meta-Coach and dedicated education junkie, she draws on a range of cutting-edge techniques and skills to build capacity, bust through past organisational 'blockers' and create new possibilities for those ready for the journey to greatness.

Abby says: "I thrive on new challenges to design for education and change and the concepts behind disruptive leadership are incredibly appealing to me.  I am really excited to be meeting individuals from a range of backgrounds with a range of skills and experiences to share and having some fun along the way!"

Erik Sumarkho

Erik is passionate about creating positive ecological change within small communities. Originally from Venezuela, Erik moved to Australia to do a Bachelors in Environmental Management and Sustainable Development. After university he has been working on a life cycle analysis comparing board short textile in the surfing industry.

For Erik: ”I am ready to absorb it all. To meet inspiring like-minded fellows. To flow through a crazy wave of knowledge. And, to come out feeling recharged and inspired.”

Jessie Borrelle

Jessie Borrelle makes good fun at Creative Cause which is exactly what it sounds like, an outfit dedicated to embracing the lateral, the creative and the unconventional when considering solutions to environmental, social and political challenges. Jessie is exactly what she sounds like, a woman dedicated to fending off pessimism with overuse of the word creative. Website

Isabella Burt-Morris

Isabella is a designer currently working as a customer experience consultant in Sydney, Australia. After completing a Masters of Design in 2014, her curiosity for people and a desire to use her skills for social good encouraged her to shift her focus from digital to user experience design. In this role, she embraces design thinking to solve complex problems and to deliver great customer experiences.

"I am looking forward to opening my mind to new people, skills and ideas to challenge my role as a designer and human being in 2016"

Charlotte Rose Mellis

After attending The University of Melbourne as a Science student, Charlotte has continued her tertiary journey in pursuit of becoming an Environmental Psychologist. As a qualified scuba diver and yoga instructor, Charlotte is driven to incorporate nature within societies to inspire health and wellbeing. Her current projects include involvement in an Australia-wide aged care initiative, working within a team to design and build holistic, preventative health based strategies for retirement living, along with a personal project with her partner; a sustainable, online start-up due to launch in February.

"I am excited to delve into inspiring content, with passionate fellows across the week of adventures at Un-School Melbourne. Observing from a psychological schema, my predominant passion is to evoke a paradigm shift within societies towards our planet, through the use of intrinsic motivation and bad-ass environmental strategies."

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Melbourne - Day 1 January 23, 2016

Commit No Nuisance (the sign says). This seems highly unlikely…

DAY ONE

We're all in this together

Showing uncanny similarities to the first episode of ‘Lost’ combined with the opening credits of Friends …. it was with a mixture of excitement, fear and wide-eyed eagerness that our first Australian fellowship kicked off in Melbourne today! The animation and anticipation was palpable as our fellows arrived at Donkey Wheel House with bright eyes and bushy tails and memory sticks full of ideas and dreams this rainy Saturday afternoon.

We started the day with thanks to the traditional owners of the land on which was are meeting and thinking and learning: The Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. This thanks means more to us than lip service, especially this week when most of Australia is celebrating Australia Day. The Un-School is committed to exploring and exposing the stories and cultural learnings of native peoples around the world.

We began proceedings with a now regular Fellowship ‘getting to know you’ exercise—who would have thought, standing on one leg and going around in a circle remembering names and traits actually works. Infact, the further around the circle you proceed, the better the memory banks seem to work. Did I mention that our Melbourne cohort are extremely smart, well balanced (as far as balancing on one leg goes) and (not that it matters) extremely good looking… They are also super keen, smart as whips and wonderfully different.

Next up came a session of individual Pecha Kucha presentations by both fellows and Un-School team members. Three minutes each, nine slides x 20 seconds each with no way to stop the progression and no extra time at the end. Three minutes to sum up who you are, what you do, and what you want to get out of the week. It’s harder (and more daunting) than it might sound...  We heard a lot of personal narratives, private quirks and details, fantastic achievements in diverse lives and generally everyone left the presentation with insight and awe of their fellow fellows.

So, the days ahead are already promising to be absolutely chock full of invigorating and challenging discourse and learning outcomes on all sides. These fellows are definitely going to give us a run for our money—and we can’t wait!

"Bridging the gap between knowledge and action" - Leyla Acaroglu

Leyla explained how the Fellowship week would work, laying the foundations for our "strong house”, encouraging fellows to interject, participate and "pimp their knowledge”. Tactics were discussed and the un-school idea of developing a mental toolbox, followed by a loud and somewhat animated exercise that involved each fellow coming up with the top 5 things they wanted to get out of the fellowship in 5 quick connections with other fellows, kinda like speed dating, but for purpose.

Themes surrounded the distillation of messages, communication of ideas, waste systems, networks and how to best utilise them, motivation of self and others, practical tools (not theoretical ideas), how to hold onto ones passion, incorporating ideas in a system that is already established, the infiltration of standard corporate and government structures, entrepreneurial tactics, how to challenge yourself to really make the changes you think and talk about, how to maintain focus and a core agenda, authentic leadership, intentionality

After a short break we stood up, dusted off our already full brains and walked out into the very timely Melbourne sunshine to begin our walking, talking  and socialising tour of Melbourne.

It wasn’t just any walking tour though...

We forged a winding trail up, down and around the Melbourne city, hitting on the following spaces and places:

·         Flagstaff Gardens

·         Queen Victoria Markets (QVM Precinct Masterplan)

·         The William Barak apartment building

·         RMIT Design Hub (and from the architect’s website)

·         1000 Pound Bend (for a quick refreshment stop)

·         Brothl Site

·         Council House 2 (and from the architects website)

·         City of Melbourne Pedestal Shops

·         The Pop Up Patch

Finishing up for dinner, a well earned drink, a meal, and a seat in the wonderful surroundings of Shebeen.

Stevie who manages Shebeen gave us a quick rundown of their not-for-profit model that gives back to the countries from which they source their beer, wine and cider—a wonderful example for our fellows of how giving a leg up to those less fortunate and working to lift communities out of poverty can also be a viable business model and engender pride and loyalty in staff and customers.

The end… of day one… of seven!

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Melbourne - Day 2 January 24, 2016

DAY TWO

Laying The Foundations

Day two began, as every good rainy Sunday should, with a magnificent homemade pancake breakfast served up on a long communal table with all the possible trimmings. Some of the fellows shared their special and/or secret and/or weird and wonderful items from home that they brought with them to the fellowship for group show-and-tell.

Jessie made the comment that it was “so much fun not knowing what the day holds, it’s almost like being held hostage”. Hearing this warms our hearts and makes us confident that our program is working exactly the way we want it to...

Breakfast discussion topics included whether banana bread was actually cake, where one could legally source Yerba Mate in Australia, and whether straight line tattoos are a good, bad or ‘let’s go and get one right now’ idea!

The team went all out with a beautiful pancake breakfast

Following breakfast we got straight into some activation, with Leyla kicking off a long day of deep diving into systems theory, running a powerhouse workshop on how systems work and the practice of systems mapping.  After a lengthy discussion of physical and constructed systems, the conversation turned to human social systems such as religion, government, families, marriage, behavioural constraints, and corporate structures. Industrial Systems came next, with utilities, telecommunications, transport, and manufacturing getting a mention, followed by ecological systems. Leyla started to lay the foundations for using systems thinking as a framework for designing activated social change.

Fellows flexing their brains with systems mapping

Teams of fellows then mapped divergent systems and pitched them back to the group, and Leyla took the floor again to invigorate our brains with an overview of the idea of synthesis—how divergent ideas are the result of a disruptive practice—it’s not reductive, but the outcome of thorough analysis and the emergence of ideas.

"You want to be a problem lover, not a problem avoider” - Leyla Acaroglu

Continuing on with systems thinking, we dove headlong into Feedback Loops and the difference between reinforcing loops as opposed to balancing loops as opposed to positive loops, which work to reinforce negative outcomes. Population growth was a confronting example to Fellows of a reinforcing loop—facilitating its own continual growth. Whereas balancing loops produce stability and are self correcting—although not always socially positive (like disease) and compensating loops are also well intentioned but end up being detrimental to the system and environment (such as some forms of recycling).

"When you intervene in a system, you need to use the correct tactics to influence the specific agenda of your intervention" - Leyla Acaroglu

Then we headed down the slippery slope of Disruptive Design! Leyla discussed how the aim of the game is to intervene in the most dynamic and effective way possible and thereby make the most change and leverage even bigger change by working within the parameters of the current system—to identify the points within the system that you can leverage.

This led to a prolonged discussion of Buckminster Fuller’s trim tab theory, and his (fulfilled) desire to have “call me trim tab, Bucky” on his tombstone. We love Bucky at the Un-School!

"Systems are constantly evolving things, relinquish blame and remember that every problem has a solution"

Leyla explaining systems thinking and its application to creative problem solving

The afternoon session began with bellies full and bodies stretched and replenished, and then took off running with a crash course in the theory of applied disruption and disruptive design by Leyla again (she gets the rest of the week off teaching after today!). The difference between interruption and disruption is the intent, the meeting of the core agenda of activating the intent.

We also heard about the Action Research Cycle—capacity, knowledge, and skills create a constant loop of selection and action—a hierarchy of actions if you will… The fellows then took themselves off in groups and worked on a theory of change exercise. This ended with everyone throwing almonds at each other’s mouths. But I digress…

Leyla explains feedback loops and the foundations of a systems thinking approach

The final (or so we thought) session was all about Cognitive Bias starting with the sticky issue of cognitive dissonance—the difference between people's ethics and their actions (recycling for example) and the discomfort it causes along with the dangerous repercussions of people changing their behaviours to suit easier or more negative options.

Talk wended it’s way between fake flies in urinals to improve aim, to how best to express yourself and incorporated one minor laughing fit, a slight group sugar slump (eradicated by the appearance of a perfectly timed packet of biscuits), and a tinge of group hysteria by the end of the session.

Next up it was all about grey matter... Beginning with the neuro chemicals that influence how we make choices, to what makes us desire things, to what makes us fear things, to how we can create or challenge these innate impulses, and on through to cognitive biases—socially constructed norms (bystander effect, loss aversion, confirmation bias, change blindness, selective perception, choice paradoxes etc) that guide so many of our behaviours. There are hundreds of them and by this stage we were beyond taking legible notes, you can find a list of most of them here.

Our next (and actual) final session was an added (and group requested bonus) all about gamification and game theory, as well as the tactics for utilising these theories for creating engaging experiences that evoke change (Leyla’s pet favourite topic area).

Once our fellows were well and truly mentally spent, we surprised them with their evening plans...

Peer Dinners! Curated by the Un-School team in four groups of four Fellows at four amazing restaurants in Fitzroy complete with gamefied conversation starters and their first mini challenge (due 24 hours later). Obviously the Un-School team didn’t go out with the Fellows to dinner, but here are some photos that filtered back to us via social media...

Fellows at their peer dinners around Melbourne

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Melbourne - Day 3 January 25, 2016

Day 3

Knowledge Gathering

Day 3 is our final day at the beautiful Donkey Wheel House where we started off with the sun shining and a warm group following the fellows peer-to-peer dinners last night (groups of four at four awesome Melbourne Restaurants). We got right into it with a ‘tasting plate’ of presentations from three different social enterprises.

David from Children’s Ground was first up, sharing with us the idea that problems within the indigenous sector are largely systems and to do with governance. He explained, Children’s Ground had developed its own model of integrated, locally-led leadership and programming to enable excellence in learning, wellbeing and development in indigenous communities around Australia. Children’s Ground harnesses all the abilities and knowledge of the people and communities in which they work.

Hannah, the founder of SCARF --- we at the Un-School LOVE what SCARF is doing in the training and hospitality space in Melbourne. You have all probably heard of SCARF already, but if not, look them up, and if you can support them either by attending events or partnering with them on a project. SCARF is a social enterprise (and charity) that provides 10 weeks training, mentorship, and assistance with work placement to refugees. They work in close association with some of Melbourne’s best restaurants and hospitality professionals. Hannah was open and honest about some of the ups and downs she faced in starting the social enterprise, how her amazing team works, and how it might not work without volunteers.

The main take-away from Hannah’s talk was her advice to have faith in your idea and then run with it. "I would’ve been more ballsy in the beginning to allow more impact sooner". If you know your idea is good, get going! Make sure you start with a clear mission and a positive culture. Partnerships are key—work and collaborate with others in your space, not against them as rivals, network and work together to support and grow together.

And lastly, in our quick blast round of Donkey Wheel House tenants and friends, came Ishani from The Difference Incubator. Ishani had the room do a quick survey of what keeps us up at night, and found out that we, like the rest of the world adhered to the universal fact that ‘self belief’ is most people’s number one worry, with funding/money coming in at only number 3 following co-founders/collaborators/team at number 2. The Difference Incubator works with social entrepreneurs to take their businesses “feasibility, desirability, viability” to grow an investable Social Enterprise.

"Think of investors like a marriage, you need to want each other equally"

After a very brief stretch, networking and caffeine break, our Mentor Trent Jansen took to the floor to run our morning workshop on creative approaches. Trent describes himself as a furniture and object designer “I’m the guy who makes stuff” and a Design Anthropologist. From a background in sustainability, he now sees himself as a proponent of longevity and re-use. Trent explained how this gave him insight into the fact that people react to objects differently—some discard and some hold on.

Trent explained to the fellows that he believes that social change, creative thinking and sustainability are the crossover links between practices, with the last two being the main motivators for his practice. Design Anthropology, as described by Trent, involves the study of human behaviour to reflect that behaviour back, and Trent sees himself as a pseudo-mythologist utilising objects as the physical manifestation of behaviour. Trent sees throwaway society and consumer culture as irksome yet potentially reversible -- the worst thing for us as humans about the quick/cheap/discard culture we live in is that we end up with objects and artefacts that reflect our culture back to us -- and what does all of this say, what legacy are we leaving?

Trent then contextualised his theory of making, saying it must involve poetry, an expression of emotion and desire. Trent uses traditional poetic or literary devices across disciplines (metaphor, narrative, irony etc) to imbue objects with stories. Design Anthropology is the distillation of the use of these devices in object creation. Metaphor is important across all narrative-based design to express the representation of one thing (or idea) with another—all designed outcomes must be decipherable, otherwise they are not fulfilling their purpose. WOW.

After delving into this is in practice with his incredible Briggs Colonial Tea Service project, the fellows dove into an exercise devised around strategies for designing with narrative.

We then moved on to the “Glitch” and glitches in the normal system of things as well as the poetry behind these glitches and how they can exist in two dimensions in objects. If you are aware or look for them, you will notice the glitches all around us, such as diversions from built pathways—user created glitches. Broken or repaired objects and their  solutions can often be more interesting than the original object or idea. Countries with a less disposable culture are more open to using less ‘pretty’ solutions to repair and reimagine spaces and objects to suit their lifestyle (and budget) and end up with some beautifully poetic and useable solutions. Fellows were then challenges to go about their next few days collecting glitches.

“Repair is often the catalyst of the greatest glitches" - Trent Jansen

JESS MILLER. YIPPEE!! The room erupts. We are so excited to have managed to get jess down to Melbourne to join us for the day (just quickly, she rocks!).

So much good advice, so many funny anecdotes, and so much applicable theory was imparted throughout this presentation-slash-mentoring-session that we can’t fit it all (or give it away for free) here. You should probably just hire Jess if you ever need anything done, really, anything, she’s your girl. Here is just a fraction of the take-aways from her chat with us today:

Jess started talking about community and engagement and how communities are fluid and therefore can’t be predicted, then segued into the importance of the lesson and knowledge that comes from creating a project that flops... She discussed how the most important thing you can do when planning a communication strategy, event, or project is to remember to to ask why—why would I care (or share) this message and why will others.

Jess waxed lyrical on her agenda to motivate people to talk to each other in an effort to combat loneliness—how she is using the internet to get people off the internet and back into real life human to human contact situations by creating and curating events. She discussed her project ‘Grow it Local’—an aspirational city council (food production) project, and then moved on to her biggest, most magnificent and simultaneously terrifying project—TEDx Sydney Crowd Sourced Food—and her idea to use local Sydney residents and producers as community farmers to crowd-source all the food for the event.

Moving on to slightly more theoretical ideas, Jess unwrapped the age-old dilemma of all communications professionals—reality versus ‘the story’, and how you need to find and keep to your narrative and also (always) stay authentic. Even though sometimes the story and reality might not match up entirely, not everyone needs to know what’s going on behind the scenes—it destroys the mystery AND the story. Your job as a creative producer is to push the boundaries—governments and institutions won’t always see the possibilities in front of them unless someone has the vision and the drive to get it done or show them the way. Think of your project as a gift. Leverage your story/s and push your messages.

“make sure you have a stick in one hand but a much tastier carrot in the other”. (Best quote ever according to Leyla)

That said, we also heard about how and why and when to “go gently” and the importance of building trust and relationships before pushing the envelope. If you push too far you might tip over the edge...

And a few random final Jess-isms to take with you:

·         Sometimes a compromise is worth the end result, as long as you retain your integrity.

·         Feedback and constructive criticism is always worthwhile.

·         Concept without execution is not worth the effort and can in fact be detrimental to the idea.

·         You don’t have to make your motivation obvious. If people are authentically engaged—you win either way.

·         Make sure to discuss legacy on collaborative projects, especially if you have been a “consultant” for someone else, IP is your livelihood.

·         Clarify expectations (both yours and your stakeholders).

·         Take risks

·         Experience and self-confidence breeds the ability to say no, to pull back

·         Value yourself and your time

·         Don’t be negative if you feel an idea won’t work, simply give the pros and cons and find a better alternative solution that fulfils the brief and tells the story.

·         Jess is one hell of a busy lady, check out a few of her projects here:

·         Goody Two Shoes

·         Rebel Food at TEDx Sydney

·         Grow it local

·         Australia I love you, but… and this, and  this explanatory article.

·         20-20-20 vision

After a brief discussion of Jess’s 202020 Vision project and an explanation of collective impact the fellows broke into groups to do a short exercise based around collective impact and were given feedback on framing by Jess. This was followed by a much needed caffeine break. Jess was fondly farewelled by the entire fellowship who could all have happily picked her brain for the rest of the afternoon—but alas, we must move on!

“I’m just a bit of a hustler really, that’s the best way to describe it” (Jess—when asked what her actual job title is).

Following Jess’s departure, Fellows were asked to present their gamefied responses to last night’s peer-to-peer dinner challenge. Each of the groups had been asked to come up with an experiential intervention in response to a series of questions that were provided by the Un-School team to trigger connection and conversation and to challenge the fellows to come up with a response specific to them and their interests/needs.

The four responses were completely different and very personal. The first being a new take on the card game ‘Cards for Humanity’ re-branded as ‘Design for Humanity’ by the group. The second was almost a non-intervention with the group silently offering players no clue as to how the game worked or what the rules were and making the players interact with them and each other in an effort to understand what was happening—resulting in many puzzled looks and some weirdness over 10 minutes as a clock ticked down. The third group conducted a group unburdening of fears mirrored by an accepting of compliments all wrapped up in a string theory, and the final group finished our time at Donkey Wheel House with a laugh circle, guided meditation and group affirmation!

We then took off from our home for the last three days for the final time and headed to our secret dinner party...

Dinner popped up in a converted photographic studio/warehouse (that used to be a kickboxing studio) that our team set up beautifully just for us to enjoy delicious cocktails, mingle, eat some amazing vegetarian delights, and (of course) take part in a few challenges...

Three of our mentors attended (Trent, Jess and Adam) and we set up three tables for the Fellows. Each table had one mentor, and we designed three challenges to go with the three courses of food. Following each challenge, the mentors would rotate to the next table of Fellows so that all the fellows had a different mentor for each challenge. This was designed to get the creative juices flowing!

First up was “how can we make using condoms sexy”. This was won by Team V-Jay with their proposed ‘F**k-Bit’ a new take on the Fit-Bit which brings a level of challenge and pride to sex, with wearers having to wear the device to participate. The second challenge was “how can we make people pick up their dog poo”, which ended in a tie between teams 51 Shades Of Opaque Grey and The Constant Condoms, with two ideas based on reward, one saw councils installing poker machine-like poo bins that doled out random rewards to people depositing poo (such as a song or liver treat for your pooch). The second idea was creating a dog food that contained flower seeds that would encourage people to keep and use the poo. Our final, slightly controversial (and potentially alcohol/tiredness impaired) challenge was “how can we enable people to experience ‘the other’—specifically in a gender/sex sense”. According to judges, only one team successfully followed the brief on this one, so the V-Jays were declared the only possible winners with their reinvention of a tamagotchi-like e-pet device to enable people to experience life from the perspective of someone of a different sex.

This concluded proceeding on a very long day. Goodbyes were said, trains were caught, and heads hit pillows full of excitement for our big outdoor adventure day tomorrow!

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Melbourne - Day 4 January 28, 2016

DAY 4

Out And About

This morning we met up at a theatre, perfectly apt for the more outgoing of us to finally have a chance to get up on stage and strut the boards... Although we didn't actually do that, but rather enjoyed a delicious breakfast followed by a talk from Gorkem Acaroglu, Creative Director at Metanoia Theatre in Brunswick. If Gorkem’s surname sounds familiar, it’s because she is in fact Leyla’s older sister. Gorkem is a creative powerhouse in her own right, and talked us through some of her more challenging and fascinating projects—particularly The 24 Hour Experience. The two 24 Hour Project’s took place in Melbourne and Ballarat (a town in regional Victoria). They both involved 24 performances that took place over 24 hours in one city across multiple locations that patrons had to travel between to experience a variety of immersive (sometimes literally) theatrical interventions. Gorkem’s talk focused on the experience of curating art experiences within a collaborative framework and community specific, and how she worked with a wide range of community groups and members to bring this ambitious and fascinating project to life.

We then walked up the famous Sydney Road in Brunswick (that will actually take you all the way to Sydney if you follow it for long enough) to Petrucci Studios where one of our Un-School producers Simone, runs a co-op creative studio space. Petrucci Studios works as a collective design studio incorporating all kinds of designer-creators with a large emphasis on making. We were given the grand tour of the whole operation by Tim Denshire-Key, an Industrial Designer who holds a keen interest in social and sustainable design practices. Tim talked us through his process of using recycled and found materials in his work, and showed us his incredible animal sculptures that are made of found and recycled materials.

As we started our walk towards our next surprise mentor studio visit, we did a quick impromptu detour to The Commons building, located adjacent to the bike path at Anstey Train station in Brunswick. Koel, one of our fellows who works in Urban Planning, gave us a quick run down on the amazing building design, with it's high level of sustainable and community building principles. Just as we were about to depart, one of the residents came out and offered to take us all on a tour of the rooftop gardens and tell us a little more about what it's like to live there (he LOVES it) and all about the ethos of the building. We were all pretty chuffed so we stopped for a quick photo with our new friends (as well as a great view of Melbourne’s skyline).

Monkey Marc showing the Fellows his Solar Powered Studio

Leaving sunny Brunswick, we headed (on foot) to even sunnier Coburg, walking in the hot summer Australia Day sun all the way to Monkey Marc's portable solar and wind powered recording studio built in a shipping container that is currently touched down somewhere in the back streets of Coburgistan 😃

Marc regaled us with tales of his most recent and absolutely incredible and inspirational projects working within remote Aboriginal communities to record important cultural narratives through the elders of these communities while at the same time engaging younger generations in the reimagining of the stories using video, music, and hip hop. Marc relocates to these remote aboriginal communities for months at a time and is taken to sacred and important sites by and for these elders so that they can share their stories within their place. The stories are interpreted with music and visuals created by the local youth. Marc facilitates these knowledge transfer workshops through story and music making and works with elders to ensure the integrity of the story is maintained throughout the entire process. By implementing this particular method and process of working, Marc is engaging local youth with exciting new and valuable skills, and often leaves resources behind for them to continue to use and learn.

We listened to two inspiring video/music projects, and checked out all of Marc's great vintage equipment! Then it was time for lunch!

After a delicious picnic lunch from Brunswick institution A1 Bakery, we left the magical Monkey Marc, and meandered our way back downstream via Merri Creek, a tributary of Melbourne’s famously brown Yarra River, checked out a native vegetation garden and continued on to our final destination of the day, the wonderful and world renowned CERES Environment Park.

Our first adventure at CERES was guided by the amazing Stephen Mushin. A magical thinker and fantastical designer, do-er, maker, bio-imagaterian and dreamer. First up he gave us a tour of the park, where he had worked for several years with a team of other engineers and designers to build and test a range of technological interventions for sustainability.

It's very hard to describe exactly just how engaging and creatively stimulating Steve is. He shared  a series drawings from the book he is currently working on ‘Now if what when’, a fantasy world where he can do whatever he wants, including creative propositions such as “The ethical polar bear burger and hoodie company inc”. After we had the creative possibility section of our brains activated, we jumped into playing someDesignercise with Leyla where such things as; Rhinos in tutus, People losing arms, Being chased by axe murderers, divergent thinking and storytelling games. Fernando and Juliet was played out during the creative ideation toolkit game.

Stephen Mushin wowing the group with his amazing creations

Our final Mentor of the day was Simon Griffiths, the founder of SheBeen (bar/restaurant/live music venue) and toilet paper subscription company Who Gives a Crap. We had to use all our tech skills to Skype in to CERES from his current location, Nairobi, Kenya. Simon is over there checking out the programs that his social enterprises donate to. Both of Simon’s organisations provide profits back to communities via Water Aid and other small NGO’s around the world.

Simone Griffiths skyping in for his mentor session from Nairobi

Having earlier in the week been to Shebeen for dinner (and loving everything about it) we were given a rundown on Who Gives  A Crap—from it’s foundations in his mind (and his Dad’s garage/distributions centre) to what it is today, a highly recognisable brand that works with artists and other like-minded souls to promote clean water and hygiene to developing countries.

We also heard about some of the harder times both businesses faced, both in the initial stages and (occasionally) still does. Simon was honest about his struggles with finding the right funding model for the businesses, his backflip into the not for profit sector—which wasn't quite right either. He talked about the impact game—not impacting millions of people, not making enough

impact to satisfy his goals. He discussed how and why Shebeen works—you are not asking people to change their behaviour at all, you are just giving them the option to spend their money on something that does good. This model breeds success—if you can create positive change with minimal change in actual behaviour, but a pay off to the part of people that want to do the best thing for the world, you are already winning. The idea that alcohol can also be used as a tool to do good work appeals to him.

Lastly, Simon  talked us through his work on Who Gives A Crap, including the ingenious guerrilla marketing campaign that got it started—the idea of sitting on a toilet until the first 50,000 rolls of toilet paper were sold through crowdfunding (read about how that worked out for him here and here)… He discussed the importance of hiring great people for his team and the way he does that—by giving them a project and asking them to come back with a solution. Through this he has created an exceptional team of people who can all do exceptional things, this is important because if the whole team isn’t on board it can damage the people on the team who are exceptional. Simon explained how his team work completely remotely, how he focuses on customer happiness rather than simply service, that we shouldn’t ever get caught up in corporate structure—rather each business should decide how much you want to donate and just do it.

Following Simon’s talk, our merry little band disbanded for the day and everyone had a free evening to do whatever caught their imagination… Tomorrow will be another big day...

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Melbourne - Day 5 January 29, 2016

DAY 5

Practice Makes Perfect

After a long day of walking, talking and brain-filling yesterday, our intrepid disrupters jumped straight back into being inspired on this, the fifth day of our Melbourne fellowship adventure!

Our first stop of the day was the exciting and inspiring Co Design Studios where CEO Jessica Christiansen gave us a talk and tour of their space. Co Design are a not-for-profit creative consultancy and social enterprise that mainly work within the built environment with a focus on urban interventions and transformation of spaces and places.

CEO of Co-Design studio Jessica gives us a run down of their work

Co Design have adopted a methodology called ‘Tactical Urbanism’ incorporating a low-cost, high impact agenda to create thriving public (and some private) places. Jess told us about some specific projects Co Design have been working on including one in Brisbane that was all about revitalising laneway spaces based on the ''Melbourne laneway model’. For the project, Co Design were given $20,000 for a 3-week public art fiesta/activation of public space. Jessica was open about the barriers that existed to fulfil this brief due to the difference in economy and population size of Brisbane to that of Melbourne.  The three main barriers exposed were liquor licensing, waste management, and exposure of the event through the city council website. The conversation  then moved on to working within the context of a city more broadly. Brisbane (and cities generally) are made up of three components—the local authorities, its people, and its place. The Co Design vision is to help create cities that are shaped by their  citizens (and the biggest problem to their practice is the apathy of these same citizens…).

Co-Design Studio Session

Take-aways from our Co-Design Studio Visit:

·         Action is everything. There’s no point (or time) for more strategies or 50 year master-plans

·         Make sure you incorporate a solid community engagement plan into your project so all affected parties (locals and residents in their case) understand what is happening and feel some sort of ownership over the project.

·         Inaction is the biggest problem most innovators face in getting their projects off the ground.

Fellows at the Co-Design Studio in Collingwood

Phew! What a great start to the day!!

Next stop was at Thick Studio. Located in a classic Fitzroy alleyway, Thick have a wonderful warehouse space and great buzzy office vibe. Adam Morris, Thick’s Creative Director, is our final Mentor for the week, and he jumped straight in with the fellows after having already met them at our surprise dinner on Monday evening. He began by talking us through how he he shifted from being an ‘adman’ (a la Mad Men complete with indoor smoking and whisky-fuelled creative sessions), to starting a socially motivated and value-led creative agency.

Adam Morris from Thick Studio

Adam said a pivotal point that led to his first realisation that advertising could be a vehicle to contribute meaningful impacts to people's lives was his “frozen Pea” moment—when a typical commercial ad agency brainstorm turned into a “this is f**king ridiculous, what am I doing with my life” moment—realising that he was being paid to solve problems that don’t actually exist and deciding he wanted to only work on projects with meaning, and on problems that do exist.

Adam next discussed what he called the "age of transparency”, where brands are now being held to account by their customers and the public due to the internet, vehicles of mass communication, and digital platforms which allow participation, and have really shifted the way that advertising worked from a one way to a two way traffic.

We discussed how “User Experience” or “UX” is currently a buzz term used to explain making/designing of any digital content whereas real UX is designing experiences based on how people interact with a product or service, considering their wants and desires, wrapped in how they use or do it. Service Design as a discipline has emerged from the development of UX (which is basically what we are all about!).

We then veered off slightly into the world of capitalism and learned about one of Adam’s favourite and most life-changing books: The New Capitalist Manifesto by Umair Haque. From this, he explained, we can gather that capitalism as a system is fundamentally broken, but it’s the only model we currently have. So we need to work within it and work to change it from within. If brands don’t work to enhance people's lives they won’t survive.

We then moved on to 'Thick Value’—a term appropriated from the book—encompassing genuine meaningful value generated without causing economic harm to people or the planet.

Thick Studio as a business works only with clients who operate within the Health, Environment, Education, and Public Service sectors. Institutions within these categories have the scale to make change and Thick is always looking for win, win, win scenarios and to convince clients that doing good can also be good for their bottom line.

"If shitty companies are looking to genuinely change and do good we will work with them. If the feeling is that the company is just trying to greenwash etc we will say no" -Adam Morris

Thick is also one of the founding "B corporations" in Australia. B or ‘Benefit’ corporation status allows companies to work for the benefit of society and the environment even if the outcome of their choices may affect share prices negatively.

“You are as much defined by what you say no to as what you say yes to" - Adam Morris

We followed up Adam’s talk with an exercise he’d devised based around the United Nation’s Global Development Goals. Two circles were formed in the room and fellows had five minutes to read through their assigned goal and then explain it in 90 seconds to their partner and vice versa. people then swapped goals and the circle moved one person clockwise so fellows could explain their new goal to their new partner and vice versa. This continued until all participants had heard (and read) every goal on the list (there are 17 of them).

Adam left us to go and change all our lives through some more smart service design, and our wonderful Un-School Co-Host, Bec led fellows in a session on creating a pitch—how to distill or set an agenda and narrative for your own unique story and selling point by framing your approach to fill a need.

The exercises was to create a 3 minute ‘elevator pitch’ and then distill it even further to a 1-minute pitch made up of the really most important information you needed to impart.

Finished pitches were presented in two groups, with each group member as well as Leyla having to respond to each pitch with one item of what they liked and what they thought needed improvement. The exercise really brought out another side to each of our fellows, with both the pitching AND the critiquing being equally fundamental to the task.

Following the pitch/critique session, we said farewell to the team at Thick (thanks again Thick!) and headed off down the colourful back alleys of Fitzroy and Collingwood to our evening destination.

The Social Studio and associated restaurant The Cutting Table are both wonderful local social enterprises, operating within a not-for-profit structure that are dedicated to improving the lives of young Australians from migrant or refugee backgrounds. They work through fashion and hospitality industries to create meaningful change by providing TAFE level training, work experience, volunteering opportunities, and employment within the above industries, as well as more broadly across industries as diverse as manufacturing and retail.

Dinner at the Social Studio's Cutting Table

We were treated to a tour of the Social Studio by the CEO Susan Yengi. Opened in 2009, The Social Studio provides a safe space, creates awareness and changes public perception through the provision of mechanisms that allow participants to learn, teach and make an income through designing and manufacturing clothing. All income generated through the studio is invested in creating social benefits for students, staff and communities. Benefits are measured via educational and employment outcomes, environmental benefits and social inclusion.

The Cutting Table grew out of The Social Studio (literally—it used to be a single table operation out the back of the actual Social Studio cutting room!). The Social Studio took over the lease of the shop next door and The cutting table opened her doors in 2011 and is now the beating heart of the Social Studio family.

As we sat down to our amazing meal we introduced our very special secret guest to the fellows... Joining us from the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre (ASRC) was the lovely Nicolette Ranieri, who along with Leyla introduced our fellows to their biggest challenge of the week so far—their 24 hour design challenge!

The Cutting Table team served our starving horde with some absolutely stunning East and West African dishes including a Berbere spiced curry served on Ingera—a light and spongy African flatbread, Kedkede Hibiscus and Ginger iced Tea and some mind-blowing Zlabia—bite-sized African doughnuts… Yum

We then got down to discussing the challenge. In a nutshell it involves the following Quest Statement: How to engage the 10,000 Victorian asylum seekers currently not engaged with the ASRC or it's programs to discover and potentially become active members of the ASRC Innovation Hub's Entrepreneurship Program community, and thereby build a thriving eco-system that aligns with the ASRC aspirations. Keeping in mind the following goals:

·         To assist people seeking asylum to start successful businesses

·         To catalyse a thriving ecosystem for entrepreneurship and connection between business communities

·         To respect the diversity of needs, experiences and obstacles within the community that ASRC represents

·         To connect members to capacity building opportunities

·         To create an incubator where members can build, launch and grow their own businesses

Our fellows have from 9am Thursday morning until 9am Friday morning to come up with creative solutions to the challenge and design a 20 minute pitch to stakeholders and invited judges as well as the Un-School team to critique each pitch and decide on a winner.

We all heading off for an early night. We wish them the best of luck and we can’t wait to see (and show you) what they come up with!

The group at Co-Design Studio

The Un-School Team working hard behind the scenes!

Concentration…

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Melbourne - Day 6 & 7 February 1, 2016

The Design Challenge

Day Six was a day of mental gymnastics, research, teamwork, collaboration and implementing all the tactics that the fellows have learnt and discussed over the course of the fellowship so far.  The challenge—set over 24 hours—is to come up with, agree and build a presentation around a new proposition that offers a solution or idea to improve the current uptake of engagement between Asylum Seekers and the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre’s Entrepreneurs Program.

Three teams were divided up, given a private work space at our fabulous new home for the next two days: The Library at The Dock located in Melbourne’s Docklands. The Un-School team provided sustenance, encouragement, occasional mental health services, Leyla jumped in on occasion to provide mentorship, provocation and a sounding board for the teams who spent the entire day between 9am and 10pm hard at work (with some teams continuing their work well into the night off-site).

We returned bright and early for our final day together—day 7—otherwise known as pitch day! Following practice pitch sessions with Leyla and Bec we were joined for the final pitches by Courtney, the acting Director of the ASRC Innovation Hub, Russel Kerr from the Communication Design faculty at RMIT and Jarrod Briffa co-founder of Melbourne cafe and social enterprise Kinfolk.

Up first was Team 1 made up of Aimee, Bella Craig, Jane & Mim who proposed an intervention based around celebrating community by reimagining the ASRC current Entrepreneur Meet Ups to amplify exposure through a one-plus-one model—encouraging current members to invite one new person along to each event they attend and grow attendance and penetration that way—the Tumbleweed effect.

“simply a model of asking and doing"

Team 2, or ‘Team Hatch’—as they branded themselves—made up of Alexia, Erik, Gretchen, Jay & Jessie was next up to the plate.

“Hatch is not about ideas, it’s about making ideas happen"

Hatch started off by sharing their research process of exploring the diversity of the asylum seeker community, and discovered a need for entrepreneurial incubators. Their proposed vision was to enable flexible community led programs using the 'Hatch model’ which works to combat three core problems: Positioning, Accessibility and Visibility, with the most urgent need identified as creating multiple entry points for asylum seekers.

Regarding the issue of scale— Hatch proposed 'going mobile’ and incorporating a mobile innovation hub into the ASRC to provide a flexible environment that is co-designed and community-led. The idea was inspired by case studies of socially engaged art projects (including the Nanny Van example from US) that can physically reach into places where communities are actually congregating. The mobile hub(s) can go in to co-create and co-design programs and events with local asylum seekers.

Team 3 pitching

Our final group to present was Team 3, made up of Charlie, Chris, Fi, Koel & Sara who launched into a fast-paced and impassioned presentation that immediately shook up the initial brief. This proposal revolved around not bringing ‘help’ to asylum seekers, but rather creating a decentralised network, built from the inside out.

The team had spent a long time researching the project and recognised that no one apart from asylum seekers can understand the limitations and requirements of the entrepreneurial program—what asylum seekers are actually seeking from any interventions. They decided to propose a strategy of roadmaps using identified barriers to access to utilise and turn around to encourage community empowerment.

High density regions of asylum seeker communities were mapped. Travel issues between these communities and the ASRC were recognised and being severely limited. It was also shown that most of these zones are located in growth areas meaning that they are newer and generally car-centric with limited public transport and other community building amenities. Using this information on geographic limitations, they looked at the ASRC and their programs and how people find out about them.

The current upside-down funnel model of contact and access to programs was discarded and turned on it’s head by looking more broadly at how to organically shift the model to a more service-based economy centred around skills transfer and a share-based economy with money being obsolete in the scenario and creating a dual operating system alongside current financial models.

"Social connection can translate into skill sharing"

The judges expressed how impressed they were with what the teams had come up with in just 24 hours and provided a wealth of positive and constructive feedback. But a winner was still to be decided...

The judging panel providng feedback

In the meantime, as has become an Un-School tradition, all groups were asked to vote on their favourite pitch, with the peer reviewed winner being a tie between Team 2 (Hatch) and Team 3.

Then came the panel’s feedback. And the decision was in—3rd place went to Team 1, 2nd place to Team 2 'Hatch', and in first place—Team 3! We thought they were all great, and we're extremely proud of the level of thought and integration of learning each team showed in their propositions so everyone went home with a prize! But the real reward was the celebratory glass of bubbles (at 11.45am!) and delicious treats that the team brought out after we had thanked our judges.

Celebrating with bubbles and yummy delights

After we polished off a few bottles of bubbly, our assistant producer Simone, conducted a reflection session on each day, guiding the group through a distillation of all the crazy things that happened over the intense 7 day fellowship. Following this, the Fellows received back their own initial notes about their hopes for the week that they had written on the first day of the fellowship and then spent some time in pairs reflecting on what had been achieved and what could be worked on moving forward.

In closing, we shared final statements as a group, to summarise a learning, thought or provocation from the week as well as what each of us might be taking away or putting into practice from the experience in the future.

There were many thanks and a shared gratefulness for the fellowship week and the opportunity to meet and connect with so many great like-minds (in the mentors, team and fellows). Connecting with others. The idea of play and having fun alongside more serious activism and social innovation were all themes of the week and reflection session.

And then it was over—that was our close to the Melbourne Un-School Fellowship! We hope you have enjoyed the ride as much as we have, and don’t forget to keep up to date with future fellowship opportunities coming up all over the place in the very near future.

Our community of past fellows is growing into a formidable and creatively thriving network of inspirational people—don’t miss out on becoming a part of it!

Wrap photo—the full Un-School Melbourne Fellowship cohort and team!

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Melbourne UnSchool Fellowship: My Top 5 Concepts & Takeaways April 14, 2016

By Jay Boolkin, Un-School Alumni, Melbourne 2016

In January 2016, I had the pleasure of doing the Un-School Emerging Sustainability Leaders Fellows in Melbourne alongside 15 other charismatic and inspiring individuals. The fellowship program is designed to empower emerging leaders to expand their mental toolsets, develop strong connections with likeminded people from around the globe, and activate their leadership skills. One of the things I enjoyed most about the fellowship was that it revealed how concepts and critical thinking practices, which at first seem singular and disconnected, can in fact be harnessed to effect and enact positive social change. So with this in mind, here are my top 5 favorite concepts and takeaways from the Un-School Melbourne Fellowship in Sustainability and Social Change.

Concept ONE: Systems Thinking

A set of tools, a language, or methods that look at problems as a whole instead of as separate parts.

Takeaway: Using systems thinking has encouraged me to challenge my own conventional, linear style of thinking which tends not to account for the many dynamics that contribute to social problems (and can therefore lead to unintended consequences — see below). Being introduced to systems mapping, which kind of like “visual storytelling”, has helped me identify problems, patterns and key leverage points for change. A good systems map is simple enough to be readily understandable but complex enough to account for the diverse factors that can be employed to create positive, disruptive change.

Concept TWO: Unintended Consequences

The notion that actions create consequences other than those which are explicitly intended.

Takeaway: When it comes to social change, unanticipated consequences are more or less inevitable. The world is simply too complex and unpredictable for us to know all the possible results of our actions. However, this doesn’t mean that we should give up on our attempts to reduce uncertainty. Effectively trying to foresee at least the most probable consequences of our actions, and planning accordingly, will ensure that as change agents we avoid catastrophic failures and the pitfalls that have been inhibiting social progress.

Concept THREE: Sustainability

The quality of a state or process that allows it to be maintained indefinitely.

Takeaway: Prior to the fellowship, I had (naively) thought that sustainability was purely an environmental issue — renewable energy, greenhouse gases, carbon emissions etc. I now realize that the natural environment is only one facet of sustainability, which draws on politics, economics and, philosophy and other social sciences to create better economies, businesses, governments and societies. In broadening my understanding of this powerful and compelling concept, I now realize that The Sustainability Challenge is like a balancing act between people, planet and profit. Being able to carefully weigh up the impact of decisions on sustainability is an integral characteristic of any responsible and forward-thinking changemaker.

Concept FOUR: Confirmation Bias

The tendency to selectively search for and consider information that confirms one’s beliefs.

Takeaway: While cognitive biases influence almost every facet of one’s life, they can have an especially detrimental effect on trying to create positive social change. Operating a social enterprise, for example, can be very complex. You’re trying to combine the innovation acumen of a business with the attitude of social service provider. As a result, any misstep could be disastrous. Cognitive biases are those mental glitches that impair our capacity to gather and access the correct information necessary to make good decisions. To allay the potential negative effects of confirmation bias, and effectively deal with them, it is vital for social changemakers to be acutely aware of that they exist and remain open to being challenged.

Concept FIVE: Tipping Points

The critical threshold at which a minor disruption can qualitatively alter the state or development of a system.

Takeaway: In hindsight, social change looks logical and foreseeable. However, experiencing the process in real-time makes it difficult to distinguish the small changes, or tipping points, that transforms the future state of the system. In attempting to drive and influence positive social change, it is helpful to be able to determine how systems, whether physical or social, demonstrate tipping point behavior. While they are often tough to predict, leveraging social tipping points is an effective way to ignite active engagement and build the critical mass necessary to provoke a significant social change.

Mexico City Fellowship

Check out the video of the amazing week we spent together in Nvoember 2015

November 1-7, 2015

Meet our fellows

Our 2nd fellowship kicked off in Mexico City on November 1-7 2015, meet the 16 game changers who joined us on the adventure. 

This week, Un-School HQ and our team are based out of Mexico City as we prepare for our unique 7-day fellowship program to pop-up here on Sunday, November 1st. We have planned an amazing line-up of events, workshops, brain activations, adventures and disruptive design activities for our 16 fellows, joining us from 5 countries.

We won't give away too much, as with all our programs there are a lot of surprises to experience from day to day. But we will say that we're excited to partake in some excellent Day of The Dead celebrations and to explore communication, storytelling, neuroscience, activation design, systems interventions, gamification, business hacking. We're also looking forward to eating excellent local foods, tasting artisanal mezcal, and developing new modes of participating with purpose.

Along with our founder and lead mentor, Leyla Acaroglu, we have a host of exciting mentors joining us throughout the week, including author of the Misfit Economy, Alexa Clay, as well as Mario R Silva Rodríguez, and Luis Sosa. Plus, keeping with the spirit of surprise, we will welcome a couple mystery mentors from the creative community!

Our program is immersive and intensive, with each day packed full of 12 hours of programming. Whilst the days will be long, they will be anything but boring! Follow along as we embark on this adventure, exploring Mexico City, and diving into disruptive problem solving and creative social innovation.

What do the fellows have to say about their soon-to-be Un-School Experience?

"I'm really excited about everything we're going to share and learn, and all the possible connections of knowledge, projects and ideas we're going to discover." - Mariana Álvarez Matijašević, Colombia,

“I’m passionate about designing with people. Making people's lives better and easier gets me out of bed every morning. I’m a nomad - working, living and enjoying things wherever life takes me. Latvia, USA, Finland, Sweden and Denmark are on my list already, and I am open for new challenges and adventures". - Emilija Veselova, Latvia

“I’m trying to find meaning through organization, empathy, and compassion. Im looking for an an approach on how to untangle my thoughts that help me build new schemes and solutions to make this a better world”. - Rodolfo Cordova Alcaraz, Mexico

"I'm looking forward to learning as much as I can from this energy-infused, creative and diverse group. My main interest is in how music and digital media can find impossible and unexpected solutions to society's problems, so I'm sure we're in for good fun." - Mario Bringas Avila, Mexico

“I’m an economist with an entrepreneurial spirit, devoted to innovation in education and business. I’m a Professor of innovation in the Torcuato Di Tella University” - Nano Kigel, Buenos Aires, Argentina

“I’m looking forward to experience unknown challenges, confronting unforeseen scenarios, getting to know unfamiliar cultures, ways of life and behaviors. Experiences are the new design assets to acquire a "way of thinking" - Roxanna De la Fuente, Mexico

“Meet special people, use a lot of insightful sticky notes, drink some beers with new friends and and co-design solutions for challenges that matter" - Arturo Ortega, Mexico

I’m looking forward to learning new and exciting approaches to problem solving and systems thinking for a chance to make a difference with positive solutions. I am very excited on learning with and from the other fellows and mentors on this immersion and collaborating with such great and different people.” - Alberto Solís Hernández, Mexico

“I’m excited to learn from the amazing group of mentors and fellows who’ve signed on for this experience and hopefully take that learning out into the world. Manos a la masa!” - Reilly Dow, Canada

"Embracing change is the essence of resilience thinking. The nature of the disruption caused by innovating over the status quo will define the sustainability attributes of a given transformation. With this fellowship, I aim at reinventing myself; at disseminating a new me which sharpens interventions in a more transformational and sustainable manner. Likewise, more resiliently." - Tabaré Arroyo Currás, México, @tabnrgy

“I'm looking forward to discovering some new ways of catalysing change and facilitating creativity, as well as having a heap of fun and getting to know some other inspiring and supportive change-makers” - Emma Blomkamp, New Zealand, @blogkamp

“I hope to get a lot of inspiration, information and great links with all fellows and mentors” - Ixchel Icnelly Pineda Vieyra, Mexico,

It was an amazing week, with 16 fellows from 6 counties, 5 mentors and 7 intense 12 hour-long days of brain-activating adventures in social innovation, sustainability, systems thinking, disruptive design and making change!

So what happened you ask? Well, we have complied the full (and somewhat intense) summary of exactly what went down each and every one of the amazing 7 days at #UNSCHOOLMX...

 

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Mexico City - Day 1 November 1st, 2015

And so it begins! Today we kicked off our week-long intensive fellowship program in Mexico City. Our 16 fellows joined us at the studio of We Are Todos, a design collective and co-work community in Roma.

Being our first day, today was all about building community, getting to know each other and setting the tone for the rest of the week. To start off, we played The Sober Truth (a Designercise game, based on the American Sobriety Test) to challenge us all with a split attention test. Doing our best to keep our balance and strength while standing on one leg, we successfully made it all the way around our circle of 20 people, learning each other’s names and interests in a way we won't forget.

hile enjoying snacks that fellows brought from their hometowns (crickets, chocolate skulls, havana cakes, maple chips, etc.), and some Day of the Dead treats, fellows gave more in depth introductions as they did their Pecha Kucha presentations. It was excellent to finally start to learn about everyone in 3D and to hear about their passions, projects and quirks.

Our fellows are working amazing projects! Icnelly is the founder of two projects, Hey Chula, which makes homemade preserves and delivers them via bike across Mexico City, and Commune Project, which promotes unique and responsible tourism. Another one of our Mexico City locals, Arlette, has recently started a small organic fair trade honey business. Mariana, our representivite of Colombia, runs a sustainability and design studio with her partner and has a blog, Cualquier Cosita es Cariño, about living a vegan and sustainable lifestyle, with minimum resources. Beyond a focus on food and living resources, this group of fellows has worked across the disciplines of design, education, social justice, human rights and food security. Rodolfo, since 2012, has been the president of the Civillian Advisory Board of the Migration Institute in Mexico(INM) (an evidence based advocacy group within a global network). Our fellow Peter, from the US, is now directing his expertise in marketing and graphic design on a personal project to cure Type 1 Diabetes-- the aim is to find a cure within 3 years and he is leveraging design strategies and creative thinking to reach a global diabetic community and network of practitioners. And that's just the half of it --this cohort of fellows has so many things cooking! (This post is just a teaser-- stay tuned for for more.)

After shared projects and some further bonding over Emilja's spicy, salty, licorice candy from Finland, (an indescribable surprise that definitely needs an acquired taste!) the fellows played a question challenge game and geared up for our surprise field trip.

In Xochimilco we shared some quick quesadillas and then jumped into our very own chinampa -- a traditional boat that takes people through the canal system, which extends for 162kms (see more here)-- to embarked on a mystic, mellow, candle-lit boat ride. Floating along the canal and being serenaded by the mariachi bands on other boats, we began our Day of the Dead festivities! This UNESCO heritage site mixes of modern celebrations with the traditional and unchanged heritage of Mexico's City's market gardens and waterways,  offering views into suburban and agricultural backyards, callejones, and more.

We finished the day off with a visit to Jilotepec cemetery, where we got to experience the real Day of the Dead celebrations. On the way over our host, Regina, and our Mexican fellows shared personal stories and general backgrounds about Day of the Dead and we all discussed the relationship with death across societies. As we walked through the cemetery, Mexican families brought flowers, foods, drinks, instruments, toys and everything their loved ones enjoyed while still in the world of the living, as well as as a couple of traditional items such as copal, zempasucil flowers and veladoras to build altars on the tombs. Families and friends sat around graves, waiting until the strike of midnight when supposedly spirits come to enjoy a family dinner shared between both the living and the dead.

This was just the beginning of both our fellowship and Day of the Dead activities. The cemetery visit was a very touching and reflection-inducing experience to end up the day that marks the birth of a new community.

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Mexico City - Day 2 November 2nd, 2015

Day Two is deep-dive workshop day, so it began bright and early at Centraal (a special thanks to Mexico City for not delivering the expected rain!) Since last night’s festivities finished late - we were all grateful for the breakfast and fresh espresso coffee from the social enterprize Capeltic to jump start the morning for our first full day of workshop sessions.

Leyla kicked off our first session with an introduction to sustainability, and the way to use this an a holistic filter for viewing and acting on change. Her session dived deep into the concepts of leveraging change outcomes and embracing approaches to activated leadership

We invited one of our fellowship alumni, Marcela Zetina, a Mexico City local who was part of NYC fellowship cohort, to led an interactive activity for the group. She focused on perception, visual illusions, relativity, framing, stereotypes and behavioral economics and how these tools can be used to decode marketing and design perceptions, examining how they motivate and influence our decisions within the market.

There was quite a bit of excitement when lunch arrived, by bike from Los Loosers, the one-and-only Mexico City vegan food company that operates off social media and delivers via bikes. They provided us with fresh, local, organic and extremely tasty vegan lunch treats.

Our afternoon guest mentor was NYC based Alexa Clay, provocateur of alternative economic forms and co-author of the Misfit Economy.

After Alexa’s stimulating presentation and discussion session, where she shared her experiences with researching non-traditional economic activities, from camel milk farmers to Somali pirates,  we all got to split into groups to hack the business canvas model, to design cults…  yes CULTS! That’s right-- we had our fellows (and the Un-School team) think up wildly original cults and create thought-through origin stories, value propositions, brand identities, commandments, key activities for sustainability and more for them.

Each team energetically pitched their cult to the group, and then we all had to decide which cult we would join (if they were to ever join one). We won’t get into the details as we need to honor the anonymity :), but let’s just say in general our cult values incorporated included: living with less and escaping the consumerism obsession; solidarity in imbibing and group bicycling during rainbows; a secret safe sex community; the promise of attracting your true love having a lifetime of incredible sex and procreating the children that will save the world; and a promise of infinite entertainment if you sacrifice eating milk products. yep. That’s what happened on day 2’s afternoon.  

Leyla and Alexa then facilitated an impromptu discussion on ethnographic and observational research techniques, sharing personal stories of how to find your personalised approach to applying research techniques. They then set a quick thematic challenge: fellows have to work in pairs to access and examine informal entrepreneurs in Mexico City using these new skills in the next 24 hours. To kick that off, we moved to our low-key evening adventures: continuing our Day of the Dead festivities at UNAM exploring the facility built altars, and then followed by dinner in Coyoacan, where Alexa facilitating a great lively conversation around alter egos, and using personality as an approach to activate outcomes.

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Mexico City- Day 3 November 3rd, 2015

We started our morning off at Centraal again, fueling up on the coffee that Capeltic has so generously provided us with for the week! Freshly caffeinated, we jumped right into a workshop, led by Leyla Acaroglu, on systems thinking. We unpacked the interconnectedness of all things and examined the complex interplay that ties everything together.

After learning techniques for systems mapping, fellows worked in groups to map out relationships and impacts for factory farming, sustainable fashion and more. (Also, a tangent on fractals and self similarity in nature tied to human and natural patterns led us outside to check out some plant fractals!)

Fellows shared their groups’ systems maps, and we were joined by one of our mentors, Luis Sosa,  co-founder and Creative Director of More Starch. Luis led a fascinating session that covered the power of narratives ("Reality is too complex. Stories give it form.") and shared examples of effective campaigns for change-driven organizations, movements and causes.

Right as Luis’ session was wrapping up, the team from Capeltic arrived and shared the story behind their coffee, and the social enterprise and cooperative that power it forward. Food is a big part of the Un-School philosophy, and so we were all extremely happy to have an array of super delicious vegetarian tacos (think: hibiscus flowers, cactus, beets and yams, etc.!) from La Nueva Chul -- even our meat eaters admitted how tasty they were (one of our Mexico City local fellows said that he didn’t even know vegetarian tacos existed!).

Following lunch, pairs of fellows presented their processes and findings from their ethnographic research challenge that was set by Alexa and Leyla the day before. People interviewed street traders, shoe shiners, books sellers and an array of informal economic activities around Mexico City. The findings helped to build a shared narrative of micro entrepreneurial activity.

Leyla then threw in an extra workshop on gamification and game theory before our fellows and Un-School team members headed off to a secret dinner party at La Metropolitana, where Yvette and Heidi had prepared a delicious dinner experience for us all. La Metropolitana, who generously invited us to share their beautiful space, is a Mexico City based design studio specializing in furniture, architecture, interior, and graphic design solutions. Our fellows arrived to cocktails on the rooftop (for some post-brain-stimulation unwinding) and then headed inside for completely gamified dinner party, designed by Leyla & Luis Sosa, focused on exploring the ways in which we strategize to influence others.

Over four rounds, fellows and our guests were given secret missions that they had to complete before the timer rang and the next round began. Each round increased in difficulty (and weirdness) and decreased in time. One person slyly convinced us all we needed to shut off the lights to conserve energy, another got us to give her a full round of applause, one person convinced three people to form a human pyramid, another fellow “kidnapped” our founder Leyla (blindfolding her and took her on a mystery walk on the roof), and the list goes on! After each challenge round we shared our successes and failures to see what was uncovered. It was fascinating to see how different people strategized to complete their secret missions: some acted covertly, while others were very open about what they needed to do, and while some people formed alliances others acted solo, etc. After the game wrapped we discussed why and how people operated the way that they did within the context of the game and revealed the different categories of missions they had been given -- empathy, cognitive biases, reward, challenge and influence.And that was Day 3! We were all exhausted but excited about what the next day would hold (although this did not stop some of our fellows from continuing on the excitement with some after hours Mezcal drinking...)!

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Mexico City- Day 4 November 4th, 2015

Day 4 of #UNSCHOOLMX started off with a pancake breakfast at the family home of our host, Regina, in the historical neighborhood of Coyoacan, South of the city. We were lucky to have beautiful weather and took advantage of this by laying rugs out on the lawn and playing some creativity generating Designercise games.

Once the group was reenergized (remember some of us had a little too much Mezcal and a little too little sleep the night before), we sat down for a brief conversational workshop session with Leyla on the brain, cognitive sciences and how understanding these complex neural activities can help us craft positive interventions and make change.

The group then headed to the Viveros de Coyoacan park (which serves a dual function as the place where trees are grown for reforesting the city as well as the home for recreational activities such as running and practicing bull fighting). We split in two groups, with one group being challenged to develop their observational research and perception skills around system analyses and the other looking at the fascinating history of the park, actively discovering the ecosystem disruptors and social dynamics all whilst walking!

There was a quick visit to a 17th century colonial home and then a delicious lunch of fried quesadillas in the local market before our surprise afternoon mentor session, which was a visit to our surprise mentor's studio, the incredible artist, Pedro Reyes.

Whereas we started the day with a local experience in someone’s historic home, we ended our night with our most touristy stop of the trip: an experience at the Museum of Tequila and Mezcal. In addition to a tequila and mezcal tasting, we learned about the processes of production, cultural relevance and role that design plays in the creation of each product.

The night ended on the earlier side as Leyla announced that tomorrow would be the start of a 30 hour design challenge, beginning with a 9AM meeting that would lead us to research field trips outside of the city…

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Mexico City Day 5 November 5th, 2015

Today is design challenge day! We all met at 9AM sharp at Plaza Villa de Madrid, where the fellows were given their briefs and assigned groups for our 30 hour design challenge. The client is a for profit microfinance company that has been around for over 25 years -- the challenge is to design “new opportunities to facilitate socially equatable, environmentally responsible and economically viable (sustainable) financial inclusion models within Mexican communities that are currently financially disadvantaged”. Fellows were given an hour to unpack the brief and prepare clarifying questions to ask the client before splitting into two cars and heading out of the city with the client to conduct ethnographic research on the current process and business model.

One team’s driver got utterly lost and after 3 hours of driving around the outer ring of Mexico City, the teams collaboratively decided they had to abort the mission.  Whilst Van 1 never made it to their original destination, Van 2 shared a intense experience as they witnessed a ceremony in which a group of women were given the loans they had requested. Some informal conversations between the fellows and lendees followed the ceremony and then the group got back into the van to head towards the city.

The two vans came together at the beautiful, serene, and all around awesome Huerto Roma Verde, a community garden and ecological haven in the middle of Roma. We happened to stumble upon a high energy dance class, with primarily middle aged and older women, and couldn’t resist joining in on the fun.

Almost all of the fellows and Un-School team jumped into the dance class a hip-shaking, endorphin-boosting, exercise break (these moves were tough!!). Energized, we went on a tour led by  volunteer / sustainability educator, Veronica, who showed us the community garden, a rain-collecting sculpture that doubles for art and irrigation, and some of the works in progress -- an aquaponics pond, and a geodesic dome (we love Buckminster Fuller at the Un-School!) to name a couple.

We ended up loving Huerto Roma Verde so much that we decided to stay after the tour to eat our homemade lunches (thanks, Yvette!) and dived right into an important debrief and discussion about the research experience. We discussed ethics for responsible research and the fellows decided to facilitate a self organized “fishbowl” style knowledge share so that the two teams that completed their research could share what they experienced with the two teams that were stuck in the lost van. A few hours later they wrapped up the exchange, excited about the rest of the challenge. Everyone departed and went off to casual cafes and bars to work on their projects.

What a day!! This is classic Un-School style-- we plan one thing, something else ends up happening and whilst it’s a little hectic, we all embrace the chaos of the experience and make something even more amazing out of it! Viva la chaos!

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Mexico City- Day 6 November 6th, 2015

Today was Day 2 of the 30 Hour Challenge and teams arrived early to the co-working community space, We Are Todos, where this whole Un-School Mexico City adventure first began. Teams spent the morning and afternoon continuing to work on the challenge, applying a range of different methodologies and approaches to address the brief. On top of the techniques we covered together throughout the week, each fellow brought their own unique approach and skillset to the challenge. With the clock ticking, fellows collaborated within their teams to work through their ideas and get ready for the 4PM pitches (of course, coffee was flowing and we had many snacks!).

After a long day of bain-activated engagement the groups got ready to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges, made up of innovation, communication and design experts as well as our client. Teams had 20 minutes to pitch and the ideas varied from analog interventions to system wide propositions to standard business models.

We celebrated the end of the challenge with a cold beer and a cheers! Most of the fellows then decided to go off together for pizza and, despite the exhaustion, to high energy dance battles at the famous Patrick Miller!

Tomorrow is our last day together, we can’t believe what adventures and beautiful chaos we have embraced this week!

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Mexico City- Day 7 November 7th, 2015

That's it folks! Today was the last day of the fellowship and it was all about reflecting and setting action goals to move forward. We met at 11 AM (not so early today!) at the beautiful Chapultepec Park, where we strolled to a shaded grassy section. We broke into small groups for solutions salons, where fellows helped each other move through some of their current challenges, and then moved onto a session focused on setting clear goals and sharing experiences for putting our projects and ideas into action.

Leyla and Regina improvised and used a mystery box as the board for our “what happened this week” activity, and the group collaboratively wrote down all the amazing, crazy, and sometimes bumpy things we got up to-- from magical boat rides, to cars getting lost, to a dance class in Huerto Roma Verde, to the Secret Mission dinner party game and Pedro Reyes amazing studio visit, it has been quite the week! Leyla facilitated a feedback and sharing discussion before we all headed over to the lake where Yvette and Regina had set up a beautiful picnic for us to share and enjoy.

After lunch, we pulled out the fellows' cards from Day 1, where they had written their goals for the week. We took turns reading each card out at random, guessing whose it was, and reflecting on whether the goals had been met (most had!).  And sadly, that was the end of our Weeklong Intensive Fellowship in Mexico City. But the fellows all agreed that this was just the start of something… Stay tuned for updates! :)

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Watch the doco that was made about the week we spent together in Mexico City!

New York City Fellowship

June 14-22, 2015

Meet our Fellows!

Our first ever UnSchool fellowship program kicked off in New York City on June 14-20 2015, Check out the courageous people who joined us on our first adventure!

ADAM LITTLE

"I'm looking forward the creative energy I'll get by sharing an inspiring week with a diverse group of fellows and mentors."

Adam is from San Francisco, California. He's spending his summer consulting on a financial inclusion project and helping organize a design workshop focused on social impact. Check out Adam's work here >

BEC MCMASTER

"I'm looking forward to being inspired by amazing people, projects and ideas, and becoming part of a community of people that are motivated to make positive and lasting change."

Bec is from Dunedin, New Zealand. She is currently working on a business plan to start a company which will allow consumers to financially offset their shipping emissions on purchased goods. She is passionate about disrupting the current sustainability and climate change conversation and elevating true cost accounting to be a top priority for business. Check out Bec's work here >

DIEGO ALATORRE

"I'm mostly interested in the co-creative group dynamics-- how different personalities can work together to enrich the creative development during problem solving exercises, opening themselves to collaboration."

Diego Alatorre is from Mexico City, Mexico. He is a professor at Mexico's National University, where he teaches a course on Codesign and another on Experience Design. He freelances UX and UI research & design for multiple companies, including Disrupt Design. In addition, he’s starting up an Internet of Things company with friends. Check out Diego's work here >

JASON SANDMAN

"I'm looking forward to fresh perspectives from international design practitioners, practicing more conscience active listening, cultivating a community of practice around disruptive design, and a chance to practice my verbal narrative around my research.

Jason, a resident of New York, is conducting a research on a concept called Active Living Corridors (ALC's.) The project specifically aims to reduce chronic health disparities and improves equitable access to anchor institutions and destinations of interest in primarily underserved and vulnerable neighborhoods through active mobility, health-improving infrastructure, and participatory on-site programming.

JENN COURT

"The thing that I am most excited about is getting out of my regular day-to-day routine and energizing my thinking and creativity."

Jenn is from Toronto, Canada. She works for an environmental nonprofit, and her work focuses on product stewardship. She is interested in the intersection between design, research and sustainability; and how to move her career further in the direction of the design/innovation space.

KIRI DICKER

"I can’t wait to meet new people, create new networks and gain practical design skills and tools to use in my community development work."

Kiri is a community development worker and gender equality specialist from Australia who lives in the Solomon Islands. Her company, Think Out Loud International, provides professional gender equality advice and services to the government, not-for-profit and private sectors primarily in the international development sector. She is passionate about the principles and practices of community development and the empowerment of women and girls. Check out Kiri's work here >

LINE BARKVED

"I’m looking forward to learning more about how disruptive design and design processes can foster systemic and positive change. I think it's going to be a time for collaborative efforts, going outside the comfort zone, engaging in new topics and environments."

Line is from Oslo, Norway. She's part of the team that runs the organization Masterbloggen. She’s interested in ways of digitally communicating and creating engagements and designing sustainable business models which help scale scientific blogs. Also, she's interested in the role of learning networks in service development and using social innovation and design to improve urban environments and ecosystems. Check out Line's work here >

LULA TOUSSAINT

"I am looking forward to meeting interesting leaders (fellows and mentors) who can open my eyes to new ways of working and how to face nowadays challenges. Also to exploring new ways of thinking and innovating, specially for solving social issues."

Lourdes (Lula) is from Zapopan, Mexico. She is interested in opening up her mind to new concepts, especially with regards to figuring out ideas on how to generate excitement around citizenship and how to start civic mobilization in Mexico. Check out Lula's work here >

MARCELA ZETINA

"I'm interested in using the knowledge I obtain through this fellowship to provide consulting advice to the education platform I'm working with."

Marce is from Mexico City, Mexico. She is really interested in transforming the traditional education system. She wants to learn techniques she can use to better herself and have more creative ideas. Marce would like to apply the knowledge acquired this week to all of the projects she's working on.

MELINA SCIOLI

"I am looking forward to have a fruitful exchange. I want to learn, create, experience, work, be inspired, collaborate and share visions on sustainability."

Melina is from Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is eager to adopt the new tools she learns through the fellowship in order to further develop her current projects. Check out Melina's work here >

NIHAN OZTURK

"I am looking forward to discovering new points of view from mentors, classmates from all around the world, and from everyone working so hard to make this week perfect. I am also very excited to learn new techniques for disruptive design and to combine them with sustainability."

Nihan is from Istanbul, Turkey. She wants to learn how to think differently. Design Thinking and Sustainability are concepts she wishes to explore. In addition, Nihan is looking forward to learning new cultures and meeting amazing people who are open to change.

PAULINA DURAN

"I'm looking forward to discovering more scenarios where technology can help improve people's lives. I want to meet people from around the world who are super talented and excited to create a positive change. Inspiration, new approaches, life-long lessons and fun are some of the things I'm sure will be part of the fellowship."

Paulina is coming from Tampere, Finland. She is in a learning phase and contributes to research and development in projects such as OpenDesign Foundation and ongoing works at  the TUT's Human-Centered Technology Unit.  She is currently working on an app with a couple of friends and is hoping to pick up advice on how to handle open data and sharing economy principles.

SABINE FLEISCHMANN

"I am really looking forward meeting all of these amazing, crazy, inspiring people-- Un-School fellows & mentors. I’d love to share thoughts, knowledge, collaborate and push our brains, develop ideas, and create social and sustainable innovations!"

Sabine is from Schopfloch, Germany. She is in the midst of reactivating her career direction. Right now, she is in the developing stages of starting her own creative business. Check out Sabine's work here >

SALLY HALL

"I'm looking forward to diving into the creative adventure of disruptive design and collaboratively problem-solving with fellow passionate individuals."

Sally is a New York City Resident. She’s currently working to build Forage, a web application that will leverage perfectly good but otherwise wasted food to feed hungry New Yorkers. She’s looking forward to workshopping the idea with the group.

SARA SÁNCHEZ

"I'm super excited to learn from the fellows, mentors and team members' experiences, strengths and the fields they specialize in."

Sara is from Guatemala City. Sara works in marketing and also coordinates a program that promotes entrepreneurship by providing the experience of creating a startup. She is super excited about the content she'll be exposed to during the fellowship and to learn from the mentors and other fellows.

ZACH CACERES

"I'm looking forward to learning how other fields of design can be brought over in startup urban design. I also can't wait to see the Un-School's model so I can learn how to improve MPC."

Zach is an American living in Guatemala City. He is exploring how to improve self-organized learning environments and municipal reform through design. Zach is an entrepreneur who wants to gain a better foundation in design, to grow his appreciation for the field and to identify how design can be better incorporated into social enterprise. Check out Zach's work here >

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UnSchool NYC Fellowship #1

What an amazing, intense and inspiring week we had at the Un-School NYC Fellowship! 16 fellows from 12 countries dived deep into systems thinking, sustainability, social innovation, cultural change and creative practice. We had mentor sessions from a host of diverse leaders, change agents and provocateurs mixed in with our founder, Leyla Acaroglu's curriculum on systems based disruptive design for sustainable change! Phew, it was quite an adventure we had! 12 hour days, surprise schedules and creative educational experiences - that’s how we do things at the Un-School!

There are SO MANY highlights that we want to share with our community. So we decided to do that in a pictorial essay with day-by-day accounts of what we got up to. These are just **some** of the highlights of what happened during our amazing adventure week at the Un-School HQ in NYC.

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 NYC Day 1 - June 14th, 2015

Un-School NYC started off in a strange but fascinating park in China Town called, Collect Pond Park. Leyla started us off with the historical narrative of how the park was build on a large lake that ended up being destroyed by human misuse. Setting the tone for the week of empowered storytelling and environmental questioning.

After some getting-to-know-each-other activities, we headed to our friends at Impact Hub NYC to kick off our week with quick presentations.  

Walking ended up becoming a theme of the week after one of our fellows, Line from Norway told us in her opening presentation, "that in Norway we like to go for walks".  And right after all our fellows and the Un-School team presented their 3 minute Pecha Kucha's, we did just that, going on a mystery walk through downtown New York City.

We were guided to the wharf,  where we then curiously boarded the free Ikea Ferry... Some fellows thought that we might be doing a design challenge at Ikea, but really we were jumping off at Red Hook to walk some more, and eventually end up at the incredible Pioneer Works. We spent the evening enjoying art and music whilst getting to know each other, at the Sunday sessions held monthly during summer at the eclectic art space.

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NYC Day 2 - June 15th, 2015

Today was our first full workshop session day and it started off with a big pancake breakfast at our HQ in NYC. Each of our fellows shared a surprise treat from their city of origin and we kicked of our brain-activation with a discussion on the different interpretations of sustainability.

Once everyone was comfortably full and caffeinated, Un-School founder, Leyla Acaroglu, gave an info-packed session on systems and sustainability.

Artist, engineer and sustainability creative extraordinaire, Natalie Jeremijenko picked it up next, talking about creative interventions for ecological change, mutualistic systems design and more. She shared her extensive arsenal of projects (like Farmacy, #POLLUTIONxPENCIL and the Environmental Clinic, to name a few).

After a hearty, tasty, oozy lunch, fellows got active in a session focused on collaboration, connection, and group dynamics. Eli Malinsky, Executive Director of Centre for Social Innovation, and Bryan D'Alessandro, Cofounder and CEO of United Purpose led this session and had fellows play a new game they invented.

The last workshop of the day was led by Megan Fath and focused on understanding experiences and journeys.

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NYC Day 3 - June 16th, 2015

Today was another firecracker of a day with our #unschoolfellows. Here are just a handful of the highlights.

Our fellows started the day at The High Line. Before and after a bagel breakfast, our amazing mentors Leyla Acaroglu and Dagny Tucker took the fellows on a walk as they explored social lifecycle analyses, systems thinking, sustainability and observational research methods. Have you ever noticed how many systems are involved in the highline, or any other space that you inhabit day in day out? And how all these systems are interconnected? Have you noticed how the design dictates the way in which people use the space?

Dagny Tucker explores systems thinking in the dynamic system of the highline.

Back at the Centre for Social of Innovation, our mentor Carol Shapiro did an impressive presentation focused on how to be a better leader and change agent, based on her experience working for over 40 years to change the justice system. She shared the importance of family units, strength-based genograms, ecomaps and many more insights into being an authetic and agenda driven leader.

Some favorite quotes from Carol's session:

"Instead of being deficit oriented & fixing all the time, tap into strengths & build from there."

"Good leaders need to know when to admit they aren't good."

Some favorite quotes from Carol's session:

"Instead of being deficit oriented & fixing all the time, tap into strengths & build from there."

"Good leaders need to know when to admit they aren't good."

After that we took a break to refuel, satiate our hunger, and boost our dopamine levels. We heard from the folks at Stewardship Farm and then enjoyed a home cooked Mexican lunch whipped up by our team under the guidance of the lovely Regina (here from Guadalajara). Before moving on to the next mentor session, the fellows did a Designercise ideation workout class to activate flexible, creative and agile thinking for the rest of the week. (Designercise is one of the co-creations of our founder; stay tuned for the Kickstarter in the Fall!).

Next, Matt Stinchcomb, Executive Director of Etsy.org, joined us. He shared the Etsy origin story, lessons learned along the way, and goals for the newly formed Etsy.org. One theme that resonated with us was his motivation to "build more resilient economies on a human scale". He, and Etsy, are all about empowering lot of small companies as opposed to having an economy based on just a few big companies. He closed out his talk with a challenge for the fellows to break out into groups and design a new type of regenerative business school and curriculum for early stage entrepreneurs.

Matt Stinchcomb presenting at the Un-School NYC

After teams presented their ideas on this new type of business school, we said goodbye to Matt and jumped into peer-to-peer learning. In groups of four, fellows practiced transfering their tacit knowledge-- everything from zero waste policy to juggling to how to ride a horse (with no horse actually here).  

After feedback, we were hungry again. Day 3 came to a close with some fellows going to dinner with mentors and others going along with our team for a secret surprise dinner.

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NYC Day 4 - June 17th, 2015

Day four of the Un-School Fellowship in NYC started out with a workshop on storytelling and communications by our Un-school mentor and FOOSSA co-founder, Lee-Sean Huang. Lee-Sean spoke about the power of stories, shared tactics for building narratives that evoke positive change,

and engaged the fellows in exercises for better communication. In addition to some non-traditional story archs, he introduced fellows to 5 mythical beasts that not only embody themes recurrent throughout history but also provide new lenses for approaching innovation.

After a tasty gourmet vegetarian lunch, we headed out on some adventures around New York City. Based on expressed interests, our fellows were divided on two groups for the field trips and they visited social enterprises in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

In Brooklyn, we visited Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator (BFDA), where the Executive Director, Debera Johnson, gave the fellows a tour of the space and talked with us about the importance of and challenges related to sustainable fashion design.

“Good or bad, you need to understand the consequences and own them.” Debera Johnson

After the tour of the BDFA, the fellows sat down with one of the venture fellows, Teel Lidow, founder of Boerum Apparel. Boerum Apparel is a startup that designs, manufactures and sells sustainable and socially responsible clothing. Emphasizing full supply chain transparency, their clothes seek to be traceable from farm to closet, dirt to shirt.

Speaking of his motivation to start Boerum, Teel said, “I ran into a brick wall when I tried to find out where clothes were being made. I tried asking around to see if the wool in sweaters came from factory farms and no one in the industry would answer my questions.”

Meanwhile, back in Manhattan, the other group of fellows went to one of No Longer Empty's art exhibitions, and were introduced to the philosophy behind this community engaged institution.

The group was reunited in a pop-up storefront in Manhattan's Lower East Side, where they joined Melissa O’Young, founder of Let’s Collaborate!, and Eric Ho, founder of miLES to discuss the sharing economy, popup entrepreneurship, urban revitalization, fast entrepreneurship and more.  Melissa highlighted some statistics related to the rise of the sharing economy, "80% of the things in our homes, we use less than once a month, and 74% of cars on the road are occupied by just one person.”

Bringing back the theme of storytelling, we ended our day together at the Tenement Museum for a private tour and evening of drinks and conversations. The fellows and Un-School team were treated to an amazing tour of the 19th century building in the Lower East Side (which used ot be the most densely populated neighborhood in the world and served as the home for many immigrants). Our tour guides shared personal stories of the struggles (and cooperation) the families that lived in the building experienced over the years. In addition to being touched by these stories, we learned about the history behind the building's design and how this influenced the people who lived there.

Before and after the tour, we all got a taste of the local culture from immigrants past and present as we enjoyed drinks and bites from vendors in the LES that represent the diverse communities living there.  All the food and drinks were curated for us by the Tenement Museum in a private room within the museum -- they even shared the stories behind the treats!

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NYC Day 5 - June 18th, 2015

Today was a crucial and exciting day for the Un-School Fellows: it was the kickoff of 24 Hour Design Challenge, an intensive experience to apply, engage and enhance the creativity and skills of our fellows.

To kick off the day, most of our fellows took a quick tour of the NYC TED offices, learning about how and why it got started. Meanwhile, 5 other fellows participated in a session at Wix Lounge where they learned how to build websites as communication platforms for their projects, passions and desires to change the world.

nce everyone was back at the Centre of Social Innovation, fellows participated in a creative capacity building session on design, problem-solving and ideation, facilitated by Ashley Quinn and Andy Gillette of We Less Than 3. Fellows exercised their power to ideate with all sorts of problems, stimulating their creativity without the limits of 'right' or 'wrong' ideas.

Right after, our founder and mentor Leyla Acaroglu jumped in and introduced the fellows to her powerful research on life cycle and systems thinking in design, production and consumption. She talked about the importance of learning to love the problem, because it often holds its own solution and tactics for building creative interventions. She shared ways to spark ideas and creativity, tactics for filtering through ideas and emphasized the importance of adopting a Do Philoshophy.

"Ideas are pointless unless you put them into action! Test! Rapid prototype your ideas, get feedback, evolve them!" - Leyla Acaroglu

Leyla's presentation was critical prep for the fellows to start thinking about the challenge. After lunch, fellows took an international briefing call with the client-- a large manufacturing company within the apparel industry. Our amazing, engaged and creative Un-School Fellows, were placed in teams and now have  24 hours to solve the client's sustainable design challenge, putting into practice everything learned and discussed during the Fellowship week so far!

The teams will pitch their ideas to the client and an amazing panel of judges on Friday at 2:30pm! Counting down the time, fellows... CHALLENGE IS ON!

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NYC Day 6 - June 19th, 2015

The teams of #unschoolfellows worked through the night (with the occasional nap time) to finish their sustainable design challenge and create presentations for our client. Considering the teams were in competition mode, it was impressive to see collaboration and knowledge sharing throughout the research phase. The Challenge Brief was around sustainable manufacturing options for a sector of the apparel industry.

After their 24 hours were up, teams came together in front of a panel of judges and our international clients to pitch their innovative sustainable design solutions!

The first team brought together Melina from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sara from Guatemala City, Adam from San Francisco and Sabine from Schopfloch, Germany. Kicking off the presentations, they shared with us a concept called 'Manufacturegreen'-- a multiprong approach designed to address workforce safety and education, energy and water consumption, chemical use and waste management. Their goal was to get stakeholders involved throughout all stages of the garment life cycle to have a vested interest in the social and environmental impact that their work has. The team introduced a three phase plan to introduce, incentivize, and spread their sustainability pratices.

Group 1 during their sketch presentation on 'Manufacturegreen.'

The second team brought together Jen from Toronto, Sally and Jason from NYC and Lula from Zapopan, Mexico. They recognized what a valuable role water plays in the supply chain, community and country and thus proposed targeted initiatives focused on water stewardship. Their proposal included a stakeholder map centered on water and made short-term, medium-term, and long-term suggestions for social, industrial and ecological interventions. Long term goals included integrated closed-loop systems in which no waste would be produced and all water would be reused. While they started with practical, accessible goals for the short term, they built up to an exciting big picture vision including innovations in aquaponics, lucid's pipes and more.

Group 2 presenting their challenge statement: "Developing a culture of water stewardship can help the company become a leader in sustainability"

Line from Oslo, Norway, Zach from the US & Guatemala, Paulina from Mexico & Finland and Marce from Mexico City made up our third team, "G3". They started out by sharing the narrative of a worker to highlight the human experience behind the manufacturing process (the fashion process is not as automated as one may think). The proposal was clean, rational, and relatively easy to start implementing. Focusing on leveraging small interactions and experiments, they suggested simple processes to identify points where improvements can be made and testing to see impacts before scaling.

Zach presenting for Team 3, "Change can be done next week, in a cheap and reasonable way."

The fourth and final team was made up of Bec from Dunedin, New Zealand, Diego from Mexico City, Kiri from Australia & the Solomon Islands, and Nihan from Istanbul, Turkey. They introduced a holistic solution focused on selling sustainability, reducing resources, employing women and creating a peer-to-peer training program. Their proposal emphasized their belief that the manufacturer could sell a sustainable version of the product at a more premium price, to mirror consumers shifting demand and offer more options to buyers, consumers alike. Their approach to reducing resources focused on water, energy and raw materials and involved innovations in dyeing, zero waste cutting and more. Team Four also suggested making more durable products to extend the product's lifecycle.

Group 4: "From little things, big things grow."

After the teams presented, judges gave feedback and the fellows themselves voted on the pitch that they liked best. Then, finally, it was celebration time! We had a lively celebratory toast and some h'orderves and *almost* forgot how little sleep everyone was running on.

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NYC Day 7 - June 20th, 2015

Our final day together at Un-School's New York City fellowship was all about reflection and action. We were invited to the soon-to-be completed Prime Produce space by our mentor Chris Chavez. We spent the morning remembering and recording all the incredible things we had done that week. Chris then guided us through a reflective workshop session and we shared our highlights and learning experiences from the week.

Leyla then did an impromptu session (upon request from the fellows) on change theory and action before we all departed for an afternoon off before our farewell dinner.