DxD Q3 ‘23 NEWS

What a summer we’ve had! There’s so much to share, we just have to dive right in!!

DxD’s Advisory Council: At Work and in the Community

Shawn Williams and Raja Scher attended the IDSA conference this past August in NYC. Shawn was asked to present…and did he! He shared his amazing journey to becoming a designer and why he joined DxD’s Advisory Council. He then went on to introduce the audience to the coalition – our mission, initiatives, partners, and other Advisory Council members (including Raja, who was in the audience cheering him on). Shawn concluded his talk illustrating how DxD is driving change in the industry and creating opportunities for Black and Brown youth and designers.

In case you were unable to attend and missed Shawn’s inspiring talk… and would like to learn more about DxD, here's a link to his presentation. 

While we’re on Shawn, join us in serving up a HUGE DxD 🎉Congratulations to him. Shawn’s first design for Vans is available now!! WooHoo!!!🎊 👟🥳

Working Groups

DxD’s working groups have also been hard at work. First up, the Agency Working Group (AWG): Comprising BBMG, Threespot, and Fringe22, the AWG has been diligently meeting over the last 18 months to design a better way for small and mid-size agencies to implement change in their hiring, onboarding, and retention practices. The results: a Best Practices Guide prototype which will be socialized with other design agencies for feedback this fall/winter. If you’re interested in being part of the guide’s review, drop us a note at info@dxd.com and we’ll get you in the queue.

Next up, the Fill the Gap Working Group (FGWG). Newly formed this past September, the FGWG aims to answer the question, "after youth exposure, what’s next?” Once middle and high school students are turned on to design as a possible future career, how can DxD and its partners help to support their journey into thriving experience, employment, and leadership?

The response to participate on the FGWG was so big, we had to create a slide for it! Check it out here and stay tuned. This group is on fire!

Programming

Design=

The blow-out news of the summer was the launch of DxD’s Design= Curriculum Kit.

To prepare for the release, DxD, Design= sponsor Amazon, and the fantastic folks at DxD program partner, YWCA National Capital Area in DC, did a test run of the kit with 25 young women in the Y’s summer youth program. The results? Fully engaged, excited students who couldn’t wait to present their concepts, processes, and prototypes (yes, Present, in person, in front of their teachers and 7 Amazon designers). You had to see the pics on DxD social channels, yes?!? So Cool!!

DxD also worked with program partner Breakthrough Cincinnati to put the finishing touches on the curriculum to ready for launch.

Then, on August 15th, we released the long awaited free, downloadable, comprehensive, 9 lesson, design curriculum for high school students.You could feel the excitement in the air!

To support the kit and all of the educators, design professionals, and mentors who are and will use it, DxD created the Design= Community where anyone who teaches/mentors highschool students in historically excluded communities can access the curriculum and get support from DxD staff, as well as the larger network of education professionals implementing the curriculum.

To date, the Design= kit has been accessed by 48 educators who work with 1,969 students. Our goal is to reach 1250 youth by the end of 2023. And in 2024, DxD industry partners Workday and Delta Dental will be collaborating on and supporting Design=, each presenting a design challenge through the kit and mentors in the classrooms. 

Does your organization want to be part of this exciting initiative? Do you teach highschool students or know someone who does and can benefit from the Design= curriculum? If so, email us at info@dxd.design. NOW.

DxD Intensives

DxD program partner Delta Dental is in the Bronx!! The amazing team at Delta Dental is back for their 5th Intensives, this time working with the social-impact minded students at Lehman College in the Bronx, NYC. Leading the way on the mentor team will be Delta Dental’s CX Strategist and DxD Advisor Council member, Bre’Anne Simms.

What’s on the agenda for this semester’s Intensives Challenge? Students will be tackling a real business issue for the insurance provider: how best to optimize Delta Dental’s provider search tool. Can you say “max on your UX”?

More to come when the challenge kicks in, so be sure to keep an eye out on DxD’s social channels for updates.

Speaking of more, Workday is partnering with SFSU for another dynamite semester. And Workday Product Designer, Durojaiye Salaam, is the head of the class! Yep, he’s teaching this semester after wowing students as an awesome mentor last spring.

This semester, Durojaiye, with the support of his fellow Workmate mentor team, will have students tackle a challenge specific to the San Francisco Bay Area’s unique climate-related issues and opportunities — creating an actionable product that advances environmental social impact initiatives. Exciting, right?!?! 

As with Delta Dental, track us on DxD’s socials and stay tuned for more on Workday, the students, their challenges and Intensives!

Well, that’s a wrap. Q3 is done, dusted and we’re already knee deep in a fantastic Q4. As always, keep tracking DxD and the coalition’s groundbreaking work on LinkedIn and Instagram and stay tuned; our year end report is going to be HUGE!

‍

DxD Out.🎤

‍