In SINC with Students
A number of Fellows start student clubs and organizations as a vehicle to transform learning at their schools. This story is an excerpt from Designing for Change.
In 2016, Vanessa Ganaden, a business major from Cal State Fullerton, discovered an interesting club at her school that connected engineering and business students. At the time, she said the club seemed focused on the business students helping raise money for the engineers. She wondered why there wasn’t more of these types of collaborations at her school, and how she might help the club bring together even more disciplines.
When Vanessa started her UIF training shortly afterwards, she realized that redesigning this club would be the perfect project to focus on. During training, the emphasis the UIF team placed on talking with potential users was one of the biggest takeaways for Vanessa. Along with Fellow-in-training Lorenzo Santos, Vanessa spent time talking with students, faculty and administrators to understand their perspectives and share their vision.
“They understood the need, but hadn’t done anything because they knew it was difficult to bring together people from different majors,” she said.
She and Lorenzo discussed types of workshops that would appeal to students from different majors. They also wanted the club to add value so that students would learn practical tools and strategies to help them transition to their jobs.
And so SINC was born — the Student Innovation Collaborative. Vanessa said that it’s the first multidisciplinary club at Fullerton. Their first workshops were focused on helping students learn skills relevant to the workplace, with visiting speakers and activities that helped them learn how to network and pitch. After a year, Yumi Liang, another Fellow, joined them, and they shifted direction of the club towards design thinking.
Inspired by Design for America and the d.school’s Extreme by Design course, the team created project-based workshops focused on social causes. In Fall 2017, SINC students visited a homeless encampment to interview people and design solutions for them. In Spring 2018, the club worked on campus issues. In the last two years, more than 120 students have been part of SINC.
Vanessa said that the the SINC story is more than just the projects the students work on. She’s seen friendships and collaborations born, and participants taking away valuable life lessons. “SINC is about community and the students who are coming together to learn,” she said.
Vanessa graduated in May 2018 and reflected on her time with SINC. “In UIF, we all share this bond of doing something bigger than ourselves,” she said. “Fullerton has been a great school for me. I am grateful for my experience there and I wanted to give back. This was my way.”
