It was a remarkable experience to be one of the co-developers of Prototype, a design camp for young creatives that took place in Columbus, Ohio over the course of three days. Being able to work with some amazing students was the best part about this experience and really made me fall in love with working with younger people. This is something I want to make sure is part of my future work.

The students—from public schools, private schools, and a career-technical high school, worked in groups with other students that they had never met before. Mentors worked with the groups, allowing students to learn through behavior modeling and collaboration rather than information consumption.

The results were a creative array of news networks, school designs, and student movements, but the most compelling outcome was the student experience itself. Reflections at the end of the conference from students included tremendous gratitude, a deep interest in the design process, and most importantly, a motivation to thoroughly create change.

Excerpt above from an article on Fast Co. Design titled Teaching Kids Design Thinking, So They Can Solve the World’s Biggest Problems.

One of my favorite parts about the experience was an attendee of the education conference where we were holding the camp walking by and assuming we were still setting up and asked if she should come back later. I responded that it would actually be getting messier over the next couple days and went on to explain the active learning and collaborative design camp we were conducting.

I am very much looking forward to continuing to develop more Prototype programs in different places and to continue working with kids. Currently, I am exploring the possibility of doing a Prototype program in Conencticut for my senior thesis project. Thanks to Christian Long, David Bill, and Trung Le for all their support and creativity as co-developers.

First photo by Matt Carbone, and seconf photo by Jeremy Slagle, all other by Ethan.