Prototyping a Campus Storytelling Program to Bridge Divides
Prototyping a Campus Storytelling Program to Bridge Divides
Clients: OffScript program (ZBT Foundation)
Prototyping Magic
Prototyping Magic
Context:
The ZBT Foundation wanted to help college students build bridges across political and identity differences on campus, but most dialogue programs struggle to reach the overwhelmed, over-committed majority of students who tune out anything that feels like a lecture or a political ask.
The Collaboration:
Designing Impact leveraged research with students to design OffScript, a campus evening event pairing live storytelling with lightweight, facilitated skill-building. The team ran a series of prototypes at UC Berkeley and Cornell University, iterating the format (coached student stories, small-group trust-building exercises) based on what actually got overwhelmed students to engage, then layering in an optional path to go deeper afterward. The goal of the program was to build skills around dialogue and managing disagreement by anchoring in empathy.
Context:
The ZBT Foundation wanted to help college students build bridges across political and identity differences on campus, but most dialogue programs struggle to reach the overwhelmed, over-committed majority of students who tune out anything that feels like a lecture or a political ask.
The Collaboration:
Designing Impact leveraged research with students to design OffScript, a campus evening event pairing live storytelling with lightweight, facilitated skill-building. The team ran a series of prototypes at UC Berkeley and Cornell University, iterating the format (coached student stories, small-group trust-building exercises) based on what actually got overwhelmed students to engage, then layering in an optional path to go deeper afterward. The goal of the program was to build skills around dialogue and managing disagreement by anchoring in empathy.
Context:
The ZBT Foundation wanted to help college students build bridges across political and identity differences on campus, but most dialogue programs struggle to reach the overwhelmed, over-committed majority of students who tune out anything that feels like a lecture or a political ask.
The Collaboration:
Designing Impact leveraged research with students to design OffScript, a campus evening event pairing live storytelling with lightweight, facilitated skill-building. The team ran a series of prototypes at UC Berkeley and Cornell University, iterating the format (coached student stories, small-group trust-building exercises) based on what actually got overwhelmed students to engage, then layering in an optional path to go deeper afterward. The goal of the program was to build skills around dialogue and managing disagreement by anchoring in empathy.
