Build Up Cohort Experience (Summer 2022): Part 1
Meet the Builders of Girls Rising, Karen Organization of San Diego, and TransFamily Support Services
What is Build Up?
Build Up is a 10-week summer program where students will work with a nonprofit organization to refine their branding, redesign their website, or boost their exposure.
These nonprofits fall into 3 categories: LGBTQ+ Advocacy, Women’s Empowerment, and Refugee and Immigrant Relief. The program builds on our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiative, which strives to support BIPOC communities and give underrepresented design and marketing students greater opportunities to advance their skillset.
Expanding on our previous summer programs Power Up and Level Up, the Build Up Program consisted of:
- 33 student participants
- 16 mentors
- And 6 real clients
Teams of Web Builders, UX Designers, UX Researchers, Visual Designers, Marketing Strategists, and Content Strategists collaborated together under the mentorship of industry professionals to develop valuable skills and deliver long-term solutions to uplift their nonprofit organizations.
Meet the Builders of Girls Rising, Karen Organization of San Diego, and TransFamily Support Services
Don Le — Girls Rising
Entering his 3rd year as a Computer Science student, Web Builder Don Le worked alongside his team to implement a website redesign for Girls Rising. The nonprofit organization provides underserved girls with women with guidance and mentorship. In 10 weeks, Don and his team created a website redesign and rebrand to showcase the meaningful relationships that Girls Rising cultivates with their community.
Q: What was your biggest takeaway from your experience this summer? How have you grown and learned from the program?
My biggest takeaway from the Build Up experience was how important clear communication is, both through our actual designs and directly with real people.
We want our designs to convey meaning effectively and to evoke a desired emotion and response. That’s why it was crucial for our process to have multiple stages of prototypes and user testing to ensure that we’re getting the intended response from users and getting feedback on what design approaches work and what doesn’t.
Communicating with others was also a major part of this experience, as we had to discuss various tasks and issues within our team, between our stakeholders, and with our mentors. Clarity and frequent communication here was necessary for us to understand exactly what each party needs from each other and why, allowing everyone to help each other to the best of their ability.
Q: What did you enjoy most about Build Up?
I really enjoyed the opportunity to work with my team, our stakeholders, our mentors, other Build Up teams, and the Build Up organizers. Everyone was helpful, positive, [and] understanding, and [it was] overall a pleasure to collaborate with for this project.
Through these 10 weeks, I feel like my professional and communication abilities improved considerably, thanks to these people making the program a comfortable environment to learn from each other and practice our skills. I also thought it was great that each member of my team was involved in multiple stages of the process, so we all got some great experience in UX research and design, prototyping, testing, visual design, marketing, and web development.
Learn more about his team’s project in Girls Rising Case Study.
Mandy Lai — Karen Organization of San Diego
Mandy Lai, a 2nd-year Cognitive Science spec. Design and Interaction student, worked with her teammates to implement a website redesign and generate marketing strategies for the Karen Organization of San Diego. The ethnic community-based organization serves refugees from Burma through services like case management and community workshops. The Web Builder and her team worked closely to help elevate the voices of the Burmese refugee community and support immigrants in their quest to rebuild their lives.
Q: What was your biggest takeaway from your experience this summer? How have you grown and learned from the program?
“Collaboration and communication is half the job”–this spoke to me in Paula Le’s UX workshop. At first, I was hesitant to share what I had been working on or propose changes to our project. Then, I realized I couldn’t afford to be shy. I started making a habit of preparing frequent deliverables, and people were very supportive and receptive.
Q: What was the biggest challenge your team faced while working with your nonprofit, and how did you tackle it?
While we all experienced technical learning curves, I think our team struggled the most with project management.
“Who’s sending the email this time?”
“How do we wanna divvy up our final presentation and case study?”
These were all things we were figuring out up until the last minute. In future team projects, I think it would be good to specify these roles in the beginning.
Learn more about her team’s project in Karen Organization of San Diego Case Study.
Grace Lin — TransFamily Support Services
Grace Lin was the UX Researcher for TransFamily Support Services, a nonprofit that supports trans youth and their families through the journey of gender. During the program, the incoming 4th-year Cognitive Science spec. Design and interaction student and her team worked on redesigning the nonprofit’s website. In the end, the team created an accessible website that they hope will continue to bring trans and nonbinary communities together.
Q: What was your biggest takeaway from your experience this summer? How have you grown and learned from the program?
[M]y biggest takeaway is that I feel like I now really understand how to approach working with clients who already have preexisting materials. As student designers and researchers, when we design content or work for a mock client, we’re usually prompted to build from scratch, but working with a real organization to build off of a website they already had was a unique and novel experience for me (and more realistic in the industry, too).
I’ve also expanded on my project management and communication skills; one of my goals coming into the program was [to build] stronger ties between team members, mentors, and stakeholders, and through this program, I found that getting to know them personally proved more productive for teamwork and success.
On an empathetic level, my other takeaway is this: by establishing that bond between everyone, there’s more trust, and with more trust, everyone is happier with the results.
Q: What did you enjoy most about Build Up?
If I could, I would say everything, since I think that everything I’ve loved about the program builds off of each other. However, the two main aspects are this: creating connections with teammates and seeing my team’s work have [a] real-world impact.
I enjoyed being able to tackle challenges together with my team, but that would not have been possible without our bonding over our favorite films, making Spotify blend playlists, and checking in with each other to be valuable as well. It felt like we weren’t just a few students and alumni tossed together to work on this project, but instead, a collective whole that could take on our deliverables as one.
In addition, as someone who is incredibly passionate about LGBTQ+ advocacy, it was always inspiring to remember that everything my teammates and I do in Build Up is going to benefit some member of the trans and nonbinary community out there. Being able to see my work have that sort of impact made every moment of Build Up pay off.
Lastly, honorable mention to learning from our mentors — their experienced insights and their dedication to helping us improve was very vital to my team’s success and much appreciated.
Learn more about her team’s project in TransFamily Support Services Case Study.
Any final words about your experience?
Don Le
Thanks for the memorable experience!
Mandy Lai
Shoutout to DCO for this amazing opportunity!! *Bob the Builder salute*
Grace Lin
It has been just so lovely working with my teammates, connecting with our mentors, and lending a hand to TransFamily Support Services. Thank you so much for this amazing experience, and thanks to the Build Up team for bringing it all together!
Hear from 3 Builders working with La Chula Crew Foundation, Refugee Health Alliance, and North County LGBTQ Resource Center in this article.
Read about 3 of our design and marketing mentors’ experience in this article.
Learn about Girls Rising’s and TransFamily Support Services’s experience as partners for Build Up in this article.
