Design Your Life
The Expectations
Reflecting on my decision to enroll in the Design Thinking for Social Innovation course, I initially held high expectations. Looking back, not only were these expectations met, but they were greatly surpassed.
My interest in this course stemmed from my prior experience with Design Thinking and my deep enthusiasm for its values and methodologies. As I added a 4th semester to rearange my career path and exploring opportunities in the social industry, this course seemed like a great fit. When we started our course in February, I just defended my thesis about the challenges students face when they have an immigrant background in Austria — a topic I can personally identify with. After the topic with the Lisbon Project was announced in the course, it seemed just one more step on my path to be aligned together.
Through this course, I did not only learned a lot and gained new skills, I also got the opportunity to follow the next step of my career, and started through a small talk with Fian to a position at the Lisbon Project — so my intention of why I chose the course actually really leaded me to a full exploration of my opportunities in this sector — and so far, I can really tell how much I enjoy my contribution at my new role.
Reflection of Teamwork and Collaboration
I have to highlight how much I enjoyed working with my team. Everyone who studied at Nova knows how much working in a team can be so unneccessary painful. In my team, the collaboration was so smooth and kind. If someone was busy or sick, there was always a helping hand who would help out. This is, unfortunately, so rare that I really have to appreciate it and put it to one of my highlights of this course.
Furthermore, working with our consultant, Mercy, was another highlight. From the very first day, she was so open-minded and answered all our questions. At first, it was a bit of a challenge for me to find the right way to ask questions, as I tend to be more of a listener and I’m cautious about asking questions that might be perceived as rude, inappropriate, or intimidating. However, this communication challenge turned into a very positive experience, and we developed a great relationship.
Talking about listening, I think one of my strongest skills that I was able to leverage in this course was my ability to listen carefully, ask the right questions, and then listen again. This allowed me to have productive and insightful conversations with our consultant and, found a way to adapt this skill in my professional path.
Reflection of my Course Experience
When I enrolled in the course, I was hoping that all the sketching and Lego activities would be included. I really enjoyed the interactive nature of the classes, such as the sketching exercises, the “dogo fights,” and the Lego building activities. In fact, I learned something extremely valuable in this class — that there are individuals who need to doodle while listening, and they can actually focus better that way. This is so true for me. I always felt the need to doodle while being focused on listening, but based on past experiences, teachers would often perceive this as inappropriate behavior. However, I now realize that it is actually beneficial for my focus and concentration. Doodling helps me stay engaged and attentive during lectures and I will take this knowledge out of this world for me.
Furthermore, the amount of engagement and support from AL and Beatriz was amazing. They were always available to provide helpful feedback and support, and I was impressed by the professor’s dedication, such as remembering all our names and responding to messages at late hours. In addition, the mood in the groups was always checked. We were warned that we would feel lost and we were given the feeling that we had to trust the process, that everything would become clearer in the end. And that’s exactly how it was for our group — a big question mark between Define and Ideate phase, but step by step it became clearer.
The personalised attention and responsiveness to groups’ needs significantly improved the quality of the course and enriched the learning process.
When I realised on the day of the exhibition that this would be the last time, I must admit I felt a bit sad. The engaging and supportive environment that was fostered throughout the course made it a truly enriching experience. I will always cherish this experience and wanted to thank AL and Beatriz for creating such an amazing course!
