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DCGN Skill Development and Mentoring Program
The Design Center for Global Needs in the Design and Industry
Department at San Francisco State University is implementing
a design mentoring program for high school students in San
Francisco. The goals of the program are:
- To provide a career mentoring opportunity for high
school juniors
- To increase awareness about our built
environment. Through exposure to the collective decision-making
process and by exposing students to varied perspectives
of the team, to make them aware of the contribution opportunities and responsibilities
available to anyone well educated enough to ask questions
- To provide a discussion
forum for students to explore the range of issues that influence the process
of creating the physical environment
- To create a vehicle
to illuminate the process of creating a project of significant value to
the community
Our program promotes intellectual investigation in the arena
of the built environment as a vehicle for understanding of
and growth in the community. This is a long-term project,
the results of which will be seen over time. In addition
to the development of local knowledge now, the expectation
is that the skills developed in decision-making capable of
leading development in the future will be manifest 20 years
from now. Short-term goals include development and expansion
of a local knowledge base in areas such as diversity, sustainability,
cultural vernacular design, and commitment. Aside from the
direct benefits derived from a study in sustainable design
in San Francisco as criteria for current decision and planning
agendas, this study can become a catalyst, or vehicle, for
other community issues.
The proposed San Francisco program will involve a small
group of students in San Francisco high schools in a year-long
program that will provide students who are at risk of dropping
out of school with the skills they need to excel in the modern
workplace as well as in institutions of higher learning.
The skills include the abilities to communicate and understand
ideas and information, collect, analyze, and organize information,
identify and solve problems, understand and work within complex
systems, use mathematical ideas and techniques, use technology;
initiate and complete entire activities, act professionally;
interact with others, learn on an ongoing basis, and take
responsibility for career and life choices.
During the academic year, the students will establish a
learning community and jointly explore issues of the San
Francisco community. They will experience the learning habits
needed for the discovery, integration, application, and sharing
of knowledge over a lifetime. |
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