The Design Center for Global Needs in the Department of Design and Industry has developed a Multicultural Curriculum and Skill Development Program for African-American, Latino and other underrepresented students into the field of design. The objective of this program is to increase the awareness and appeal of 9th-12th grade students to the variety of professions in design and technology.

The introduction of this program was designed to concurrently enhance the scope and diverse applications of design education for students in the Design & Industry (DAI) department at San Francisco State University (SFSU). The primary goals were to introduce multicultural applications in
the design curriculum in the DAI program at SFSU that exposed our students to the contemporary, urban and ethnic context to the dissemination of design education, orientation and application.

This was achieved by developing a practical curriculum, "Design Your Own Sneaker." This teaching practicum was conducted in conjunction with the Organization of Black Designers (OBD) San Francisco Bay Area Chapter and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) Education Department. The SFSU students interacted with inner-city high school students in the San Francisco Bay Area and the SFMOMA Educational staff. In addition, high school students were involved in collaborative interfaces with design organizations, firms and manufacturers such as, the Organization of Black Designers, the OBD/SFSU Student Chapter, the IDSA/SFSU Student Chapter, frogdesign, Inc. and Customatix.com.

Case-Study Project:

Implementation of a series of OBD Youth Design Forum "Design Your Own Sneaker," Orientations, Workshops and Final Presentation from August - October 2000.

In the workshops, high school students worked directly with design students and local design professionals. The format of the Design Forum gave students the opportunity to see how a real design team works, as well as present their original designs to a panel of designers and the public.