Redesign Your Future Series

Summer 2020

Redesign Your Future Sessions

This digital summer series hosted by the Integrative Learning and Life Design Office at JHU included a series of events – Alumni Talks, interactive Community Conversations across different social media platforms and Vision Chats – made available to all students, from any institution. The general focus of the series highlighted leaders in their fields to address areas where they see opportunity, innovation, and creation that are accessible to current/graduating students and be centered around design thinking principles.

Alumni Talks

JHU Alumni from various industries and life stages reflect on each month’s theme.

6/18/2020 “We Connect Here”

• Reginald Bannerman, Nursing (’97), Director of Nursing, Children’s National Medical Center
• Evan Fowler, Arts and  Sciences (’13) & SAIS (’14), Foreign Service Officer
• Pava LaPere, Arts and Sciences (’19), Founder, EcoMap Technologies
• Susan Magsamen, MAS Communications and Business (’87), Executive Director, International Arts and Mind Lab

We Connect Here | The viral poem “What if 2020 isn’t canceled” written by Leslie Dwight has reframed the trending narrative for what has been a year of challenging obstacles for the world. This is a beautiful example of accepting and empathizing with where we are in this exact moment in order to move us forward in a positive manner.

“We Connect Here” Recording:

Video Timing

• Reframing Introduction (02:30)
• Panelist Introduction (05:00)
• 2020 Isn’t Canceled (16:42)
• Q1: How have you seen your industry change in lieu of COVID-19 and the world’s current events? (18:14)
• Q2: Where do you see areas of professional opportunities for students and alumni in areas that are growing in your sectors? (35:28)
• Q3: What would advise you add on to your previous question that may be specific to undergraduate students or those with limited work experience? (46:48)
• Q4: How do you see these past few months impacting our world in a positive way moving forward? 1:03:08
• Q5: What is the most important quality you look for in students trying to get into your field? What would be some best ways of showcasing these qualities to potential employers? (01:11:35)
• Q6: What is one step you would encourage us to take in empathizing with ourselves and our communities around us? (01:19:40)

7/16/2020 “We Explore Possibilities”

Moderated by: Justin Lorts, Director of Life Design | Life Design Ambassador

Featured Panelists:

• Sadaf Kahn, JHU M.A. in Global Security & Strategic Studies (’14), Content Policy at Facebook
• Sharad Baliyan, Carey Business School MA/MBA in Design Leadership (’20), Senior Product Design Specialist, BrainScope (Pending Processing)

We Explore Possibilities| As we move forward into the second half of 2020 with a curious designer mindset, there are many possibilities to explore. For those of you following our series who are actively seeking opportunities, we’ll discuss how to define achievable goals. Next, we’ll explore strategies for radical collaboration to generate wild ideas and extrapolate actionable steps to continue making progress toward your goals.

“We Explore Possibilities” Recording:

Video Timing

• We explore possibilities introduction (02:00)
• Panelist introduction (04:30)
• Q1: As you look at your work and your industry, how do you see it being impacted by current world events and have you or your peers noticed areas or opportunity for innovation for growth in your fields? (07:20)
• Q2: In a time of opportunity and fast innovation as we are being forced into the future very quickly, we can easily get overwhelmed and lost in the possibilities and pathways moving forward. As you think about your own careers, how do you clarify and align those opportunities with your goals and next steps? (14:00)
• Q3: Over the course of your career, how have you tried to bring in different people, divergent thoughts, and radical collaboration in networking to help get you novel, fresh ideas for your career? (21:55)
• Q4: Can you offer tips for people who are worried about entering the world of work or who are in the world of work who feel that their groups are not generating the diverse ideas that they might need? (29:03)
• Q5: Can you share a story of when you last came across a divergent idea, topic or practice that helped you think differently about your work or inspired you to approach a project differently than what you’ve done? (31:20)
• Q6: How do you make decisions and take steps forward among competing priorities and their potential ripple effects? (36:53)
• Q7: If you’re at an organization that isn’t familiar with design thinking, what do you think are some of the necessary preconditions for divergent ideas to exist within an organization? If people want to work for an organization that embraces diverse ideas, what are some of the things they should be looking at for an organization to have in order to foster divergent ideas? (41:55)
• Q8: Do you have advice for how to get a real sense of an organization’s commitment to inclusion when you’re networking and talking to people within industry? (46:13)
• Q9: Can you talk about a time when you’ve had a plan that fell through and you were able to pivot, but pivoted in a way that went beyond your planning? You took a chance – an audacious move – and said “let’s see how this works out” – has that happened and what was that like?  (50:06)
• Q10: Do you have any final words of advice for those that may be looking for ideas or jobs? (56:23)

8/13/2020 “We Challenge the Future”

Moderated by: Setu van Lare-Hodges, Career and Life Design Coach | Life Design Ambassador

• Matt Lynch, Carey MS Health Care Management (’16), Practice Consultant, CareFirst, BlueCross, BlueShield – Public Health
• Brandon Arvesen, AAP Masters in Creative Writing (’15), Assistant Professor of Writing, Goucher College – Arts and Education
• Kara Maddox, AAP Masters of Communication, Public and Media Relations (’18), CEO, KJM Digital – Business and Technology

We Challenge the Future| As our previous Alumni Talk and Vision Chat speakers suggest, “Stop pondering, start prototyping” AND “find someone living in your future.” We’re wrapping up the series by discussing how to stop getting in our own way and start having the courage to take small actionable steps and continue driving ourselves forward. We’ll discuss cheap, quick, and virtual/socially-distanced ways of testing and prototyping our goals and ideas in order to fail fast and succeed sooner. And we’ll also remember that this is a messy, iterative process as we find inspiration in stories from those who have tackled challenges head-on and risen from the uncertainty.

“We Challenge the Future” Recording:

Video Timing

Vision Chats

Dynamic conversations with visionaries about the future of education, work, technology, industry, health, environment, and society hosted by Farouk Dey.

6/25/20   Designing your COVID-19 Life with Bill Burnett

7/23/20   The Artist Way of Composing Your Life with Sean Jones

8/20/20   Rethinking Social Justice with Priyali Sur