Emily Pilloton: ：教学设计变更

============================
http://dotsub.com/view/d2c66c96-9ff6-4b1f-b112-2953d5c8bac2
Emily Pilloton: ：教学设计变更
这是一个故事 一个关于一个我现在称之为“家”的地方的故事 一个关于公共教育 和乡村社区 还有设计如何能改善这两项的故事。 这就是伯蒂(Bertie)县 它位于美国北卡罗来纳州。 为了让你们对它的位置有一个清晰的概念 这就是北卡罗来纳,如果我们放大一下， 伯蒂县就在这个州的东部， 它距离罗莉（Raleigh）市 大概有两小时的车程 那里地势很平坦，而且有很多沼泽。 那里的土地大多数用于耕地。 整个县 只有20000人，而且居住的很分散。 所以大概每平方公里只有27个人。 而每平方千米降到只有10个人左右。 10个人左右。
伯蒂(Bertie)县是 正在消失的美国农村的一个主要的例子 整个国家到处都是这样的故事 甚至是美国之外的地方 我们已经发现这一征兆 这意味着小城镇的空洞化 这意味着商业区变成城市的废墟 --人才流失-- 那些受过高等教育和有能力的人通通都离开了那里，而且再也不回来。 农村与城市相比， 对于政府补贴更加依赖 学校的水平底下 而且贫困率更高。 伯蒂(Bertie)县也不例外 或许这个县所面临的最大的问题 和其它与之类似的社区一样， 就是没有 对于农村未来的 共享的，集体的投资 现在整个美国的慈善捐助，只有6.8% 用于农村社区。 但居住在农村地区的人口却占总人口的20%。
所以伯蒂县不单单只是农村，而且那里非常的贫困。 它是北卡罗来纳州最贫困的县。 三分之一的孩子生活在贫困之中， 这被成为农村贫困区。 那里的经济主要依靠农业， 主要农作物是棉花和烟草， 和我们引以为豪的花生。 那里最大的雇主是Purdue鸡肉处理厂 伯蒂县位于温莎市 你们现在看到的是温莎市的"泰晤士广场". 这里仅有2000居民， 而且和其他很多小城镇一样 它已经“空洞化”很多年了。 这里空的或者破损的建筑 比正在被使用的数量更多。 县里的餐馆数量屈指可数 你用一只手就可以数过来 Bunn的烤肉店绝对是我的最爱， 但是整个县没有一家咖啡店 那里也没有网吧， 没有电影院，没有书店。 甚至是没有沃尔玛。
在人种分布上，这个县 大约有60%的人是黑人， 但是在公立学校中， 由于多数白种小孩都去了私立的 劳伦斯中学, 所以在公立学校中 黑种人占了86%。 这是一张在当地报纸上登出的最近的毕业班学生的照片 你们可以看到当中的区别很明显。 所以说伯蒂县的公共教育系统 生存艰难 是很保守的说法。 那里没有一个输出 优秀教师的源头。 整个县只有8%的人拥有 本科或本科以上的文凭。 所以这是一个很大 关于教育的遗留问题。 事实上，两年前， 在仅有的三分之一接收过八年级教育的人中，只有27% 的人在数学和英语上 达到国家标准。
听起来我好像是在描述一副关于这一地区的很惨淡的画面， 但是我可以保证我们有好的消息。 我认为伯蒂县现在最大的财富之一 就是这个人， 这是Chip Zullinger博士， 我们亲切的称他为Z博士。 他是在2007年十月人 作为改善已经破碎的教育系统的负责 来到伯蒂县的 他以前在南卡罗来纳州的查尔斯顿 和科罗拉多州(位于美国西部)的丹佛 担任过负责人。 他首先从伯蒂县最早的一些80年代建的 特许学校开始 他绝对具有改革精神而且是极有远见的 他也是我在伯蒂县定居和工作的原因。 在2009年2月 Zullinger邀请我们，H设计项目-- 一个我建立的非盈利的设计公司 去伯蒂县并与他合作 去修复这一学区 用设计的观点去修复这一学区 他邀请我们主要是 因为我们有很特别的 设计过程类型 这种类型是为那些在 通常情况下没机会接触到设计服务或者创意资本的地区 设计合理的解决方案的结果 特别的，我们有六个设计教条 可能其中最重要的是第二个 我们不是为谁设计，而是与谁一起设计。 基于这一点，当我们的设计关注于人道主义时 我们已经不再是为了客户而设计。 而是与别人一起共同设计 然后让合理的解决方法从内部形成。
一开始我们刚被邀请到那里时 我们还住在圣弗朗西斯科 所以我们在2009年余下的时间里 基本上都是要来回的奔波 在伯蒂县的时间大约占了我们的一半时间 当我说我们时，我指的是H项目的人 但更确切的说，我指的是我自己和我的伙伴，马修米勒 一位设计师和麦吉弗类型的建筑师 快进到现在，我们现在住在伯蒂县 我不得不把这张照片上的马修的头剪掉 因为如果他知道我在用它的话，他会杀了我的 主要是因为他穿的运动服 这是我们的前门廊，我们住在那里 我们现在把这个地方称作就“家” 通过这一年往复的飞来飞去 我们认识到我们已经爱上了这个地方 我们已经爱上了这片土地和这里的人们 我们现在在像伯蒂县这样的农村地区所做的 工作------ 做设计师和建筑师 不是在每一个地方都能做的。 这是一个可以去试验， 去结合和测试不同东西的地方 我们有Zullinger博士的大力支持 去做那些务实的，真正的脏活累活 是高尚的
但是留在那里，除了我们个人的原因 还有就是因为那里有巨大的需求 伯蒂县的创新资本基本上是空的 整个县没有一个真正有执照的设计师 我们看到了一个机会 一个把设计作为一种没有被触及的工具带给 伯蒂县的机会 把设计作为一种新型的工具添加到他们的 工具包的机会 我们最初来到这里的目标是为了和Zullinger博士一起 设计公共教育系统 这是为什么我们来到这里 但是除了这些，我们认识到 作为一个社区，伯蒂县 极其需要对于荣耀和与与外界连通的 新视角 还有就是他们非常缺乏的 创新资本 所以最后我们的目标变为了，是的，把用设计来进行教育 然后找出如何能让教育成为 推动社区建设的动力
为了做到这些，我们有三种不同的方法 来得到教育和设计的结合点 我得说这三样也是我们已经在伯蒂县做了的三件事情 我现在可以非常的自信说我们有能力和美国 其他的农村社区一起工作 也许美国之外的也可以 三件事的第一件是设计教育的方法 这是教育和设计之间 最明显和直接的结合点 这是在为教师和学生 搭建宽敞的 学习空间、资料和经验 这是对与糟糕的移动拖车和 过时的教材 还有我们这些年建学校所用的劣质的材料的回应 为了完成这个，我们做了很多不同的事情 首先是对于电脑实验室的一系列改革 过去学校的电脑实验室 特别是像在伯蒂县的那些差一点的学校 这些学校每两周都会有一次基准评测 电脑实验室的电脑 是测试的工具 你进去，面对这墙壁，做完测试，然后走掉 我们希望能够改变学生们接触科技的方式 去创造一个更加活跃，更加有吸引力， 更容易接触的社会空间 而且我们希望能够提高 教师们使用这些空间来进行高科技教育的能力 这是我们一所高中的实验室 这个学校的校长很喜欢这个实验室 每当他有访客时，这个实验室都是他第一个带访客去参观的地方
这还意味着一些教师可以在 这个教育场地中相互协作来进行创造 我们称这个为学习景观 它让基础阶段的学生能在作为一个孩子应该做的事情， 比如 在玩游戏、跑来跑去和尖叫中学到核心课程 现在孩子们正在玩的游戏 叫做"跟我比"， 孩子们可以通过玩这个游戏学到基础乘法 在“跟我比”中，一个班的孩子被分为两队 每个队站在操场的两边 老师会拿一只粉笔 在每一个轮胎上写一个数字 然后她会出一个数学问题 比如说4乘以4 每个队要出一名同学来算出 4乘以4等于16 然后找到标有16的轮胎坐下 游戏的最终目标是让你们队的所有队员都能坐到轮胎上 然后你们对就可以获胜 学习景观的作用非常 惊人 很多班级的考试成绩都有所提高 而且对教学内容掌握的更好 特别是男生 他们喜欢出去玩耍 他们不害怕做一些 二位数的乘法问题 老师们也能够 用这些新的方法作为评价工具去 了解他们的学生理解 新课程的程度 所以在为教育设计当中，我认为最重要的事情 是和教师一切共享解决方法 这样的话他们就有施行这些方法的动力和愿望 这是佩里先生，他是主管助理 他参加了一次我们的教师训练日活动 一连赢了五轮“跟我比”，他感到非常的自豪
(笑)
三件事中的第二个件是对整个教育系统本身进行重新设计 这是最复杂的 它是在系统的层面去识别 教育是如何被管理的 教育是给谁提供何种东西 很多情况下我们不是直接改变什么 而是 为可能的改变创造条件 激励人们做出改变 在农村地区，在封闭保守的农村教育系统中 这些事情说起来简单 做起来却很难 所以对于我们来讲，这是一场被称为 “连接伯蒂县”的公开战役 整个县有成千上万个这种绿色的圆点 这是在募集资金 目的是要 为公立学校的每一个学生的家里 配上连有宽带的电脑 现在我只能说 整个县只有百分之十的家庭 真正拥有可以上网的电脑 而唯一有无线网络的地方 就是学校大楼，或者是“博简格尔斯”（Bojangles）烤鸡连锁店 我经常去那里 除了让人们感到兴奋 或者是不知道这些绿点点到底是干什么的以外 这些点点让教育系统 开始想象如何能成为促使社区更加 连通的催化剂 它让教育能够走出校园 去思考教育 如何能为社区建设做贡献 今年夏天 第一批电脑正在安装中 我们正在协助Zullinger博士研究能够让教室和学校 互联的方法 好让学生能够在课堂之外也能学习
三件事中的第三件是令我最兴奋的一件 也是我们现在正在做的一件事 就是把设计当作教育 把设计当作教育的意思是 我们可以真正的在公立学校中教授设计 这不是像普通的设计课那样的 不是说教他们通过建造火箭去学习物理课程 而是学习设计的思维方式 还有真正的构造和组建技能 这些都是对当地社区有利的 这也意味着设计师不再是顾问 而是教师 我们承担着为下一代 创造更多的创新资本的任务 设计作为教育框架，能够提供的是 一副解药 去改变很多学区以往 单调，单板的口头教授 这些行动已经在实施,就在你们眼前 这需要我们积极的参与 它让孩子们能够真正的 学到核心课程 所以我们开始思考 工艺课程的遗留问题 还有工艺课程，特别是木头工艺和铁骑工艺 在历史上，它们都是为了那些不能够 读大学的孩子开设的 它是一个职业训练的过程 是一个职业教育，是蓝领 这个项目就像是 让我们做一个鸟笼送给你妈妈做圣诞礼物吧 近些年，很多资助工艺课程的基金 都消失了
所以我们在想，如果我们把工艺课程重新带回来会怎么样 但这次我们关注于 社区真正需要的事情 而且在工艺课程中注入 更多重要的和创新的设计思考过程 所以我们持着这种模糊的观点 通过和Zullinger博士过去一年紧密的合作 编制了为高中一年级学生准备的 一个年度的课程 四个星期之后 这个课程就要开始了 我的搭档的我，马修和我 为了获得高中教师许可证来教授这一课程 刚刚度过了一段艰难和非常复杂的过程 这就是它的样子
在教授这个课程的两个学期里 秋季学期和春季学期 学生每天要在 我们4500平方英尺的工艺工作室里 学习三个小时 在这段时间里，他们会做各种事情 从外出做种族研究和做一些必须的调查 到回到工作室 进行头脑风暴和设计可视化 最终构思出可行的概念 然后拿到加工室去测试他们 构造他们，去打造他们的原型 看看它们是否能可用并不断改进它们 在夏季，他们会得到一份暑期工作 他们通过在H项目中工作获得报酬 他们会和我们一起工作 在社区中设计和建设这些项目 第一个项目，将会在下个夏天开始建设 是一个市区的露天农贸市场 接下来就是第二年的校车系统 然后第三年是提高老年人的居住环境 这些都是真正可见的项目 我们希望学生将来可以指着它们说： 这是我建的，我感到非常的自豪
我想让你们看一看三位我们的同学 这是瑞安 她今年15岁 她热爱农业，希望成为一个高中教师 她想上大学，但想毕业后回到伯蒂县 因为那里有她的亲人，那里是她成为“家”的地方 她强烈的希望能够为这个 让她感到幸运的地方做些贡献 所以H工作室能提供给她一个 学习技术的地方 这样她就能够以最有意义的方式回报她的故乡
这是埃里克，他在一支足球队踢球 他很喜欢场地赛车 他想成为一名设计师 对于他来说，H工作室提供给他 一个学习成为设计师必备的技术的地方 这包括从画草图到木头和金属构造 再到为客户进行研究调查等一切事情
这是安东尼 他今年16岁，喜欢打猎，钓鱼和出游 他喜欢用自己的双手去做事情 对于他，H工作室意味着 他能够通过自己动手参与来 保持对教育的兴趣 他对林学有兴趣，但是他不太确定 所以如果他最终不能进入大学 他仍然能够培养出一些与行业有关的技术
设计真正带给公共教育的 是一个不同类型的教室 这个市中心的建筑 很可能成为我们将来的农贸市场所在地 现在是我们的教室 让学生们走到社区中，去采访你的邻居 询问他们从哪里买什么食品 为什么会在那里买 这是我们的家庭作业 而今年夏天的剪彩仪式 那时他们已经建成农贸市场，而且也已经对外公开 那是我们的期末考试 对于社区来讲，设计和建设提供了 真实的，可见的建设过程 每一年一个工程 它让年轻人成为 我们未来最大的财产 和最大的没被开发的资源
我们意识到H工作室，特别是在它的第一年 是一个小小的故事 13个学生，2个老师 这是一个地方的一个项目 但是我们觉得这个在其他的地方也是可行的 而且我深深的相信这个小小故事的力量 因为如果在全球范围上做慈善工作 是很困难的 因为，当你把范围放的那么大时 你就会失去把人看作是有血有肉的个体的能力
最后，设计本身是一个 对和我们一起工作还有我们想帮助的人 以及我们设计师自己的 持续的教育 让我们来面对它吧，设计师们，我们需要彻底改造我们自己 我们需要重新教育我们自己 我们需要更多的在舒适的工作室之外工作 我们需要去做一个更好的公民 所以虽然这只是一个很小的故事 我们仍希望它能代表迈向正确方向的一步 为了农村社区更好的未来 为了公共教育更好的未来 也希望是为了设计的更好的未来
谢谢
（掌声）
---------------------------
Emily Pilloton: Teaching design for change
So this is a story of a place that I now call home. It's a story of public education and of rural communities and of what design might do to improve both. So this is Bertie County, North Carolina, USA, to give you an idea of the where. So here's North Carolina, and if we zoom in, Bertie County is in the eastern part of the state. It's about two hours east driving time from Raleigh. And it's very flat. It's very swampy. It's mostly farmland. The entire county is home to just 20,000 people, and they're very sparsely distributed. So there's only 27 people per square mile, which comes down to about 10 people per square kilometer.
Bertie County is kind of a prime example in the demise of rural America. We've seen this story all over the country and even in places beyond the American borders. We know the symptoms. It's the hollowing out of small towns. It's downtowns becoming ghost towns -- the brain drain, where all of the most educated and qualified leave and never come back. It's the dependence on farm subsidies and under-performing schools and higher poverty rates in rural areas than in urban. And Bertie County is no exception to this. Perhaps the biggest thing it struggles with, like many communities similar to it, is that there's no shared, collective investment in the future of rural communities. Only 6.8 percent of all our philanthropic giving in the U.S. right now benefits rural communities, and yet 20 percent of our population lives there.
So Bertie County is not only very rural, it's incredibly poor. It is the poorest county in the state. It has one in three of its children living in poverty. And it's what is referred to as a rural ghetto. The economy is mostly agricultural. The biggest crops are cotton and tobacco, and we're very proud of our Bertie County peanut. The biggest employer is the Purdue chicken processing plant. The County seat in Windsor. This is like the Times Square of Windsor that your looking at right now. It's home to only 2,000 people, and like a lot of other small towns it has been hollowed out over the years. There are more buildings that are empty or in disrepair than occupied and in use. You can count the number of restaurants in the county on one hand -- Bunn's Barbecue being my absolute favorite. But in the whole county there is no coffee shop, there's no internet cafe, there's no movie theater, there's no bookstore. There isn't even a Walmart.
Racially, the county is about 60 percent African American, but what happens in the public schools is most of the privileged white kids go to the private Lawrence Academy. So the public school students are about 86 percent African American. And this is a spread from the local newspaper of the recent graduating class, and you can see the difference is pretty stark. So to say that the public education system in Bertie County is struggling, would be a huge understatement. There's basically no pool of qualified teachers to pull from. And only eight percent of the people in the county have a bachelor's degree or higher. So there isn't a big legacy in the pride of education. In fact, two years ago, only 27 percent of all the third through eighth graders were passing the state standard in both English and math.
So it sounds like I'm painting a really bleak picture of this place, but I promise there is good news. The biggest asset, in my opinion, one of the biggest assets in Bertie County right now, is this man. This is Dr. Chip Zullinger, fondly known as Dr. Z. He was brought in in October 2007 as the new superintendent to basically fix this broken school system. And he previously was a superintendent in Charleston, South Carolina and then in Denver, Colorado. He started some of the country's first charter schools in the late 80's in the U.S. And he is an absolute renegade and a visionary, and he is the reason that I now live and work there. So in February of 2009, Dr. Zullinger invited us, Project H Design -- which is a non-profit design firm that I founded -- to come come to Bertie and to partner with him on the repair of this school district and to bring a design perspective to the repair of the school district. And he invited us in particular because we have a very specific type of design process -- one that results in appropriate design solutions in places that don't usually have access to design services or creative capital. Specifically, we use these six design directives, probably the most important being number two: we design with, not for -- in that, when we're doing humanitarian-focused design, it's not about designing for clients anymore; it's about designing with people, and letting appropriate solutions emerge from within.
So at the time of being invited down there, we were based in San Francisco. And so we were going back and forth for basically the rest of 2009, spending about half our time in Bertie County. And when I say we, I mean Project H, but more specifically, I mean myself and my partner, Matthew Miller, who's an architect and a sort of MacGyver-type builder. So fast-forward to today, and we now live there. I have strategically cut Matt's head out of this photo, because he would kill me if he knew I was using it because of the sweatsuits. But this is our front porch. We live there. We now call this place home. Over the course of this year that we spent flying back and forth, we realized we had fallen in love with the place. We had fallen in love with the place and the people and the work that we're able to do in a rural place like Bertie County, that, as designers and builders, you can't do everywhere. There's space to experiment and to weld and to test things. We have an amazing advocate in Dr. Zullinger. There's a nobility of real, hands on, dirt under your fingernails work.
But beyond our personal reasons for wanting to be there, there is a huge need. There is a total vacuum of creative capital in Bertie County. There isn't a single licensed architect in the whole county. And so we saw an opportunity to bring design as this untouched tool, something that Bertie County didn't otherwise have, and to be sort of the -- to usher that in as a new type of tool in their tool kit. The initial goal became using design within the public education system in partnership with Dr. Zullinger that was why we were there. But beyond that, we recognized that Bertie County as a community was in dire need of a fresh perspective of pride and connectedness and of the creative capital that they were so much lacking. So the goal became, yes, to apply design within education, but then to figure out how to make education a great vehicle for community development.
So in order to do this, we've taken three different approaches to the intersection of design and education. And I should say that these are three things that we've done in Bertie County, but I feel pretty confident that they could work in a lot of other rural communities around the U.S. and maybe even beyond. So the first of the three is design for education. This is the most kind of direct, obvious, intersection of the two things. It's the physical construction of improved spaces and materials and experiences for teachers and students. This is in response to the awful mobile trailers and the outdated textbooks and the terrible materials that we're building schools out of these days. And so this played out for us in a couple different ways. The first was a series of renovations of computer labs. So traditionally, the computer labs, particularly in an under-performing school like Bertie County, where they have to benchmark test every other week, the computer lab is a kill-and-drill testing facility. You come in, you face the wall, you take your test and you leave. So we wanted to change the way that students approach technology, to create a more convivial and social space that was more engaging, more accessible. And also to increase the ability for teachers to use these spaces for technology-based instruction. So this is the lab at the high school. And the principal there is in love with this room. Every time he has visitors, it's the first place that he takes them.
And this also meant the co-creation with some teachers of this educational playground system called the learning landscape. It allows elementary level students to learn core subjects through game play and activity and running around and screaming and being a kid. So this game that the kids are playing here -- in this case they were learning basic multiplication through a game called Match Me. And in Match Me, you take the class, divide it into two teams, one team on each side of the playground, and the teacher will take piece of chalk and just write a number on each of the tires. And then she'll call out a math problem -- so let's say four times four -- and then one student from each team has to compete to figure out that four times four is 16 and find the tire with the 16 on it and sit on it. So the goal is to have all of your teammates sitting on the tires and then your team wins. And the impact of the learning landscape has been pretty surprising and amazing. Some of the classes and teachers have reported higher test scores, a greater comfort level with the material, especially with the boys, that in going outside and playing, they aren't afraid to take on a double-digit multiplication problem -- and also that the teachers are able to use these as assessment tools to better gauge how their students are understanding new material. So with design for education, I think the most important thing is to have a shared ownership of the solutions with the teachers, so that they have the incentive and the desire to use them. So this is Mr. Perry. He's the assistant superintendent. He came out for one of our teacher training days and won like five rounds of Match Me in a row and was very proud of himself.
(Laughter)
So the second approach is redesigning education itself. This is the most complex. It's a systems-level look at how education is administered and what is being offered and to whom. So in many cases this is not so much about making change as it is creating the conditions under which change is possible and the incentive to want to make change, which is easier said than done in rural communities and in inside-the-box education systems in rural communities. So for us, this was a graphic public campaign called Connect Bertie. There are thousands of these blue dots all over the county. And this was for a fund that the school district had to put a desktop computer and a broadband internet connection in every home with a child in the public school system. Right now I should say, there are only 10 percent of the houses that actually have an in-home internet connection. And the only places to get WiFi are in the school buildings, or at the Bojangles Fried Chicken joint, which I find myself squatting outside of a lot. Aside from, you know, getting people excited and wondering what the heck these blue dots were all over the place, it asked the school system to envision how it might become a catalyst for a more connected community. It asked them to reach outside of the school walls and to think about how they could play a role in the community's development. So the first batch of computers are being installed later this summer, and we're helping Dr. Zullinger develop some strategies around how we might connect the classroom and the home to extend learning beyond the school day.
And then the third approach, which is what I'm most excited about, which is where we are now, is design as education. So design as education means that we could actually teach design within public schools, and not design-based learning -- not like let's learn physics by building a rocket -- but actually learning design thinking coupled with real construction and fabrication skills put towards a local community purpose. It also means that designers are no longer consultants, but we're teachers, and we are charged with growing creative capital within the next generation. And what design offers as an educational framework is an antidote to all of the boring, rigid, verbal instruction that so many of these school districts are plagued by. It's hands-on, it's in-your-face, it requires an active engagement, and it allows kids to apply all the core subject learning in real ways. So we started thinking about the legacy of shop class and how shop class -- wood and metal shop class in particular -- historically, has been something intended for kids who aren't going to go to college. It's a vocational training path. It's working-class it's blue-collar. The projects are things like, let's make a birdhouse for your mom for Christmas. And in recent decades, a lot of the funding for shop class has gone away entirely.
So we thought, what if you could bring back shop class, but this time orient the projects around things that the community needed, and to infuse shop class with more critical and creative design thinking studio process. So we took this kind of nebulous idea and have worked really closely with Dr. Zullinger for the past year on writing this as a one-year curriculum offered at the high school level to the junior class. And so this starts in four weeks, at the end of the summer. And my partner and I, Matthew and I, just went through the arduous and totally convoluted process of getting certified as high school teachers to actually run it. And this is what it looks like.
So over the course of two semesters, the Fall and the Spring, the students spend three hours a day every single day in our 4,500 sq. ft. studio/shop space. And during that time, they're doing everything from going out and doing ethnographic research and doing the need finding, coming back into the studio, doing the brainstorming and design visualization to come up with concepts that might work, and then moving into the shop and actually testing them, building them, prototyping them, figuring out if they are going to work and refining that. And then over the summer, they're offered a summer job. They're paid as employees of Project H to be the construction crew with us to build these projects in the community. So the first project, which will be built next summer, is an open-air farmers' market downtown, followed by bus shelters for the school bus system in the second year and home improvements for the elderly in the third year. So these are real visible projects that hopefully the students can point to and say, "I built that, and I'm proud of it."
So I want you to meet three of our students. This is Ryan. She is 15 years-old. She loves agriculture and wants to be a high school teacher. She wants to go to college, but she wants to come back to Bertie County, because that's where her family is from, where she calls home, and she feels very strongly about giving back to this place that she's been fairly fortunate in. So what Studio H might offer her is a way to develop skills so that she might give back in the most meaningful way.
This is Eric. He plays for the football team. He is really into dirtbike racing, and he wants to be an architect. So for him, Studio H offers him a way to develop the skills he will need as an architect, everything from drafting, to wood and metal construction, to how to do research for a client.
And then this is Anthony. He is 16 years old, loves hunting and fishing and being outside and doing anything with his hands. And so for him, Studio H means that he can stay interested in his education through that hands-on engagement. He's interested in forestry, but he isn't sure, so if he ends up not going to college, he will have developed some industry-relevant skills.
What design and building really offers to public education is a different kind of classroom. So this building downtown, which may very well become the site of our future farmers' market, is now the classroom. And going out into the community and interviewing your neighbors about what kind of food they buy and from where and why, that's a homework assignment. And the ribbon cutting ceremony at the end of the summer when they have built the farmers' market and it's open to the public, that's the final exam. And for the community, what design and building offers is real, visible, built progress. It's one project per year. And it makes the youth the biggest asset and the biggest untapped resource in imagining a new future.
So we recognize that Studio H, especially in its first year, is a small story -- 13 students, it's two teachers, it's one project in one place. But we feel like this could work in other places. And I really, strongly believe in the power of the small story, because it is so difficult to do humanitarian work at a global scale. Because, when you zoom out that far, you lose the ability to view people as humans.
Ultimately, design itself is a process of constant education for the people that we work with and for and for us as designers. And let's face it, designers, we need to reinvent ourselves. We need to re-educate ourselves around the things that matter, we need to work outside of our comfort zones more, and we need to be better citizens in our own backyard. So while this is a very small story, we hope that it represents a step in the right direction for the future of rural communities and for the future of public education and hopefully also for the future of design.
Thank you.
(Applause)