Ships’s First Shape was a Raft

This two-year collaborative service design grew from a shared interest in asking “What does it mean to make a thing for ourselves?” across our three learning communities: formerly incarcerated young people at The Fortune Society, public high school students at Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (WHEELS), undergraduate students at The New School.

The Ship’s First Shape Was a Raft

Students discuss how building a cafe together opened up new possibilities and realms for collaboration, and allowed us to anticipate future opportunities for cooperative work.  

What comes next?

Students from Parsons and WHEELS talk about the calendar tool designed by Parsons students, and how this tool helped students engage as a team to figure out their own system, carry out their own ideas, and make something new through prototyping.

Making our own tools

Students from Parsons and WHEELS talk about the very first project meeting in which we worked on helping everyone to interact and to discuss topics using the “same” language.

Awkward interactions and shared language