Calling all HBCU educators for Black Design Week at Tennessee State University, June 18-21, 2024.

Why: Black designers change the world. 

What: Black Design Week is a transformative 4-day design thinking immersion exclusively tailored for educators and grad/PhD education scholars at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). This will be a culturally relevant and supportive environment to learn design mindsets, break away from perfection, innovate student engagement, and create the future through their classrooms.

Who: An educator or future educator who is willing to explore new approaches to learning and leading. Attendees must: 

• desire to cultivate their personal creativity 

• be willing to laugh, have fun, and experience ambiguity 

• be at an HBCU, any level, any subject (design-mindsets and tools are useful everywhere)

Where: Tennessee State University

When: June 18-21, 2024 

Register below by June 2, 2024! More details will be shared upon registration.

Tennessee State University has partnered with the d.school’s University Innovation Fellows (UIF) program to hold the inaugural Black Design Week. From 2021 to 2023, UIF sponsored HBCUs to participate in their higher ed changemaking program. Black Design Week is intentionally hosted by an HBCU to mentally and physically root the knowledge that students and faculty gleaned through the UIF program within Black education spaces.

The gift to the UIF program opened access for 22 HBCUs. Those schools had 36 faculty participants who supported 119 students in learning design and creating and implementing their campus changemaker projects. From destigmatizing mental health at Shaw University to supporting students with children at Bowie State University, hundreds more students were impacted across campuses. 

Don't miss this incredible opportunity to become part of a movement dedicated to empowering educators, igniting creativity, and transforming the world by redesigning the educational landscape at HBCUs.

When educators from Historically Black Colleges & Universities started supporting students to learn design through the University Innovation Fellows (UIF), they discovered that they wanted to apply it to their own work. From the Faculty Summit at the UIF Meetup to the Teaching & Learning Studio at Stanford’s d.school, a new community was ignited.

From 2023 faculty workshop participants: 

“Design thinking has challenged me to embrace more active engagement in my classrooms as well as in faculty meetings. I am fostering an environment where error is welcomed.” - Dr. Shirley Burnett, Jackson State University, July 2023 

“I embraced the challenge to open up. Vulnerability is something I grapple with but the supportive environment encouraged me to step outside my comfort zone.” - Dr. Darlene Ajayi, Bowie State University, July 2023

“Reimagining classroom design and using inexpensive tools such as sticky notes to make brainstorming more interactive were some big takeaways for me.” - Dr. Shakima Ellis, Saint Augustine’s University