OVERVIEW—
What is Design Co?
Design Co is a pre-professional student organization at UC San Diego that bridges the gap between designers and industry.
With the mission to “cultivate a space that fosters opportunity and growth as an inclusive community of designers”, Design Co provides workshops, events, and other career growth opportunities for UCSD’s community of 200+ designers.
Scope: Leadership
Role: Community Engagement Coordinator
Timeline: March 2020-Sept 2021
MY ROLE—
What do I do?
Lead workshops and socials
I assist in leading workshops on various design-related topics open to all UCSD students. As a highlight, I co-led a Figma workshop, explaining the importance of responsive prototyping while teaching visual design hacks and animations. I also co-hosted an intern panel where I coordinated with previous interns from companies including Facebook, Microsoft, Adobe, etc. and invited them to share their experience and tips.
Plan events and initiatives
As the Community Engagement Coordinator, I oversee membership events and initiatives. My responsibilities include: planning large-scale events, organizing socials, and executing new initiatives to support the professional growth of the community. For example, I oversee Design Buds, a student/student mentorship program aimed to encourage students to inspire each other and collaboratively grow as designers (I am also a design mentor myself).
Below are some events I have helped lead.
Graphics by our talented creative team
DEEP DIVE—
Design Co: Level Up
Level Up, is a 10-week design program that provides students with the opportunity to design solutions to real-world problems while networking with industry professionals. Level Up was originally created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in many students losing their internship or post-grad opportunities and increased difficulty in entering the job market as a designer.
This was an extremely rewarding experience for me. I facilitate critique sessions, co-lead a variety of workshops, and witnessed teams go through the entire design process. Through this program, I gained valuable skills in program management, cross-team communication, and group facilitation.
2020 Level Up Cohort + Coordinators
Check out the amazing work our 2020 Level Up fellows have accomplished at https://levelup.ucsddesign.co/!
Huge shout-out to my fellow Community Engagement Team (Stella Seki, Jamin Capulong, and Mylinh Lac) for dedicating so countless hours towards the success of the program.
REFLECTION—
Why do I do it?
My current team <3
Attending weekly Design Co workshops has not only further developed my skills as a designer, but also provided me with a community where I can share my interests and passions. I was inspired by the organization's willingness to help others and improve the community, and I owe a lot of my personal growth to the people I have met through Design Co. I am so grateful to have the opportunity of working along-side an accomplished team of student designers to foster growth amongst peers and build the design community at UCSD.