Making an Olin Grand Challenges Scholars Program: Co-Creating with Students

Abstract [Institution] established its Grand Challenges Scholars Program in 2010, one of the first three of these programs in the country. The original program was designed collaboratively by students, faculty, and alumni, and was intended to be primarily student driven. Over time, as the needs of the student body changed and the leadership of the program turned over, a group of faculty, staff, and students began to reinvent the program. [Institution's] "GCSP 2.0," launched in fall 2018, was again created by faculty and students working together to design educational experiences that deliver a valuable GCSP experience attuned to the specific context of [Institution]. While the original program design process was entirely collaborative, the redesign was a hybrid process, with the faculty program director providing a more centralized point of decision-making while still working closely with other faculty and with students. This process was better suited to the changing circumstances at [Institution] and is perhaps more easily replicable at other institutions than a fully collaborative co-design. A cornerstone of the revised GCSP is the course "Change the World: Personal Values, Global Impacts, and Making an [Institution] GCSP." This course was co-created and co-taught by a Professor of the History of Science and Technology and an Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering (who is also [Institution's] GCSP Director), with significant input from students: another co-creation process in which a centralized figure (pair) made final decisions based on engagement with students. The resulting course, taught for the first time in spring 2019, addressed learning objectives of critical thinking and reflection, identity development, communication, and pluralism (embracing many ways of knowing and being). To continue the cycle of student co-creation, one of the small projects within the course asked students to reinvent portions of the course itself or the larger GCSP program at [Institution]; aspects of many of the students' submissions are being incorporated into the second offering of the course for spring 2020. In this talk, we'll highlight this course as well as the semi-centralized co-creation process used to develop it and to revise [Institution's] GCSP. We'll share lessons learned on how co-creation of educational experiences with students can be a learning experience as well as a productive design activity, resulting in development for the students, content creation for the faculty, and enriching engagement for everyone involved.