Students for Design Activism exists to provide service both to the Twin Cities community as well as students at the University of Minnesota.
If you are interested in becoming a member of SDA or hearing more about what we are working on, please come to one of our bi-weekly meetings! We meet every other Monday in Rapson Hall (East Bank), Room 225 from 6:00-7:30pm. Please send us an email if you have questions.
Benefits of Membership
Students involved with SDA will:
- be exposed to opportunities to use their skills with tangible projects
- connect with members of and organizations in their local community
- work on multidisciniplary teams of students from different fields
- see real-world projects through to completion
- add projects to their portfolios
- explore innovative design ideas outside of the classroom setting
- do all of the above with the institutional support of a Campus Life program housed in the College of Design
Expectations of Student Members Involved with a Project
Student members will have the opportunity to take on a role in a project through SDA. Projects can either be self-initiated or accepted when community members reach out to SDA. During each biweekly meeting, SDA co-chairs will share the newest possible projects, and also provide space for the brainstorming of student-initiated projects.
When a student takes on a project, they will be expected to:
- Participate in the project as a volunteer (receiving no compensation for work, outside of the intangible yet invaluable benefits listed above!)
- Establish a project leader who will be main contact with the client, and communicate the expected level of involvement of other students
- Copy SDA in email correspondence with the client
- Establish a project timeline and future deadlines (including blog entries, project completion date, presentation material publication deadlines, etc.)
- Write a short project summary for the SDA blog within 1-2 weeks of project start
- Fulfill client expectations of project (i.e. do the design, create deliverables)
- Discuss project presentation materials before delivery in order to coordinate graphic consistency between projects
- Upon project completion, write a press release (templates provided)
- Contact co-chairs immediately if at any point a deadline cannot be met.
- Have fun!