Design For Giving Contest




		Research Most of the 1352 schools have submitted information on the school location, socio-cultural context of the state, the problem identified by them, the rationale for focusing on the specific problem, the feasible solution, the implementation details and the experience of the whole process. The organizers believe that the rich data from the participating schools can not only be used for identification of excellent, bold and replicable ideas but also with a little additional research to explore the extent to which the state context, school background and the mentor attitude, approach, and motivation helps students participate and come up with winning ideas. The objective of the exercise is to identify characteristics or factors that sensitise school students to social issues and activate creative thinking amongst them to design solutions. The ultimate purpose is to inform the school curricula to include teaching that promotes socially relevant affirmative actions by school students.
		Research Team

		Alka Barua, is a Paediatrician, with 25 years of experience in public health. She has worked as a Consultant Paediatrician for 5 years and as a researcher for last 20 years. As a researcher she has been involved in operations and formative research in the health sector, particularly in the area of reproductive and child health, adolescent health, primary health care, nutrition and HIV/AIDS training in various states of India. For last 10 years she is the Executive Director of Foundation for Research in Health Systems, a non-profit, non-government organsation with branches in three states of India. She has provided consultancy services to national, non-government and international organizations. She has represented her organisation at national and international seminars, workshops and conferences and has published papers in both national and international journals.

		Lynn Barendsen is a Project Manager at the GoodWork Project. After graduating from Bates College, Lynn spent several years engaged in graduate study in American literature at the University of Chicago and Boston University. She has published articles on African American and regionalist literatures. At Boston University she taught courses in literature and film, English and American literature, and expository writing. Lynn has been working on the GoodWork Project since 1997, focusing in particular on the work of young professionals. She has written several articles about young social and business entrepreneurs and young professionals in theater and business. Most recently, with Howard Gardner, she has co-authored a chapter on the Young Worker in a Global Age in the Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology and Work (forthcoming, 2009). With Wendy Fischman, she has co-developed the GoodWork Toolkit, designed to help develop a common language that school communities and other institutions can use to define their work and identify their goals.

		Wendy Fischman joined Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1995 as a researcher with Project Co-Arts, a study of educationally effective community art centers. Since 1996, she has managed various aspects of the GoodWork Project, specifically focused on the meaning of work in the lives of young children, adolescents, and novice professionals. Wendy has written about education and human development in several scholarly and popular articles addressing topics such as life long commitment to service work, inspirational mentoring, and teaching in precollegiate education. She is lead author of Making Good: How Young People Cope with Moral Dilemmas at Work, published by Harvard University Press in 2004. Most recently, Wendy has co-developed a curriculum for students and teachers to introduce the concept of ìgood workî in classrooms and schools. Wendy has taught humanities to middle school students and has evaluated school reform programs facilitated by a government-sponsored Regional Laboratory. She received a BA from Northwestern University.

		Beth is an Envisioner at Continuum. She helps companies with business innovation by understanding their customers and creating design strategies. While at Continuum Beth has focused on business to business strategies and has worked with clients like Herman Miller, Nestle, and Penske Truck Leasing. Prior to her experience at Continuum Beth worked in the power tool and baby product industries. She holds a BFA in Industrial Design from the Savannah College of Art and Design d is currently pursuing her MBA.

		Elizabeth is a MacGyver style Mechanical Engineer at Continuum with a love of incorporating product strategy and user-based design into her work. After graduating Olin College of Engineering and Babson College, she spent a gap year working on user research and design for treadle pumps in Ethiopia, developing technical strategy for electric- and hybrid-automotive system design for a German OEM, and developing a device to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission through breastfeeding targeted at Sub-Saharan Africa.