Paul Quinn College (PQC) is a historically black college in the Highland Hills neighborhood, situated in an underserved and low-income area of South Dallas. Among the many issues this community has consistently faced are poor graduation rates and limited access to higher education. PQC’s leaders recognized the role it could play in tackling educational inequity in the surrounding community and sought to design a “Weekend University” program that would address issues such as childcare, affordable housing, and financial education, anything that keeps these neighborhoods from becoming healthy places. How might we take steps to create future generations of high-achieving students at Highland Hills?
We partnered with PQC to understand the fundamental issues limiting community members from pursuing education at all levels and informed the development of Weekend University’s curriculum and services to more closely meet community-specific needs.
Timeframe: 14 weeks, September – December 2016
This project was one of two capstone Studio courses I took in the Master’s in Design and Innovation (MADI) program at SMU. I collaborated with three teammates to conduct empathy interviews with local residents and community leaders, facilitated brainstorming and co-creation sessions, crafted design principles, and prototyped experiences.
User Research & Contextual Inquiry
Experiential Prototyping & Service Storming
Ideation
Facilitation
Visual Design
On the verge of closing and losing its accreditation no more than a decade ago, Paul Quinn has experienced a remarkable comeback. Now firmly back on its feet, with a positive outlook on the future, the university seeks to grow and expand its impact. President Michael Sorrell, affectionately known as "Prez," dreamt of a concept for a weekend school that would help break the cycle of educational inequity in South Dallas and ultimately build a stronger relationship between the college and its surrounding community. Weekend University would offer schooling to adults right in the neighborhood, teaching practical skills and knowledge that could be applied immediately while also providing the holistic support needed, such as childcare, to ensure their success.
A few months of background research, community and expert interviews, synthesis, and prototype experiences led to a much deeper understanding of the underlying needs of the community and their viewpoints around not only education, but learning. The scope of the project expanded beyond just discovering the best way to design an educational program for adults to include addressing basic needs not met in a high-unemployment, high-crime, food-scarce area, capturing hidden community talent and skill, and building partnerships with other organizations trying equally as hard to support Highland Hills. Through our secondary research, time spent in the community observing community classes, and the in-depth interviews we conducted with community members, leaders, and stakeholders, several themes surfaced.
The "Basics"
People in Highland Hills said they are most in need of education, food, jobs, and access to affordable, convenient medical and dental services. These “basics” are an accurate assessment of a community’s vitality. Highland Hills is currently challenged by low access to all of these factors.
Scenery Matters
A nice, clean public area shows that space is respected. This community has been neglected and deserves proper recognition through public projects to replace abandoned and aging buildings. Engaging with scenery and spending time outside matters, as it can improve, mental, physical, and emotional health.
How Far is Too Far?
In our research, some individuals were not familiar with certain spaces because their mobility was limited by fear. Access was also hindered by a lack of transportation. We asked them how far they were willing to travel in their own neighborhood. It was clear, residents preferred safety and convenience over many other things.
Awareness
Classes are already offered for community members at places such as the library, the recreation center, and Trinity Environmental Academy (TriEA). Though these programs already exist, communication between the organizers of the programs, which often offer similar content, is sparse or nonexistent. Each is a fragmented effort.
Safety & Crime
During certain hours, people did not want to walk around outside due to safety concerns. Not everyone has access to vehicles, which limits the ability to travel, even within the boundaries of Highland Hills. Participants reflected that fear drives their decision making.
“You can get shot just getting your laundry done." ~ A Highland Hills resident
“Children are playing the drywall off the walls.” ~ A Highland Hills parent
Those considerations led us to develop a set of five principles that any solution for Weekend University must address in order to succeed.
Act as a convener through community partnerships. People are more likely to go somewhere with friends than to go somewhere alone.
Include outdoor activities. Paul Quinn College has safe, natural, outdoor spaces.
Let the community lead. People are willing and eager to share what they know, when given the opportunity.
Provide programming for both adults and children. People will overcome all sorts of challenges when something is important to them, especially their children.
Don’t forget basic needs. Without basic needs, residents within the community don’t have the opportunity or time to give their energy to events for their own benefit.
At the end of the project, we presented our recommendations to Paul Quinn leadership. Prez reacted with a commitment to continue our efforts in building out a Weekend University program. At multiple points in the project, we struggled with the fact that we all attended a private, affluent, well-funded, predominantly white university and were exercising our privilege by choosing to study and suggest changes in a low-income, underserved, predominantly Black community.
Though we did our best to engage community members and stakeholders, our success was limited to running a handful of experiential prototype activities with a small number of community members we interviewed. We continued to test, under the guise of progress and learning, without having the time, resources, nor connections to address any of the themes and core principles outlined in our research. In retrospect, where we landed was the right place to stop, if any. Solutions that will work need to be designed with the community, not for, at a pace of change the community gets to dictate. And to even do that, you need to have the community’s trust. Trust also takes time. Design, when done well, is slow, deliberate, and intentional.
