We started off the week by meeting in our grade level cohorts and discussing the articles we had read the weekend before. The 2024 cohort was tasked with the prompt of briefing the US State Department on Europe and our international relationship with them. After a lively debate, we agreed the two main points moving forward is for the US and Europe to prioritize strengthening and building relationships within NATO as well as providing aid to members of the EU facing problems due to COVID. On Tuesday, we convened as an entire group and had a presentation on design thinking by the Word Leadership School. We learned the five steps of design thinking are discovery, interpretation, ideation, experimentation, and evolution. Discovery involves interviewing people to gain understanding and build empathy. Interpretation defines the issue through reflection on discovery. Next you go through ideation which is brainstorming ideas and comparing them to needs. Next you go into the experimentation phases and build a prototype. Finally, you present and gather feedback while revising where needed. This is the final evolution phase. On Thursday, we convened amongst cohorts and talked about how design thinking can be shortened and or changed to fit what we do in Global Affairs Fellows.
~Mack Panko ’24