12 Stories

Project Description

Using a physical wall with a digital platform, 12Stories inspires community college students to connect through storytelling as a way to build community and affect campus change.

Problem

IDEO & Beyond 12 had provided a straightforward brief about mobilizing community college students so they can redesign their institutions to be more inclusive and equitable. But our data revealed an issue that complicated this desire for student mobilization: students didn’t feel a sense of connection to their colleges.

Insights

The stories we heard from students about their disconnection from the college were powerful. We realized we needed to find a way to leverage the power of these stories as a way to not only build community but to affect change as well. What if students could hear one another’s stories? And how would the college react if they could hear these stories as well?

Solutions

12Stories folds in the issue of community building into the larger goal of advocacy by combining a physical campus story wall with a digital experience that allows students to read about, interact with, and contribute to shared student stories. While this helps to build community, the backend aggregates the stories around topics and keywords, allowing Beyond 12 to share qualitative and quantitative data—as well as recommendations—with the college.