Date: March 8, 2017
Location: Stayer Center
Time: 9:30 am
It was a great morning with cinnamon bagels, coffee, and great company. It was really enjoyable to see everything come together on the board: our journey map, the user interviews, the expert interviews, the analogous immersions, the ethnographic research etc. I started to see the great benefits the design thinking and the sticky notes. It really helps to see patterns in the research that we’ve done and the information we have gathered from different sources.
We started with the journey map. Entice, Engage, Enter, Exit, and Extend. The key takeaway from Entice is that we need to figure out how to attract students from all of the middle schools. There is currently no academic advertising, it seems that SBSC only allows them to advertise the Arts magnet. We need to figure out the rules pertaining to this issue. In terms of Engage, discipline is one of the big issues. Our clients pointed out that we need to figure out how to flip the high expulsion rate from a negative to a positive. We need to show that it is a no-nonsense school that one can feel safe at and concentrate on their studies. The building itself is old and doesn’t look the best. Given the fact that it is an Arts magnet, we can leverage the skills of the students to spruce the school up a little with murals and paintings around the school. Painting the lockers to a brighter color could make a big difference as well. The extend step is also key because we need to be able to show the success of the students that have graduated from Clay. We need to show that they have gone on to good colleges or good jobs. We need to connect these graduates back to the community and middle schools to encourage students to go to Clay. Word of mouth is key. If people look at Clay in a positive light as a place that equipped and helped their role models become who they are, it will encourage more students to attend Clay in order to emulate them.
While working through the journey map we were able to make connections to the users and their various characteristics. Sophia, for example, is very interested in Arts, yet she chose to go to Adams high school because of the IB program. Additionally, we were able to see from Maria McKenna that she was concerned about safety, high expectations, and keeping their kids involved/out of trouble. We were able to see that Clay has a lot to offer we just need to figure out a way to show everyone that and advertise to the middle schools and parents in a target manner. We need statistics for those that would like statistics, we need simple and to the point advertisements for those that desire that, we need to potentially translate some materials for those that speak a different language, we need simple language for those that might not have gone to college. We need to work on student-teacher relations and ensuring that students feel supported and cared for.
It was really insightful to have Principal Eid and the English teacher there to see all of the research that we have put in and give us their feedback. They did a good job of directing us and keeping us focused by asking, “What does this mean? Or, so what?” Oftentimes, we didn’t have the answers to their questions, but it means we need to do more research and legwork. But I think it was really cool to show them that Clay is a good school. As Professor McKenna said, it is “South Bend’s best kept secret.” I think it made them happy to see that and gave them hope. But there are difficult questions like the reputation and word of mouth that need to be answered and solved that will take time. It will take time for the word of mouth to spread for the eldest children in some families to attend Clay and for their younger siblings to follow. It will take time to re-establish the reputation of Clay in the middle schools and with the parents. We need people to be proud of Clay for it to have an identity. It is not second fiddle to Adams or Penn, it is Clay and its a great place for a student to learn in its own right.