At first sight, people begin to form judgements about each other in their heads based on appearance, race, gender, and other superficial factors. These are called “implicit biases”, and they affect the ways we think, act, and perceive the world around us. From gender discrimination in the workplace to racial profiling in our communities, many of the issues we face as a country stem from the consequences of our implicit biases. Seminar is a platform intended to be used in the high school classroom to address these biases in an engaging and unique manner. Through a mobile app, students are allowed to converse with their peers through a model that facilitates productive conversations without the inhibitions of superficial influences. Through proprietary pairing and impact algorithms, Seminar learns about the community it is deployed in and improves the student experience over time.
CoopNet’s vision is to create a digital financing model for shared housing, leveraging the community activation of crowdfunding to bring together residents and investors who believe in the virtues of cooperative living. Not only would such an online platform provide a legal, regulated, and contractually sound method for cooperatives to access financing, it offers the flexibility needed to scale across different property types and urban markets. Every cooperative housing venture financed via CoopNet would create immediate and lasting benefits for local communities: reducing overall housing costs, offering an alternative and communal style of living, and creating opportunities for residents to shape their communities rather than depending on governments, banks, or real estate developers. By June 2020, CoopNet plans to facilitate the formation of approximately 14 cooperative housing units, connecting over 70 local residents, and saving residents an estimated $320,000 in cumulative housing costs, with greater savings expected as the co-ops continue and CoopNet expands.
As a result of the current social and political climate, the LGBTQ+ community has found it increasingly difficult to find safe spaces. A study by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) shows that hate-driven violence often occurs in the privacy of communities, homes, workplaces, and shelters. By providing knowledge of spaces that have been proven to support the LGBTQ+ community, and that can serve its unique needs as necessary, Qloak is removing the burden from community members who may struggle to find their footing in heteronormative environments. Qloak serves as a hub integrating queer spaces featuring such categories as Work (jobs), Play (bars and entertainment), Spend (businesses), and Resources (doctors, counselors, etc). Cultivating knowledge of these spaces is necessary in order to foster a sense of belonging and security.
Despite our best intentions, everyday discrimination bubbles up from unconscious biases we don’t realize we have. “Common Objects, Uncommon Purpose” will address this by raising awareness, concern, and knowledge of unconscious bias. In particular, it will target skeptics who may not think bias is a problem. The campaign will use a mixed-media approach that employs humor, cartoons, interactive art installations, and artfully designed practical objects. This project will use public spaces, social media, and our daily lives to start an open dialogue about unconscious bias and its effects. It will empower community members to propel the campaign forward with art, fact, & tact.
In the summer of 2018, the merger between migration and criminal law reached a boiling point when the United States concluded that a logical solution to deterring migrants from entering the country illegally was to separate migrant parents from their children. The Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy received international scrutiny for its inhumanity. Through personal narratives, witness testimonies and expert interviews, this documentary series will trace this policy backwards over the last century, looking at the laws, movements, and wars that birthed it. How did we get to this point? How can we change it? What the Netflix documentary, 13th, is to the prison industrial complex, this series will be to crimmigration law. In the end, you’ll never think about immigration the same again.
Dance has been shown to be very impactful on individuals and the community at the emotional, cognitive and physical level. However, there aren’t many inclusive dance classes for people with limb differences (PWLD). Dance for All Bodies (DfAB) addresses this gap through organizing monthly adaptive (interpretive, adapted to their own physical abilities) dance classes for people with limb differences in the Bay Area. Through these classes DfAB aims to create an inclusive and non-judgmental space for PWLD to dance, express themselves, and find community in shared experience. DfAB takes charge of finding an accessible dance space and scheduling teachers who have experience and interest in teaching adaptive dance classes. These classes will be made accessible through outreach and partnerships with disability organizations, hospitals and dance companies in the Bay Area.
Kaloum Bankhi is “process-focused” and not “product focused”. The mission is to ensure every resident in Kaloum, Guinea lives in a durable home, and the approach is multidisciplinary in establishing a self-sustaining local supply chain. In order to realize this goal, the project takes a multi-faceted approach, innovating the physical design, the financial mechanism, and social systems. This house model is designed to be built in stages instead of all at once. This enables residents to remain in their own home during a progressive transformation at the householder’s pace and cash-flow. Guinean culture is celebrated with this alternative housing solution that is built by a community, for a community. Architecture becomes art, bringing social change to the canvas of Kaloum. The project envisions that the knowledge invested in the community will grow beyond the slums – an architectural migration providing durable homes for all of Kaloum.
The healthcare field requires people who can navigate cultural barriers to communicate with and comfort patients. However, the current underrepresentation of minorities among health professionals is detrimental to the quality of patient care in the healthcare system. Helix is a non-profit organization working to diversify the healthcare workforce by facilitating direct exposure to health professions for high school students from minority backgrounds, allowing students to explore potential health careers. Attending Helix’s free one-week immersion program and subsequent four-week health internship will provide aspiring pre-health high school students with an unparalleled opportunity to participate in biological and clinical skill labs, obtain a CPR certification, and shadow a variety of health professionals from similar backgrounds. Through the Helix experience, students will not only discover and develop their interests, but also realize that they are not alone in their pursuits and that success is attainable.
At UC Berkeley, student food insecurity is rampant while food waste is pervasive. Between expensive meals eating out and emergency provision at the Food Pantry, thousands of students are left without a consistent, affordable food option while Cal Dining and the campus gardens are flush with unused food that’s unable to be reliably processed and distributed. Meanwhile, the Berkeley Student Food Collective has pioneered a student-run food waste recovery program that focuses on addressing food insecurity using a sustainable business model in a kitchen that’s too small to scale. Our Campus Kitchen and retail café will operate as the hub of a new paradigm for campus food: a volunteer-operated, student-run kitchen that would engage students in food education, community service, and food business.
