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In planning for BUILD II, members of the SF BUILD team engaged in a co-design process. The aim of this process was to better showcase a primary mission of SF BUILD to enhance the diversity of the biomedical research workforce by linking the community cultural wealth of San Francisco (SF) State students to research that benefits the communities they come from. The redesigned space will better communicate this mission.
In BUILD I, a very large storage area was renovated to support community-engaged research. Although the space effectively communicated the valuing of diversity through the choice of colors on the walls and photos of historical civil rights leaders, it did not communicate diversity in science, Hsiao-Yun Chu, Ph.D. the SF BUILD collaborator for the co-design, concluded.
Professor Chu (featured at the right) is an associate professor in the School of Design at SF State, and she led information-gathering activities for the co-design process. These activities included key informant interviews of SF BUILD staff, and talking with a focus group of other stakeholders who utilize the space. Many participants indicated the importance of the space as a shared communal space. Therefore, it was renamed the BUILD Community Space, and it will have a clearer focus on diversity in STEM. For example, the walls will be decorated by mounted posters of diverse role models in STEM. These images were downloaded from the “Nevertheless Podcast” website and are provided at no cost to schools and science workplaces.
Additionally, a new “Student Voice” wall will provide a dedicated area for student comments, and postcards highlighting inspirational mentors in STEM will be made available to broadcast the outcomes of BUILD II activities.
