By Zoe Richards, Grade 11, United Nations International School, published in Trimtab, 2005

To me, the Design Science Summer Lab is a powerful youth action movement. I am proud to have been a part of its first summer session. This lab far exceeded my expectations. I thought that this program would simply allow me to meet like-minded youth activists and discover organizations that I could volunteer in. I did not anticipate to be faced with a more urgent agenda, to develop strategies to halve world hunger and poverty.

This program encouraged me, inspired me, and sparked my creative process. Before participating in the Design Science Lab, I had many hopes for the future of the world, but I did not have a vehicle to solve world problems. By the end of this program, I learned how I can use the Design Science methodology to troubleshoot, and problem-solve the world’s largest issues. The Lab’s orientations session, icebreakers, and workshops brought myself and my classmates at UNIS together with a diverse group of college students and adult activists. We worked side by side each day, in small teams, to research and diagnose the hunger and poverty problems in different countries and then made presentations to the entire group about our findings. Before conducting this research, I knew little about the individual struggles of each developing nation. Africa for example, has remained one of the pluralized continents in the world, and its issues are continuously referred to as collective and ambiguous. It is for this reason that I decided to research the environmental issues of the continent. Researching these issues clarified these ambiguities for me, and I now recognize the diverse difficulties that individual African countries face, and the overall catalysts of world hunger and poverty problems.

As a result of my participation in the Design Science Lab, I founded a group at my school called AVIFAUNA. In this group, I and several other lab-veterans facilitate discussion about global issues and train others to use the Design Science methodology. Through research and Fuller’s techniques, we are working towards developing strategies to solve Millennium Development Goal Five, to achieve global primary education by 2015. In time, AVIFAUNA will establish itself on a greater scale, as a non-profit organization. We are currently working on launching a website. We will promote Fuller’s techniques and the strategies we develop at the "Season on Nonviolence" Youth Conference at the United Nations early next year.

The Design Science Lab requires several commitments. Foremost, it requires the courage, compassion and hope of its participants. As a wise proverb explains: "A sword is useless in the hands of a coward." The sword represents the Design Science methodology. With courage, compassion and hope the design science revolution will define a bright future.