DLV 3.0 - USC and Medline

The DLV for 2021 engaged two new clients, University of Sunshine Coast (USC) – Moreton Bay and Medline Australia. We had a flurry of students applying to be part of the program, who subsequently had the opportunity to show us their creative thinking and entrepreneurial skills during an on-site Spy Challenge facilitated by Directors of the Extraordinary. Honing their spy skills and having a blast, twenty (20) students were offered positions in the Design Led Venture (DLV) 2021 Program. They had the opportunity to choose their client and fully commit to the program, run for 2.5 hours a week during school time.

The DLV program enables our students to grow as innovative thinkers through developing innovative functional solutions that enhance how we live. The DLV is underpinned by a design led process which provides opportunities for learners to understand authentic needs and issues within a variety of contexts.

In 2021, students completed a 16-week journey which included workshops, challenges, interviewing stakeholders, excursions, guest speakers, design thinking, honing their creative dispositions and developing their entrepreneurial skills. The students learnt how to work well as a team, how to create and use Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs), conducting effective interviews, project planning, collaboration, and implementation planning.

The program culminated with each team presenting their journey and solution a the DLV Pitch night, this year held in the amazing USC Auditorium in front of 70+ clients, parents, students, and teachers. The nerves were high, as was the excitement to finally tell the world about the challenges and solutions they had identified for their clients, and importantly, research and guidance for the client on how to implement their solution.

We enjoyed reading student responses from the reflection survey. We asked our 2021 what they would say to other students about the program:

“do it, you get to know people better and thinking outside of the box and outside of the school boundaries”

“You get to work with clients, and it is an amazing thing to do”

“you will learn how to communicate with people you don’t know well and how to work with different people”

“I would say that is it is a fun and easy way to improve your thinking”

“I loved the Harry Potter challenge, interviews and USC tour, and the speech at USC.”

“ I loved going to the Medline Warehouse, meeting the staff and exploring.”

“this was a once in a life time opportunity to explore myself and think in a different way to grow”

Our clients were “blown away” and Medline Australia is already implementing the Students Solution, wow.