DESIGN CHALLENGE
 

STC's Design and Workplace Challenges bring together teams of students to engage in design thinking challenges to solve local community problems. ​Businesses or nonprofits in each city serve as the client for the challenge and support local teams, including by providing professionals to mentor student teams. Through Design Challenge, students practice collaboration, professional communication and presentation, and networking skills while enjoying hands-on opportunities to learn about issues and solutions facing their schools, communities, and different fields of work.

​

Design Challenge originated as a single-day event held across cities, where students presented prototype solutions to a panel of professional judges. Previous Design Challenge partners include the Obama Foundation, the Newark Alliance, Grow with Google, Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, Newark Symphony Hall, Tree Pittsburgh, the Obama Foundation, Chicago Architecture Center, and Panasonic.

​

In 2025, Design Challenge will expand to include the first-ever Students That Connect Symposium: Exploring AI, hosted at the SUNY Global Center. This day-long event is for high school students interested in exploring the implications of AI on the workforce they are preparing to enter. For more information, please get in touch here.