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Redesigning Processes to contribute to a diverse environment: Co-Designing the African American Women’s College Application Experience

Souza Correa, Luiza
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9550-3051
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1650460876109422

Abstract Details

2022, Master of Fine Arts, Ohio State University, Design.
The rise of Black Lives Matter and Operation Varsity Blues has provoked public reflection on diversity, affordability, and education access. Despite being among the most debated topics in the public realm, reports on higher education access rates have demonstrated that the racial gap is still prevalent among underrepresented minorities, including at flagship universities like The Ohio State University. College admissions have been characterized by an overly complex and decentralized the process that evaluates different students using the same criteria (Klasik and Strayhorn 2018) but varying in requirements. Together, both characteristics can act as a deterrent to minorities as they are more likely to be first-generation students and, therefore, lack the network to navigate the process (Kochhar and Cilluffo 2018) or come from low-income racial minorities. Historically, minorities are enrolled in poorer school districts (Darling-Hammond 2006) and tend to score lower in college readiness benchmarks like English and Mathematics (Conwell and Ye 2021). This one-size-fits-all evaluation criterion is not bound to the Ohio State University but represents the American education system. Focusing on the African American Women's college application process, this research expands the debate on college access by inviting African American Women from public schools to the decision table of citizen participation in the public realm. It investigates how their unique social realities impact the higher education application journey and how design methodologies can be applied to investigate and improve their college application process. Using individual interview strategy and co-design methods to investigate the perception of different actors in the college admission field, this research addresses the creativity portion of essay writing, a reasonably uncreative process (Goyal 2016) for minorities seeking financial aid. Getting direct inputs on the application process and voicing out the experiences of African American Women, this research also contributes with democratizing the public policy field by developing the minimum viable program (MVP) Buckeye Buddy, addressing the hurdles that emerged during the analysis phase and expressed by those who experience the process.
Sébastien Proulx, Ph.D. (Advisor)
Andrea Headley, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Susan Melsop, M.Arch (Committee Member)
203 p.
African Americans; Design; Education; Education Policy; Gender; Public Policy
co-design, design thinking, education, public policy, college admissions, ohio state university

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Souza Correa, L. (2022). Redesigning Processes to contribute to a diverse environment: Co-Designing the African American Women’s College Application Experience [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1650460876109422

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Souza Correa, Luiza. Redesigning Processes to contribute to a diverse environment: Co-Designing the African American Women’s College Application Experience. 2022. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1650460876109422.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Souza Correa, Luiza. "Redesigning Processes to contribute to a diverse environment: Co-Designing the African American Women’s College Application Experience." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2022. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1650460876109422

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1650460876109422
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