I didn’t give much thought or ask anyone about what to expect for orientation week, but it turned out to be a fun, engaging, and intensive learning experience.

The first day kicked off with introductions to my fellow classmates and a sneak peek into their interests. I loved learning about the people with whom I will be on this journey for the next year.

We then jumped right into understanding what design is and the first step in the design process: research. What stood out to me was the incorporation of ChatGPT as a thought partner for narrowing down the focus area of research, generating focus statements, and creating interview questions throughout the day. It was great to see that the school is making an effort to introduce the latest technology and prepare us for the workforce in the best way possible. This reaffirmed my decision to pursue this one-year program alongside my full-time job.

By the end of the day, I realized that I had to interview five people the next day as part of the learning experience. This caught me by surprise. I knew that design thinking emphasizes “learning by doing,” but I didn’t expect to jump into action so early in the process.

I was excited to see what the outcome would be and spent the next day interviewing people about the “Effect of Social Stigma on Help-Seeking Behavior for Mental Health and Well-Being.” I learned unexpected things and went off-script for most of my interviews. I returned to class on the third day thrilled to learn what we would do with the data collected.

The best part was not just sharing and reflecting on the process each day but also hearing about my classmates' experiences and learning from them. Along with learning about the design process, I experimented with sketchnoting during class. This made the sessions even more engaging and helped me stay focused.

Day three was the best of all and will be memorable for a long time. We spent the class learning about the synthesis step of the design research process. The key learning aspect for me was witnessing the power of externalizing our thought process. I have always been someone who processes things internally, but during the class, we identified themes in the data collected and drew insights from those themes. As I internalized the information, I had thoughts about the themes that emerged and their underlying reasons. When everything was visually in front of me, and I had to externalize by identifying themes, writing them down, and asking why to draw insights, I discovered deeper, more meaningful insights. This was an "aha" moment for me.

This class was memorable not just for this reason but because working on drawing themes and insights has been one of the most enjoyable moments ever. I had a lot of fun learning and doing it. In that moment, I felt that I was a step closer to identifying my next career path.

Day four was about prototyping and making the insights and solutions we identified tangible. We started by learning about wireframes, then jumped into hands-on sketching on paper, iterating, and had a quick tutorial on Figma. What was great about this day was seeing the value of coming up with many possible solutions in a short period. Each solution may not be perfect, but we need just one at the end. The beauty of this process, as I learned, is that we can pick the best elements from all options to form our final solution.

Day five was the Alumni Q&A. I enjoyed hearing from the program's alumni about their experiences with AC4D, how it has shaped them, and their career trajectories. As I listened to their journeys, I couldn’t help but wonder where I will be a year after the program, and can’t wait to find out!

Overall, orientation week kept me happily busy, and I hope the next year will be just as engaging and fulfilling!!