Designing the New Normal
One year ago, the global pandemic swept into the United States, and we all felt our lives, and our students’ lives, become severely upturned. Our schools began closing or turning abruptly to remote learning, travel shut down, and events and recreational activities were canceled for the month, then several months, and then eventually the entire year. And while we navigated the world’s new challenges, we tried to look for opportunities - what could we learn from this crisis that would make our lives better not only in the midst of the pandemic but in the future beyond it?
So we brought that question to a group of students. We asked them to design their own new normal in four major areas of public life: education, entertainment, dining, and sports. While we have seen a lot of developments in these areas since last year, we think there is a lot of potential for innovation yet to be explored - and students can be the drivers of this new world if we give them the tools.
The Studio
During the New Normal Studio, students pursued creative ideas through a process of mapping current and previous systems, interviewing people with field experience, and working together to develop concepts to address challenges in the “old normal.”
Students came up with concepts varying from pop-up classrooms for outdoor learning to a live concert app inspired by Fortnite. Some projects addressed specific needs in their own lives, like the lack of in-person access to college sports recruiters. Other projects took on more universal challenges like free school lunches, the resilience of the restaurant industry, and the connection of viewers and fans to their favorite professional teams.
Each of these projects was inspired by students’ personal experience, review of readings and resources, and analysis of others’ direct experience as understood through field interviews. Students were pushed to think not only about the interim needs of social distancing but the longer-term opportunity to build a more thriving world for years to come.
Looking Ahead
Our hope at Atlas is that this same vision continues - that students empowered with the skills to ask insightful questions and put together creative ideas will see the world more optimistically, because they know they have it within themselves to take on some of the world’s biggest challenges. With a new horizon of potential re-openings approaching this summer, we are excited to see how students will shape the world’s next chapter.