Five Oregon Schools Kick off the Future of Equitable Schools Design Challenge in February 2021

PORTLAND, Ore. – January 28, 2021 – Students and educators from five Oregon public schools will kick off the Future of Equitable Schools in February 2021, an equity design challenge facilitated by Construct. 

The five participating Oregon schools include Faubion School’s Black Student Union, a Parkrose High School AVID class, Sunset High School’s Black Student Union, Oregon City High School’s Students for Social Justice Club, and Gladstone High School’s SAFE club.

Seed funding for the Future of Equitable Schools was provided by a grant from Meyer Memorial Trust, and with support from generous individual donors, and LatinoBuilt Foundation.

Additional industry partners and donors are needed to help Construct extend this equity design challenge opportunity to reach its goal of 12 Oregon high schools in 2021. Schools interested in a fall challenge should email Construct.

“Design challenges allow students to be co-creators of more equitable learning environments, giving them agency and autonomy with the learning process, and to see themselves as creative problem solvers.” ,” said Construct co-founder Gina Condon. “Learning valuable tools from the design challenge process will serve them long into the future.”

David Douglas High Schools’ Black Student Union was the first to pilot this equity design challenge last year and presented their reflections at Design Week Portland 2020.

Since 2013, Construct has engaged 80 schools and 600 educators to reach more than 30,000 students across Oregon through programs including: design challenges for students; Breakaway workshops for teachers; and the School Retool Fellowship for principals & assistant principals, a Stanford d.School K12 Lab & IDEO initiative. 

For more information and sponsorship packages visit www.ConstructLearns.org/give or by emailing info@constructlearns.org. Find us on social media @ConstructPDX and #ConstructChange.