DESIGN // ACTION: Meaningful Student Engagement for Climate Solutions
The potential of creative partnerships, climate science and design thinking to make our cities more resilient is clear, but how can they be examined hands-on by different disciplines to leap into climate action now? This panel will explore the intersection between design strategy and student engagement with organizations on community-focused problem solving opportunities in a changing world.
Director Center for Art and Public Life
California College of the Arts
Shalini Agrawal is trained as an architect and has over 20 years of experience facilitating diverse communities on local, national, and international forums. She is the director of the Center for Art and Public Life at California College of the Arts. The center believes community engagement is the cornerstone of a practice focused on changing the world. In order to fully experience this practice, the center facilitates mutually beneficial partnerships with community-based organizations. Agrawal is committed to furthering this mission and holds firm to the belief an individual’s well-being is a reflection of the community’s and the community’s well-being is a reflection of its constituents’.
CEO, Sol Design Lab and Visiting Research Scholar
The University of Texas at Austin
Beth Ferguson is a designer, public artist, and founding director of the San Francisco–based Sol Design Lab. Beth is also a visiting research scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, where she received an MFA in Design. She has engaged thousands of participants in her projects, which have included signature solar charging stations, upcycled public furniture, and community-engaged Green Maps. Publications such as the New York Times, Make: magazine,Pop Tech, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian have featured Beth’s work, covering her commissions from SXSW, Zer01 San Jose Biennial, TEDxPresidio, Galvanize Cafe, Coachella, Maker Faire, Austin Energy, Pittsburg USD, and others. She has taught solar design at Stanford University, the Art Institute of Chicago, Hampshire College, and the University of Texas at Austin. She’s currently developing public emergency solar-charging and e-scooter solar stations for cities coast to coast.
