WHY SEE?

• SEE Press Release: Dec 5
• SEE Press Release: Oct 22
• SEE Press Release: Aug 14
• SEE Press Release: Aug 2
• SEE Press Release: Jun 14
• SEE Press Release: May 17

In 2004, SEE was born of a belief that creative pre-professional learning can be an incredible source of power for diverse underserved urban youth, but often they do not have access to learning opportunities environments that can help them to discover their creative voice and career potential. SEE builds youth-professional collaborations that solve some of the most frustrating questions facing our society today:

• If youth explain the cause of high drop-out rates and the growing achievement gap by saying that school is not relevant
  to their lives or their future, but they are fascinated with are products, fashion and media - why not use those objects as entry points for learning?
• only about 1% of the U.S. designers are non-white, and our objects and spaces are being designed by a homogenous group that does not truly reflect us.
• Every CEO, marketing executive and ‘cool hunter’ knows that urban youth possess the creative sophistication and market insight that forecast future market trends. Business leaders claim that creativity is their most valuable asset in industry today, and economists show that the creative sector is growing faster than Wall Street. Why do these young people, who have the most desired commodity, remain outside of our educational system and at the bottom of our economy?

SEE’s founders were further motivated by what they observed as the low standards and culture of mediocrity in schools; the lack of design education and pre-professional programs for underserved youth; and a rapidly growing digital divide. If the success of pre-professional programs depends on incentives for youth and adults, why not build collaborations around what excites and inspires them both?

WHAT IS SEE?

SEE is a project-based youth development learning program that takes place in a real professional environment where teenagers participate consistently and long term, year round for all four years of high school. Participants gain intensive design, technology and entrepreneurship training as they develop original graphic, product, or apparel designs from concept to prototype in partnership with a company partner. Past projects include Bags for Marc Ecko Enterprises, Graphic Design for New York Cares and Abada Capoeira, Shoes for Skechers, Watches for Callanen/Timex, Package Design for Dr. Miracles Hair Care Products, Skateboards for Zoo York, and Outerwear for Marc Ecko Enterprises. Upcoming Spring 2007 projects include Cars for Nissan, Electronics for RadioShack, and a second Shoe project with Skechers

Tools An interactive ‘workbook’ is created for each project that begins with the overall history and anatomy of that particular product, and ends with an ‘in-flight checklist’ of what the student must include in their professional ‘tech pack’ that can be emailed to a manufacturing facility to produce the prototype. Before launching into a project, each group of students participates in a 6-week intensive boot camp where they learn basic art and design skills (drawing, perspective, color theory, 2-D design) as well as Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator. The program is led by educators, college students, and professional design volunteers,.

Skills The aim of SEE is not to make all participants into designers – but to build on the proven capacity of design education to give them valuable transferable skills that can be used in every area of their lives. SEE’s evaluation shows that participants gain the following skills: Professional: public speaking, project management, time management/deadlines, photoshop & illustrator, information management, and market research. Socio-emotional: problem-solving, demystifying brands & consumer products, constructive self and peer criticism, conflict resolution, collaboration, financial literacy, and resiliency. Academic: critical thinking, research, literacy, math, science, social studies. For more, click on skills.

The program operates in 2 tiers:

The Lab (Begun January 2005): Located in a non-school professional studio setting, the Lab serves participants who attend for 12 hours a week during the after-participate school and weekend time, year round for all 4 years of high school. Participants are selected competitively from all over New York City through an application process that requires a written essay and a rigorous interview, and SEE accepts less than 10% of those who apply. The selection criteria are: a strong interest in design, the ability to make the major time commitment and a willingness to overcome challenges with maturity. After one semester of training they are paid. If and when students’ designs are manufactured and sold, proceeds will go to college scholarships and to SEE, so that it can serve more young people. The Lab currently serves 20 students.

School Partnerships (Begun September 2006): SEE currently partners with 4 alternative high schools, working with students who were selected competitively within the school based on their interest in design and willingness to work hard. Taught by a combination of SEE-trained teachers at their schools plus SEE staff, their work takes place both in their school building as well as the Lab’s professional studio. Alternative schools are great partners because they share SEE’s belief in the importance of student-directed learning, creativity, and apprenticeship learning. On a practical level, they are a good fit because their schedules allow for large blocks of flexible learning time, and for learning to take place in non-school settings. Big Picture Schools, one of our partners, are the Gates Foundation’s preferred high school reform model because of their extremely impressive outcomes when it comes to student achievement when working with the most underserved youth. School partnerships currently serve select schools of the following school networks: Big Picture Company, Outward Bound’s Expeditionary Learning Schools, Alternative High School Initiative and Black Alliance for Educational Opportunities.  Past and current school partners include: The Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center (The Met) of Providence, RI; Bronx Guild High School of Bronx, NY; Humanities Prep High School of New York City; Urban Assembly School of Music and Art of Brooklyn, NY; and High School of Recording Arts (HSRA) of Minneapolis, MN.  SEE has plans to expand to schools in San Diego, CA and Camden, NJ with the generous support of the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

EVALUATION

“He went from low attendance and lack of motivation to a young man who is responsible, reliable and takes initiative in all of his work.” – History Teacher

“He is the single most improved student I’ve had this year. I recommend him for the honors track next year, something that I never would have done six months ago. He is truly amazing.” – Geometry Teacher

Independent evaluators report that SEE increases young people’s personal, academic and professional skills. [For a full list, click on skills.] One of the most interesting findings was from school personnel who reported a number of positive changes in students since they began participating in SEE. These include:

• Individual Skills: self confidence/awareness, trying new things/positive risk taking, time management/organization, overall enthusiasm and happiness, and controlling behavior and avoiding discipline problems.
• Interpersonal Skills: demonstrating leadership, working on a team, responsibility at school, relationship with peers, respecting self/others, using appropriate means to get attention/help.
• Academic Skills: focus and follow through on assignments, paying attention and listening in class, following instructions, demonstrating interest in school work, and performing academically.

WHAT MAKES SEE DIFFERENT?

As demonstrated above, SEE is different because it’s multidimensional – no one else connects youth and industry in this variety of ways. SEE is not just an internship, and it does not just help youth generate income through the sale of their artwork, it allows them to apply their creativity to real large-scale marketing and manufacturing processes, and interact with the wide variety of professionals who are involved. Instead of feeling like a ‘charity case,’ they feel proud of their work and respected by adults who take them seriously because they add real value to professional work. SEE does much more than improve the quality of life for underserved urban youth, it helps them to discover their own possibilities as income-generators and worldclass thinkers.

For youth:

• SEE is much more than a creative outlet, or business training for youth. SEE’s combination of design and entrepreneurship learning (grounded in educational research and proven by evaluators) invests in the creative potential of young people, helping them to discover their own possibilities as income-generators and worldclass thinkers.
• Even though several creative learning programs allow young people to generate income through the sale of their work, the final outcome is either conceptual or a one of a kind hand made piece. In SEE, they create products and using real industry tools and processes.
• In SEE, youth work closely with a number of diverse professionals in a variety of roles which helps them to identify their own interests and mentors, while learning how all these roles fit together to drive industry.
• Working as creative professionals, SEE youth know that their work adds value to corporate partners. The companies are not just doing them a favor by allowing them to be an intern – instead they know that adults take them seriously, and they feel proud and respected for their accomplishments.

For companies: 

• SEE gives companies more than just a cause marketing opportunity, but also market research, fresh creative ideas, and trend forecasting as well.
• By partnering with SEE, companies can have a deep personal impact on young people by doing what they normally do everyday, and its not a burden.

Origins

SEE was born of the belief that youth and industry could partner more effectively to stimulate education reform and improve the bottom line at the same time. Its founders were motivated by six major concerns:

1. low standards and a culture of mediocrity in schools and afterschool programs
2. few youth programs that engaged youth using design
3. the rarity of programs that gave participants a taste of the real professional world
4. a rapidly growing digital divide,
5. a lack of diversity in the design professions, and
6. entrepreneurs and companies not giving as effectively as they could.