Julia Weisman (Class of 2022), Olivia Garcia (Class of 2022), and Sydney Kronbach (Class of 2022).
Brie Johnson (Class of 2023) and London Rhodus (Class of 2023).
INSPIRING LEADERS THROUGH ACADEMICS Upper School students are taking the next steps toward leading lives of purpose and impact through our Designated Social Impact Courses
BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING: ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP Julia Weisman, Olivia Garcia, and Sydney Kronbach In our Social Impact class, we were unsure of what problem we wanted our business to address. All three of us were interested in mental health, specifically the lack of resources available to the younger generation. As we continued our research, we realized that the issue not only lies in mental healthcare but in all healthcare. Additionally, many college students are in an area unfamiliar to them and away from their parents. They are having to adjust to this new environment while simultaneously managing coursework and a social life. Getting sick should not be an added stress to their busy lives. To combat this issue, we designed an app, “College Care,” which links college students to physicians in their area. Our design concept for the app stemmed from Tinder. In the app, one can “swipe to the RIGHT” to match with a doctor that is located near them and covers their exact insurance — streamlining the doctor-finding process. We included a calendar to keep track of appointments, a map to give directions to the office, and a direct messaging service that would make contacting your doctor quick and easy. Our marketing strategy includes social media posts and publishing on college websites. Once users are on the app, we will be able to make money from advertisers that want access to our college-age demographic, as well as doctors who would like to pay to be featured. This would allow us to cover our fixed costs of building the app and reaching out to doctors and colleges, and our variable costs of advertising the app.
BIOLOGY, IMPACT AND THE ZOO Brie Johnson and London Rhodus At first, we wanted to solve the ivory trade crisis surrounding elephants. However, after some preliminary research, we learned that many major coffee corporations are killing elephants and destroying their habitats through their coffee farms. We drink coffee every morning, and we were shocked to learn our daily caffeine boost might be hurting our favorite animals.
Throughout the past few months, we have continued to finalize our research and now we are beginning our brainstorming process. We learned so much through the empathy-building process, giving us the opportunity to meet with coffee professionals and elephant experts from the zoo. From learning how coffee transforms from the bean to the tasty drink that so many people love, to how elephant migration patterns work, we created a solid foundation for our project. We most recently came up with some solutions to our issue, and we are really excited to develop our elephant-friendly coffee brand. Coming up with our solutions was a high-energy and very exciting experience. Using the design thinking process, we came up with really big and crazy ideas! With imaginative prompts like “How could you solve your problem with one million dollars?” we created the initial ideas for our problem. None of this would have been possible, however, without our “how might we” statement. Our statement was the foundation for our big idea: how might we make saving elephants as necessary as getting your daily dose of caffeine? We look forward to the rest of this process, and we even hope to continue our project long after zoo class is over. So far this has been a life-changing experience, and we know we will take the skills we learn in the classroom into our futures.
NEUROSCIENCE Anna Gum and Catherine Goglia What determines your ethical beliefs? This question propelled my thought process this fall and evolved into my 2021 Neuroscience Synthesis Project. Between my Philosophy in the 21st Century and Literature classes, ethics seemed to be a common thread appearing across my first semester as a Hockaday senior. The topics covered in those classes began to pop up in my daily life, and I started to see how many different inputs influence my own ethical views. From my Athletic teams to Spanish class, to the music I listen to, I am constantly receiving information supporting different systems of ethics.
SPRING 2022
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