So...

In the months to come this blog will function as a space for documentation, exploration, research, process, pictures, ideas and feedback as I take Design for Social Entrepreneurship. Design for Social Entrepreneurship is an advanced studio in the Industrial Design Department at the Rhode Island School of Design that will investigate the power of products, systems and services to create positive social and environmental change. This semester, as a social entrepreneurial designer, I will have the opportunity to travel to and work with EARTH University in Costa Rica, hence the blog's name. EARTH is at the forefront of identifying, testing and sharing techniques for sustainable agriculture in the tropics. Students enrolled in this course will investigate new uses for agricultural wastes and natural materials and develop in-depth proposals for the creation of new products that will benefit EARTH and its local and global communities. Professor Patricia Gruits has begun a class blog at http://www.de-se2011.blogspot.com/ to share our collective progress, research and ideas with a larger community. I look forward to the opportunities and challenges that await me this semester and documenting them here. I'll keep you posted. Alex