1 - 10 of 20 results for: VPGE::Personal

Explores concepts in decision making and constructive conflict as a mechanism for desired change via purposeful actions. Students assess personal conflict comfort zones and use case studies and class activities to develop skills with authenticity, active and intentional decision making, and other related topics.

Build your creative confidence and sharpen your design thinking skills. Train your intuition and expand the design context from which you operate every day. This experimental studio will introduce d.school students to fast- paced experiential exercises that lay the mental and physical foundation for a potent bias toward action, and a wider knowledge of the personal skills that expert design thinkers utilize in all phases of their process. Recent research based on this course curriculum show that performing these class activities will expand your creative capacity in statistically significant ways.

Focus is on enhancing the innovation process with playfulness. The class will be project-based and team-centered. We will investigate the human "state of play" to reach an understanding of its principal attributes and how important it is to creative thinking. We will explore play behavior, its development, and its biological basis. We will then apply those principles through design thinking to promote innovation in the corporate world. Students will work with real-world partners on design projects with widespread application. This course requires an application. You can find the application here: dschool.stanford.edu/classes

Master's and Ph.D. seminar series driven by student interests. Possible topics: time management, career choices, health and family, diversity, professional development, and personal values. Guest speakers from academia and industry, student presentations with an emphasis on group discussion. Graduate students share experiences and examine scientific research in these areas. May be repeated for credit.

How to Get a Life as well as a PhD or Masters: Seminar open to ALL graduate students and post-docs in all 7 schools. Learn to apply design thinking to designing your professional life following Stanford. Topics include: Intro to "design thinking", framework for vocational wayfinding; tools to investigate alternate professional paths. Complete a personal "Odyssey Plan" to innovate multiple prototypes for post-Stanford life and career. Taught in 1-day workshop and 10-week course formats. 10-week course not offered in AY16. 5-day intensive version also offered in Stanford Grad. Summer Inst., Sep 12-16 (no credit, see VPGE SGSI website for details).

How should human beings relate to the natural world? Do we have moral obligations toward non-human animals and other parts of nature? And what do we owe to other human beings, including future generations, with respect to the environment? The first part of this course will examine such questions in light of some of our current ethical theories: considering what those theories suggest regarding the extent and nature of our environmental obligations; and also whether reflection on such obligations can prove informative about the adequacy of our ethical theories. In the second part of the course, we will use the tools that we have acquired to tackle various ethical questions that confront us in our dealings with the natural world, looking at subjects such as: animal rights; conservation; economic approaches to the environment; access to and control over natural resources; environmental justice and pollution; climate change; technology and the environment; and environmental activism.

Psychosocial, financial, and career issues in adapting graduate students to Stanford; how these issues relate to diversity, resources, policies, and procedures. Discussions among faculty, advanced graduate students, campus resource people, and the dean's office. (Thomas)

This course introduces skills and bodies of knowledge useful for careers in law, public policy, and achieving social change at scale. These include framing problems; designing, implementing, and evaluating strategies; system design; cost-benefit analysis; decision making under uncertainty; heuristics and biases that affect empirical judgments and decision making; methods for influencing people's behavior ranging from incentives and penalties to "nudges;" and human-centered design. The course will be taught through problems, cases, and a field project to solve real-world problems on or near the Stanford campus, with the goal of integrating strategic thinking and behavioral insights with human-centered design and systems design. The course may be of interest to students in Law and Policy Lab practicums who wish to broaden their policy analysis skills. Enrollment: Limited to 32 students, with priority given to students in Law School, the MPP program, and the IPS program in that order. Students other than law students must seek the consent of the instructor. Elements used in grading: Class participation, midterm assignment, and final assignment. Cross-listed with International Policy Studies ( IPS 207A) & the Law School ( LAW 333).

What are the origins of the human rights movement and where is it headed? What does it mean to be a human rights activist? What are the main challenges and dilemmas facing those engaged in human rights advocacy? In the space of 60 years, human rights advocates have transformed a marginal utopian ideal into a central element of global discussion, if not practice. In this seminar we will examine the actors and organizations behind this remarkable development as well as the vast challenges faced by advocates in the recent past and today. Together, we will learn to be critical of, as well as to think, and act, like human rights advocates. This seminar will introduce you to some the main debates and dilemmas within the human rights movement. We will consider and understand the differing agendas of western international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) and their counterparts in the frequently non-western) developing world, as well as tensions between and among rights advocates along other important dimensions (civil and political vs. economic, social and cultural rights; rights promotion through engagement of powerful actors vs. challenging structures of power, etc.). The seminar seeks to develop your ability: 1) to understand human rights and social justice issues as contested political, legal and cultural phenomena; 2) to review advocacy texts, videos and other interventions critically; 3) to appreciate the political dimensions of efforts to promote human rights; 4) to understand how recent history constrains and structures options and possibilities for social intervention to promote rights and justice. During the course of the quarter you will be required to submit several short reflection papers and develop a human rights advocacy campaign.