Students
Students come to the Parsons MS SDM program from all over the world. Their experience combines studios, seminars, networking, events, symposia, and more. This page will inform you about student projects like First Year Studio and Second Year Studio, student resources, and other opportunities.
Elevate – 2025
ELEVATE: Mind & Body in Sync is a Phygital experience designed to help young people strengthen their mental well-being through small, sustainable daily actions. Built on the belief that mental wellness, like physical fitness, requires consistent effort, ELEVATE provides a calm, non-judgmental space where users can check in with themselves, take micro-breaks, and grow emotional awareness over time. Users are guided through short-form videos, daily reflection prompts, and low-pressure activities like 3-minute breathing sessions or mood-based journaling. The platform draws from intrinsic and extrinsic motivation models, encouraging users to explore their own wellness patterns without comparison or pressure. Targeted primarily…
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Unloop – 2025
In today’s digital age, when individuals experience boredom, loneliness, or uncertainty, they frequently turn to digital spaces as coping mechanisms. However, when people enter these environments feeling vulnerable or unsettled, the experience can be less helpful than anticipated, sometimes even amplifying their emotional struggles. Users may find themselves becoming lost in digital spaces, inadvertently losing track of time and weakening their meaningful connections with others. Rather than alleviating their initial emotional states, digital interactions may leave them feeling lonelier, ashamed, and disconnected. Additionally, the fragmented and overstimulating nature of digital environments can disrupt attention, further impacting mental well-being. Unloop directly…
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Abridge – 2025
Abridge is a response to a quiet, familiar tension: the growing emotional distance between students and their parents. As young adults navigate newfound independence, maintaining regular, meaningful contact with family often becomes inconsistent—not due to a lack of care, but because of time, guilt, or emotional overwhelm. Parents, meanwhile, seek small signals of connection, often left waiting in silence. Recognizing this gap, Abridge sets out to reimagine how families stay emotionally present in each other’s lives—without the pressure of constant conversation. Our approach combined observational research, stakeholder conversations, and generative design methods to explore the subtle, often invisible dynamics of…
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In the Loop – 2025
In the Loop is a trusted network of professionally-minded homes designed to support intentional mobility—for work, transition, or exploration. Hosted by remote professionals, accessed by those in motion Studio Instructor Juanli Carrion Designers Mrinal Jadhav Mrunmayee Arjunwadkar Ritika Suryawanshi
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Cooperating Against Carbon – 2025
Cooperating Against Carbon (CAC) is an initiative designed to help small residential co-ops in New York City reduce their carbon emissions and meet Local Law 97 requirements. The project focuses on three pillars: building community connections through peer learning and building tours; amplifying voices by creating accessible resources and simplified tools; and advocating for policy changes to address electrical infrastructure barriers. CAC aims to bridge the gap between NYC’s climate goals and the practical challenges facing small co-ops through collaborative learning, resource sharing, and community support, helping buildings transition to low-carbon operations while improving residents’ quality of life. Studio Instructor…
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Evolution lab / LymeLnk – 2025
evolution lab empowers organizations with human-centered design, rooted in biomimicry, to scale both financial and societal value. We bridge the gap between design thinking and actionable strategy, nature our guiding inspiration for growing organizations organically—just like living systems do. Our methodology is three stages: anchoring roots (internal growth,) structuring the stem (organizational resilience), and blooming, over & over (scalable impact). Inspired by the innovation of the natural world, we customize strategic co-design for organizational needs, before educating, embedding & enabling them to thrive, not survive. Our belief is simple: you don’t have to choose between profit and purpose, but their…
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Ease – 2025
A digital platform that helps international students in the US navigate housing and transition to a new life abroad, with ease. We focus on offering a personalised user experience that aligns with their needs through a clear, simple, and stress-free experience. Ease guides international students through every step — from preparing for financial planning and budgeting in advance to feeling settled in their new home. Our goal is to help international students feel empowered, informed, and welcomed from day one, because moving abroad should feel like an exciting new chapter, not a confusing process. Studio Instructor Juanli Carrion Designers Dave…
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Design PlayLab – 2025
Design PlayLab focuses on creating a modular, gamified framework that embeds play into the design process itself, rather than just in the outcomes. Designed for use in community co-design sessions, the toolkit reimagines strategic design methods as simple, low-barrier games. Using the appreciative inquiry method, the approach has its own adaptable game structure using basic tools like cards, boards, and drawing surfaces to foster reflection, imagination, and collaboration. By prioritizing playable processes, this approach encourages deeper engagement, creative problem-solving, and more inclusive participation, helping teams and communities unlock insight through curiosity and iteration to enhance community social resilience levels. Studio…
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Ethical Transition Strategies – 2025
Ethical Transition Strategies is a structured approach for designers working on social and community-engaged projects who want to exit responsibly and ensure impact is sustained. Too often, transitions are rushed, unclear, or overlooked—leaving communities, clients, or partners without the support or knowledge needed to carry the work forward. This framework helps designers plan thoughtful transitions by centering the people inheriting the project. It breaks the transition process into clear phases, each with milestones, and is grounded in four core dimensions of sustainability: leadership, financial, relational, and momentum. These tools support alignment between all parties and encourage shared decision-making. Designed for…
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Roots – 2025
Roots is a play-based social impact tool designed to support multilingual K–12 students and their families through storytelling, emotional expression, and co-play. Rooted in the belief that play is a universal language, it fosters self-advocacy, connection, and belonging through a thoughtfully designed card deck and interactive prompts. Co-designed with families and experts, Roots centers emotional wellbeing, social-emotional learning, and cultural inclusion. It empowers children and caregivers to explore emotions, express themselves across and beyond languages, and build stronger relationships, playfully and meaningfully. Studio Instructor Rhea Alexander Designers Armağan Birsel Cağla Yildirim
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