On Wednesday August 26, the first year SDM graduate students were welcomed to their new home in New York, the MS-SDM program at Parsons. The beautiful multicultural crowd was received into an interactive, warm, and informative setting to their new transformative educational experience, in a session that started with introductions by new interim dean Jane Pirone and a presentation by Jill Corson Lake, Director of Global Advising at Parsons. The co-directors of the MS-SDM program, Rhea Alexander and Raz Godelnik then talked about their backgrounds, experiences, and hopes for the next year setting the mood for an inspiring adventure for all.

The talks were followed by The Fan and The Sprint, a set of fun-icebreaking workshops that got the students to mingle, play, and interact. In a multicultural room full of creative, eager, and brilliant students, different groups were divided into tables and asked to play a creative version of the Rock, Paper, Scissors game to break the ice and get them all warmed up. They were asked then to create and brand a new fruit out of a mix of the team’s favorite fruits. The fruit innovations were then pitched and voted on using a human graphic lineup. Hosted by Paula Pinto and Sofia Figuiera, both class of 2016 MS-SDM candidates, the workshop was a great fun engaging way to introduce the new comers to the creative environment at Parsons where the status quo has to be questioned. The room buzzed with laughter and applause and ended with a strong sense of familiarity and bonding, a great introduction to school.

After the workshop, Limassol Zok, a class of 2016 MS-SDM candidate, shared her first year experience with the new comers and highlighted her class learnings, projects and what she valued most. She shared her love for reviewing books which inspired her to create her website thedesignthinkingera.com. She also introduced the Parsons Entrepreneurial Lab and invited everyone to its introductory September 11 workshop. The session ended with a wrap up by Rhea Alexander and Raz Godelnik wishing everyone an excellent new semester.

The orientation session transported to the mixer party at the Parsons building where all SDS students mingled over great food and wine. A wonderful opening of a new chapter!