Reimagining Academic Growth as a Living System
South Fayette School District partnered with Carnegie Mellon University to reimagine how students explore interests, make decisions, and plan meaningful next steps. Our solution is a student-centered planning system designed to help high schoolers navigate their non-linear growth journeys.
Team
4 Collaborators:
Design, Research
Role
Visual and UX Design
Timeline
Jan - Jul 2025
Problem
Many high school students feel stuck in rigid academic tracks that don't reflect their passions or goals.
“I feel like I can’t afford to do something different if it might mess up my GPA.”
– 9th Grade Student (P05)
“I occasionally want to try new things but never know where to start”
– 10th Grade Student (P12)
Opportunity
How might we empower students to take ownership of their academic journey and nurture their curiosity?
Students want to explore, but with pressure to "check the right boxes," it often feels safer to stay on “proven” tracks and many miss out on opportunities that could shape their truly desired paths. South Fayette challenged us to imagine a new model of guidance, one where students can "stack" meaningful experiences based on their interests and evolving goals.
Solution
Turning Key Experience Reflections Into Growth Signals.
STACK. a dashboard that maps all past student experiences into a dynamic timeline of reflection cards and clusters potential growing interest to provide personalize recommendation for future steps. Our solution shifts academic planning from static course selection to a living system that connects students, faculty, and families around evolving student identity and growth signals, not simply grades and credits.
*A career theory quiz that matches your personality and interests to one of six types. South Fayette students have been taking assessments of their RIASEC yearly
Suggestion Calibration Flow
The RIASEC* assessment captures each student’s interests to initially set up their “Explore Page”
Finding Experience of Interest Flow
Students can find all their courses, club activities, extracurriculars, other school events in the Explore Page and add to the “Wishlist“
From the Wishlist, students decide when to add the experience into the canvas as “Experience Cards”
Two Canvas Views
Student can organize their Experience Cards on the canvas in two different ways: “Timeline View” and “Category View”
Experience Reflection Flow
Post event students can edit the Experience Card by adding ratings for three criteria assigned per activity type and one short comment to recalibrate the suggestions in the Explore Page
Finding Users at the Right Place
Stack is not only a web app, the primary form of interaction is tailored to each stakeholder
It shifts academic planning from static course selection to a living system that connects students, faculty, and families around evolving student identity
