Adviser Update Adviser Update Spring 2017 | Page 6
Empathy
YES AND: USING DESIGN THINKING TO TEACH EMPATHY
AND DIGITAL STORYTELLING ON REFUGEES IN PARIS
By Beatrice Motamedi
I
was driving home from
school last fall when I
saw them: dozens of
mattresses arranged
in rows, a few flopping
dangerously into a busy street
near a metro stop in central
Paris.
Hundreds of young men
milled about, laughing and
chatting, some around a cold-
water sink that was the only
place they had to drink, clean
clothes and wash. Crossing
deserts, mountains and seas,
they had traveled thousands
of miles from Afghanistan,
Somalia, Sudan and Syria,
expecting warm beds, hot
meals and help.
What these refugees found
instead was the uneasy shelter
of a median strip, steps away
from a government agency
that processed precisely 20
people every morning, then
shut its doors by noon. With
each passing day, winter was
approaching. Conditions,
already bad, surely would
grow worse.
I was born in Paris. Over the
years, I have seen it change,
but I had never witnessed
anything like this. ASP is
Global Student Square’s
innovation hub in France and
a place where we wanted to
build a journalism program
that would connect to the
world. This was our chance,
but how to engage students
more than an hour away in
a western suburb where few
sleep rough?