Un-School of Disruptive Design

New York based experimental knowledge lab, the Un-School of Disruptive Design is set to pop up for a week-long immersive fellowship program this January in Melbourne. Headed up by award winning Australian designer, Dr. Leyla Acaroglu, the unique program for professionals and emerging leaders has been run in New York and soon in Mexico City, with a growing alumni of fellows from 24 countries and 6 continents.

The program accepts between 12 and 16 fellows for an immersive 7-day intensive program, via an application process. The Un-School takes a disruptive approach to educative experiences, with a focus on activating and empowering fellows through immersive learning, active participation and mentorship. The days are long and the experiences adventurous. The Un-School fellowship program was recently profiled by Columbia University’s EdLab in the New Learning Times —the Un-School’s experimental model has been shaking up the status quo in NYC and started a wave of disruptive interventions since its launch in 2014.

Un-School Fellows gain valuable experience in disruptive design, social innovation, collaboration, entrepreneurship and social change. The curriculum is diverse, ranging from sessions on creative leadership through to gamification and cognitive sciences. Founder and chief educator, Dr Leyla Acaroglu, who obtained her PhD from Melbourne’s RMIT University, is thrilled to be able to bring the program back to Melbourne and share the benefits with her home region. She has designed the Melbourne program to help local emerging leaders activate their careers and overcome some of the all-too-common pitfalls of creative leadership and social innovation.

“The mainstream education system is somewhat ineffective at preparing and activating people to be participant in the emerging and critical field of social and sustainable innovation. Right now, more than ever, we need creative entrepreneurs building new solutions to age old problems. That’s why we teach systems thinking, sustainability and design as a platform for becoming activated social innovators, and our program offers a wealth of tools and knowledge, as well as peer to peer mentoring, network building and leadership”

Applications are open till October 23rd.

The Melbourne fellowship program, run from 23rd till the 29th January 2016, will include workshops sessions from award winning designer Trent Jansen, social media master and TEDxSydney food curated Jess Miller as well as the creative mind behind Melbourne agency Think, Adam Morris.

Being a social enterprise itself, the Un-School offers several scholarships to the program bases on an at-needs basis. They gave away over $10,000 in tuition costs in their Mexico City fellowship and are set to offer several full and subsidised positions in the Melbourne program. Scholarship applications are open until the 10th October.

About the Program:

The Un-School fellowship program is designed for emerging leaders who want to expand their mental toolsets, develop strong connections with likeminded people and activate their leadership skills. This opportunity is for the misfits and mavericks of positive change, the curious and / or for those that are perhaps a little ‘stuck’ in their current positions. We take people from a wide variety of professional backgrounds and provide an immersive and highly engaging (cerebrally and personally) environment for activating change!

Quotes from NYC Fellows about their experience:

“The design process reinvigorated me, visualizing systems integration reminded me of the solutions, and peer-to-peer collaboration reinstalled a sense of trust, vulnerability, and cohesion that completely redefined the possible.” – Jason Sandsman, New York

“I have come away from the fellowship with masses of inspiration and some smart tools for leveraging sustainable systemic change in my current and future projects.” – Bec McMaster, New Zealand

“The Un-School fellowship is not only a program to put methods and ideas into your brain, but also a unique program that makes you believe in the power of disruptive design and sustainability by your heart, and especially in yourself to make change. There were so many scattered ideas in my mind until the week of fellowship program. It’s been only three weeks since I came back to my country and have already started prototyping my solo idea, which came to during one of the mentor workshops. No matter what your interest area is, you can find something for yourself in these mentor sessions which were perfectly organized by Leyla and her team”. – Nihan Ozturk, Istanbul

“At the Un-School fellowship I learned to understand what I need to accomplish in my work in finding an alternative to the education system I want to create. Things I will always remember from my experience at the fellowship are: toolkit, mentors, traders, partners, process, products, games, systems and experiences” – Marcela Zetina Manrique, Mexico City

“The Un-School fellowship in NYC was an incredible experience. I met so many inspiring people, from the mentors, to the Un-School team, to the other fellows. I’m excited to take everything I learned and get out there and create change!” – Jenn Court, Canada