Life design gives VCU students a framework for adjusting to, and excelling in, college

By Office of the Provost

Can the principles of product design help students navigate college life? At Virginia Commonwealth University, that concept ­– life design – is expanding across campus, with programs that now even serve new Rams before they start classes.

This past summer, more than 100 students attending first-year orientation crowded into a classroom in the Academic Learning Commons for a session titled “Life Design: Designing Your College Experience.” The session, led by Interdisciplinary Studies and Innovation enrollment coordinator Samantha Weed, guided them through creative prompts to help them envision opportunities to seize during their first semester and to reframe fear of the unknown as a natural part of trying new things.

Mary-Chris Escobar, VCU’s associate dean for student success and life design, described the concept as “an active process: It encourages students to try new things, to prototype them and then to engage in reflection,” similar to how products are designed.

“This focus helps students reframe setbacks and failure as a natural part of designing their way forward,” said Escobar, who in 2021 trained at Stanford University – where life design was pioneered – and has been teaching courses and leading workshops at VCU since then. “The framework encourages students to think broadly about the future before choosing an area of interest to explore more deeply.”

Life design in the undergraduate experience

For four years, Escobar has offered a Designing Your Life course for juniors and seniors. To expand life design across campus, she partnered in fall 2025 with the Office of First and Second Year Experiences on a first-year seminar, Designing Your VCU. The course expanded for the current fall semester to include several sections for students in the Discovery Advising program that serves undeclared majors. VCU life design specialist Mandy James, who developed and taught similar courses at Arizona State University, led the expansion.

Through a partnership with the daVinci Center for Innovation, VCU is bringing together the frameworks of life design and design thinking to empower students to apply the same creative, human-centered mindset they use to solve complex problems to navigate their own lives and futures. As part of this collaboration, students enrolled in Designing Your VCU will earn a design thinking microcredential.

Additionally, the da Vinci Center’s new general education course that launched this fall, Microinternships and Career Design, integrates life design principles through microinternships, helping students build the confidence, skills and experiences needed to thrive.

Next steps for life design at VCU

In addition to orientation breakout sessions and coursework expansions, all advisors in VCU’s Interdisciplinary Studies Program and the Discovery Advising program have been trained in life design, and plans are underway to train other advisors across campus to infuse the concepts into their work with students.

Additional training sessions, similar to the one offered at the VCU Undergraduate Education 2026 Course (Re)Design Workshop & Expo, are also in the works to highlight and enhance classroom work that aligns with the tenets of life design.

 “We’re helping students build resilience to a constantly changing reality by reframing the narrative of needing to have one perfect path in life,” James said. “Just knowing that there are many ways to live a happy and meaningful life can help students bounce back when one path is blocked. “