Reflection-Idea Generation

Challenge and Selection

I volunteer at a cultural community center whose purpose is to allow members to adapt well to  Canada while maintain part of their cultures that they find important. The challenges we were  facing was eliminating the relatively high high-school drop-out rate in young boys. Seventeen to  eighteen year old students were dropping out of school in order to work in jobs such as carpeting,  hardwood and other types of construction. Our goal was to ensure that they complete high  school, proceed with post-secondary education and eventually find work in their field.

Selection

As the committee in charge of youth affairs, we decided to use a mind mapping tool in order to  find one solution to an issue caused by multiple factors.

Application

Using survey results we were able to draw out patterns in the families which had a high-

school dropout. In this issue the students became our customers and our job was to ensure they  stayed in school. Rather than following students into their homes or into their schools to detect  the problem, semi-structured interviews were arranged for those who had already dropped out in  order to analyze their reasoning and the push and pull factors that influenced their decision. One  of the reasons we came to discover was that students did not have faith in the school system to be  able to get them a job upon completion with the worry of having major debt and no way to begin  paying it. Another reason was that the parents of the students worked in the trades and the  student felt as though schooling was not necessary for them to find work. Lastly, simply feeling  that was school was difficult was a reason that pushed students to drop out.

When comparing the interviews of the students who had dropped out of school with the

survey answers of other students it was easy to identify students who were potential risks of  dropping out of school in the near-future. An easy identifier was simply if the student had a  parent working in trade work who also had low opinions of schooling and were receiving low  grades.

With this new information our task was to generate ideas of methods to change the way

in which these students felt about education and the school system. Each issue required its own  solution as each group faced a unique obstacle. As they brainstormed, our youth committee drew  out potential events or programs that would serve as resources students could use to get better  grades and find future post-secondary programs that linked with specific work fields. This  resulted in having three possible events; a tutoring club, a post-secondary school seminar, and a  career/networking fair. Though each idea on its own tackled a specific factor that pushed  students to drop out of school, none of them were able to fix more than one issue.  Our

committee was looking for an idea that would be able to tackle all three issues. Using the mind  map again, we were able to find one idea that could rid the student of all three issues; a  mentorship program. Each student would be matched with a mentor that could serve as a tutor,  offer insight into post-secondary school and help with job networking and resume writing.

Insights and Approaches

By executing surveys and interviews to get to know our customers (high school students)

better, our committee was able to get insight into the reasoning teenagers had for dropping out of  school. The results of this initiative allowed us to identify specific problems that needed  addressing specifically within the community center’s demographic.

Our idea generation seemed sub-successful due to our inability to think “what if anything

was possible?” We were unable to imagine a single program that could connect and solve all the  issues that the students were dealing with.  Using mind mapping as a tool rather than verbal  brain-storming served the committee well as we were finally able to link all three issues with one  solution.

In the future, we should also hold interviews with students who were not drop-outs in

order to identify their motivating factors and analyze how they are different than the students  who were potential drop-outs.  Our mind mapping tool was also limited to students who were  already struggling with school and solving those issues. In the future we should generate more  ideas in order to prevent students from feeling a disdain towards school; solving the issue before  it becomes one.

