My experience in the Design Thinking into Action: Teen Wellbeing course felt like a dream—it went by so fast, yet I remember every detail clearly. In three months I was transformed into a user-oriented engineer.

The first important lesson I learned from the course was about the environment—the people and perspectives around me. Through activities like body mapping, the partner prototype challenge, and the self-assessments on time management, social media, and AI usage, I realized how little I truly knew about the world I had lived in for 16 years.

The most impactful part for me was my final project, which focused on improving pedestrian safety for visually impaired people. Through my research I learned that eye problems are a significant issue in China; 17.3 million people, or roughly one in a hundred, are blind or visually impaired. Sadly, this issue receives little public attention, and the infrastructure meant to help is falling apart. According to the Minsheng Think Tank’s 2025 Urban Governance Research, over 70 percent of tactile paving in China is reported to be ineffective due to damage, obstruction, or poor installation. This prompted me to create something for visually impaired people—because even a small improvement to tactile paving can make a difference.

I started my journey of invention, following the five steps in design thinking: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. The very first step, Empathize, became the most transformative part of my learning. At the beginning of the course, the professor drew a clear distinction between sympathy and empathy: sympathy is feeling for someone, while empathy is feeling with someone—understanding their experience from their perspective, not just acknowledging their struggle from a distance. This distinction stayed with me as I reached out to interview my user for my final project, a friend with severe visual impairment. I didn’t just ask him about his challenges; I asked him to walk me through his daily routine—how he navigated his community, what frustrated him, and what he wished people understood. It struck me deeply when he said, “I don’t need people to feel sorry for me. I just need the world to be designed so I can live independently.” In that moment, I felt the full weight of what the professor had been trying to teach us. I realized that before this conversation, I had been approaching the problem with sympathy—I felt bad for visually impaired people, but I hadn’t actually understood them. Through listening to him, I finally put into practice what I had learned in theory about empathy. I started to see the world through his eyes. That shift in mindset became the foundation of everything I designed afterward. I tried hard to break free from stereotypes to become an engineer who looks beyond cold data and lab results. I recognized that since I was designing something for humans, empathy was the most important part. I also used empathy to engage my audience in my presentation video by asking: “How would you feel if one day everything went black?”

I’m grateful that after this course, I now possess one of the most valuable skills for an engineer to practice: design thinking with a human touch. This skill reminds me that the logic behind successful products is always based on the needs of their potential users. Now I always remind myself: if you want to make a difference, you must first understand the user and the problems they face. The best way is to talk with them, think as if you are them, and most importantly, make revisions based on their feedback. Through this approach, I can best understand their needs and try to solve their challenges.

During the 10-week course, we met and spoke with scholars from Stanford who generously shared their expertise and listened to us with incredible patience and encouragement. Our instructors, Stefanie Orrick and Carey Moncaster, guided us every step of the way, and cheered for us when we reached our goals. I also gained like-minded friends through growing collaboration and connection. The program made me feel more open to new ideas and opinions and more confident in my ability to design meaningful solutions.

Looking ahead, this experience has refined how I approach any work I do. I still believe that solid skills and sound methods matter—clear logic and reliable results are important. But on their own, they are not enough. They are merely the outer shell of what I create. What truly gives it meaning is the care, understanding, and empathy I put into it. This is the kind of person I want to become—one who builds solutions that are not just functional, but deeply human-centered. Now I am still working to improve my tactile paving project and am currently preparing the documentation for a patent application. In the future, I will always make sure that the work I do is wrapped in empathy.

Thank you, Stanford e-China, for helping me find the people-oriented engineer in myself.

Innovating Wellbeing: Human-Centered Design in the AI Era (formerly Design Thinking into Action: Teen Wellbeing) is one of several online courses offered by SPICE.

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The sports world has been dramatically affected by COVID-19. Not only has there been a significant decline of events for the spectator—both in person and on television—but the impact on the participants themselves has also been unprecedented. Due to social gathering restrictions, organized youth sports have been almost completely shuttered. High schools and colleges have been cancelling their practices and competitive seasons. The PAC-12 recently postponed its football season. The pandemic has also had a dramatic effect on sports at the highest level. Only fairly recently have there been abbreviated attempts to reinstitute professional sports seasons such as Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association. Even the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo were postponed to 2021.

SPICE is helping to develop the CoviDB Speaker Series, a TeachAids initiative which provides free online videos to educate the general public about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. For episode 4 of the CoviDB Speaker Series, TeachAids Founder and CEO Dr. Piya Sorcar decided to provide a glimpse into how the pandemic has impacted the lives of two of the world’s greatest athletes. Sorcar enlisted the support of Emmy Award-winning sportscaster Ted Robinson to interview three-time Olympic diver and gold medalist Laura Wilkinson and five-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer and Stanford student Katie Ledecky.

The interview can be viewed here. Robinson drew out insightful perspectives from Ledecky and Wilkinson concerning the uncertainty that they lived with while awaiting the decision about whether the 2020 Olympics would be held, and also their feelings once the decision to postpone the Olympics was made. Wilkinson reflected, “What was frustrating at first, turned out to be really special” as she reflected upon things like spending extra time with her family, including four children. Ledecky added that being able to focus more on her studies at Stanford University definitely helped to create a little more balance in her life. In response to Robinson’s question about maintaining the discipline to train in light of the postponement, Ledecky responded

During a segment of the interview that focused on advice for youth, Ledecky noted, “The work that you put in doesn’t go away… It is always in the bank… At some point in the future, you are going to be able to compete again, have those opportunities to let that work show.” Wilkinson added, “When you want something, it doesn’t matter what people say about you or what they think of you. If you think you want to do this, if this is your goal, you have to go after it because you’re capable of more than you probably think you are. And other people’s opinions do not need to define you or what you’re capable of doing. You define that.”

For each of the first four episodes in the CoviDB Speaker Series, SPICE has developed a teacher’s guide to encourage the showing of the episodes in U.S. classrooms at the secondary school level. Each of the guides includes (1) a summary of the questions that were asked by the interviewer, including terms and definitions, (2) guiding questions for small-group work, and (3) debriefing activities. In the area of debriefing activities, writing prompts such as the following for episode 4 are offered to students.

• Laura and Katie commented on how their lives have been disrupted since the pandemic. Write a diary entry about how your life has been disrupted. What has been especially challenging? What lessons have you learned from the experience?
• Write about a time when you were disappointed with the cancellation of something. How did you cope with it? Did you learn something positive from the experience? Have you ever been in limbo about whether an event was going to happen or not? How did this make you feel?

Other suggested debriefing activities involve the designing of an artistic image, writing of a poem, or writing lyrics to a song that captures the significance of quotes from the interview such the following:

• Laura: The sun is a great healer in a lot of ways, both emotionally and physically.
• Katie: The Olympics is … an opportunity for the world to come together.
• Laura: I think that it [COVID-19] has reminded us of how connected we are as a world and how we all need to be doing our individual parts to combat this.
• Ted: I have been around athletes in team sports who at some point have said that they kept playing because they wanted their kids to see them.

As TeachAids and SPICE think about their work with youth, two statements from the interview were especially poignant to the staffs. Ledecky noted, “This is history [the time of COVID-19] but you don’t have to be afraid of it. Fear is really a mindset… so if you do everything that you can do, there is no point in worrying beyond that because worrying does not help you at all. It is not going to change anything. Do what you can control. Worry about the things that you can control and things that you cannot control, you have to let those go.” Wilkinson stated, “This [challenging time] could be that gift to you. This could be that opportunity to rise to a whole new level. Don’t look at this and be sad and upset. Look at this as an opportunity of how you can get ahead.” Though the statements were intended as advice for youth, in fact, the statements seem relevant today to all of us.

The CoviDB Speaker Series is a TeachAids initiative that is co-sponsored by the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health, the University of California San Francisco’s Institute for Global Health Sciences, and the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE).

In collaboration with TeachAids, Stanford Medicine, and the University of California, San Francisco, SPICE is helping to develop the CoviDB Speaker Series, which seeks to provide free online videos to educate the general public about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. SPICE’s work is focused on the development of teacher guides for the Series. Leading the Series is Dr. Piya Sorcar, CEO & Founder, TeachAids. The first three speakers and their topics are Dr. Anurag Mairal, Director of Global Outreach, Stanford Biodesign, “COVID-19 and Global Health: Facts and Myths”; Shuman Ghosemajumder, Global Head of AI at F5, “Cybersecurity and Privacy in the Era of COVID-19”; and Anne Firth Murray, Founding President, Global Fund for Women, “Violence Against Women.”

Read a recent article from The Stanford Daily about this here.

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On August 26, 2019, SPICE/FSI served as the Stanford University host of the California-Japan Governors’ Symposium, which was co-hosted by the U.S.-Japan Council (USJC) and the Silicon Valley Japan Platform (SVJP). Four governors and one vice governor from Japan were in attendance along with dignitaries from California.

The goal of the Symposium was to create an opportunity for leaders from Silicon Valley and Japan to come together, reinforce relationships, consider new ways of thinking, initiate dialogue, and catalyze outcomes that benefit both the United States and Japan. USJC President Irene Hirano, California State Lieutenant Governor Kounalakis, and Ambassador Roos set the context for the Symposium by highlighting the interdependence of Japan and California broadly—and Silicon Valley specifically—historically, economically, and socially.

The Symposium featured one panel and two sessions. First, Stanford Emeritus Professor, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center Co-Founder, and Co-Chair of the SVJP Executive Committee Dr. Daniel Okimoto moderated a panel that featured the governors and the vice governor sharing some of the challenges and opportunities in their prefectures with a special focus on their prefectures’ relationship with Silicon Valley and institutions of higher learning like Stanford. Second, SPICE Director Dr. Gary Mukai moderated an education-focused session that explored issues at the intersection of education and global citizenship. SKY LABO Co-Founder Dr. Rie Kijima and SKY LABO Co-Founder and SPICE Instructor Dr. Mariko Yoshihara Yang spoke about their work in fostering the next generation of innovative human resources in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) education with special attention to girls’ and women’s education. They were followed by Governors Hirose, Ibaragi, and Yuzaki, who shared education-related priorities and concerns in their prefectures, e.g., declining school enrollment especially in rural areas, low numbers of Japanese students choosing to study abroad, and empowering Japanese students with global points of view. Third, Dr. Devang Thakor moderated a healthcare-focused session. Stanford Associate Professor Phillip Yang, a cardiologist, and Dr. Caleb Bell, G4S Capital and Ikigai Accelerator, shared comments on the application of AI and machine learning to medical diagnosis and treatment. Also in the session, Governor Kawakatsu and Vice Governor Ota shared reflections on health-related topics such as aging societies, the rising cost of healthcare, and prevention and wellness.

In his closing comments, Okimoto noted that he hopes to convene another symposium with the governors from Japan in three to five years. The goal of the symposium would be to share and discuss the progress that has been made since last month’s gathering.

Over the next three to five years, SPICE plans to do its part—in at least five areas—in terms of building upon the discussion from the education-focused session. First, later this month, Mukai will be offering the first class of Stanford e-Oita, an online class on U.S. society and culture that SPICE will offer to high school students in Oita this fall. Second, Rylan Sekiguchi, Instructor of Stanford e-Hiroshima, will begin instruction from this fall of an online class on U.S. society and culture that SPICE will offer to high school students in Hiroshima. Third, Yang will be visiting Hiroshima in November to meet Governor Yuzaki as well as to offer the final class of the Stanford-Hiroshima Collaboration Program, which will be offered to MBA students at the Prefectural University of Hiroshima and other universities also from this fall. Fourth, SPICE will continue to assist Okayama Prefecture and Shizuoka Prefecture on their educational efforts in areas like sister city school programs and engaging their students in Stanford e-Japan, a national online class that SPICE offers to high school students throughout Japan. Stanford e-Japan is taught by Waka Takahashi Brown and Meiko Kotani. Fifth, SVJP Executive Director Kenta Takamori and Mukai recently shared reflections on the Symposium and their work with the prefectures on NBC Bay Area. They hope to continue to inform the broader Silicon Valley community of the outcomes of the Symposium.

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Related articles:

• Announcing Stanford e-Oita, a New Online Course for High School Students in Oita Prefecture, Japan
• Stanford e-Hiroshima, SPICE’s Newest Online Course for High School Students: Sharing Cranes Across the Pacific

“Super Science High School” (SSH) and “Super Global High School” (SGH) are designations awarded by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) to upper secondary schools that prioritize science, technology, and mathematics (SSH) and global studies (SGH). Since 2015, SPICE has offered the “SPICE/Stanford e-Course on Global Health” to students of Takatsuki Jr. and Sr. High School, one of the few schools in Japan with both designations. This distance-learning course provides students with a broad overview of the importance of global health with a special focus on pioneering examples of international work conducted by researchers at Stanford University.

On July 30, Tsuyoshi Kudo, Principal of Takatsuki Jr. and Sr. High School, visited Stanford University and met with Sabrina Ishimatsu, instructor of the course, and SPICE Director Gary Mukai. The course underscores the importance that Principal Kudo has placed upon both science and global studies at Takatsuki High School. Many Stanford scholars—including Scott Rozelle, PhD, and Karen Eggleston, PhD (Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies); Phillip Yang, MD, and Paul Wise, MD (School of Medicine); and Fumiaki Ikeno, MD (Stanford Biodesign)—introduce their research to the students and engage them in discussions. “As Takatsuki High School makes its primary aim to nurture future global leaders who have a profound awareness of the significance of global health,” commented Kudo, “a series of online lectures by top-notch global health researchers in a world-class institution is an invaluable boon to the students.”

Takatsuki students (with Ishimatsu and Mukai projected on screen)

In the first three years of the course, Stanford scholars have opened the eyes of students at Takatsuki High School to a broad range of research topics. Ishimatsu commented, “I am honored to work with Principal Kudo on the cultivation of a new generation of global leaders in the area of health.”

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Thirty sophomores and juniors in Osaka, Japan, recently completed the inaugural Stanford e-Course on Global Health for Takatsuki Senior High School. The course, jointly developed and offered by the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE) and Takatsuki Senior High School, provided students with a broad overview of the importance of global health with a special focus on a few pioneering examples of international work conducted by researchers at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University and the Stanford University School of Medicine. The course provided students of Takatsuki High’s Global Advanced Course with unique opportunities to interact with top global health researchers including the following: Scott Rozelle, PhD, the Helen F. Farnsworth Senior Fellow at FSI and Co-director of the Rural Education Action Program; Kathryn M. McDonald, MM, Executive Director of the Center for Health Policy and the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research at Stanford (CHP/PCOR); Phillip C. Yang, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine); C. Jason Wang, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics; Nomita Divi, Project Manager of the Stanford India Health Policy Initiative; and Karen Eggleston, PhD, Director of the Asia Health Policy Program, and Center Fellow at CHP/PCOR.

From September 2015 to February 2016, the students participated in eight web-based lectures, or “virtual classes,” in English and had the opportunity to engage the guest lecturers in question and answer sessions. The virtual classes covered a variety of topics ranging from stem cell research to building a health care system from scratch. The students completed reading and homework assignments for each topic.

“Teaching this course, I felt the students were given the unique experience to practice and improve their English language abilities in the context of global health and they rose to the challenge. And the guest lecturers were excellent role models to my students,” commented course instructor Sabrina Ishimatsu. “They provided non-Japanese perspectives on global health that may have a strong influence on students aspiring to attend medical school or to pursue their studies in other health-related fields.”

The course’s distinct mix of content with cross-cultural and linguistic aspects was also appreciated by Tsuyoshi Kudo, Takatsuki’s Vice Principal. “Through this course the students learned it is possible and it is enjoyable to learn something new in English,” he said. “I think education at school is to help students realize their potential. In this sense, I feel very pleased that SPICE/Stanford and Takatsuki were able to offer this great course.”

Following his talk on stem cell research, guest lecturer Phillip C. Yang, MD, said, “I truly enjoyed the online experience with the students, and they were very intelligent, inquisitive, and conscientious. During the Q&A their questions were very insightful and relevant. I appreciate the opportunity to experience this unique teaching method.”

The primary aim of the course was to nurture future global leaders who have a profound awareness of the significance of global health. Students who successfully completed the course earned a Certificate of Completion from SPICE, Stanford University.

For more information, please email Sabrina Ishimatsu, course instructor, at sishi@stanford.edu.

Epidemic infectious diseases have shaped many aspects of ancient and modern history. In an interdependent world, well-known pathogens and new, emerging infectious diseases continue to pose a global threat. At the same time, the biomedical and social sciences have been making incredible progress in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of communicable diseases.

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Recent events highlight the importance of emerging infectious agents, including HIV/AIDS in the early 1980s, the introduction of West-Nile Virus in the western hemisphere in the late 1990s, and SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in 2003, and draw attention to the role of increased travel and global connections in facilitating the rapid spread of infectious diseases.

HIV/AIDS is now the world’s greatest pandemic. It has claimed more lives than the Black Plague of the 14th century. With an estimated 16,000 new infections daily, more than 40 million people worldwide are infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). More than seven out of 10 of the world’s HIV-infected people live in sub-Saharan Africa. The impact of HIV/AIDS on local economies, its potential to contribute to regional instability due to loss of human life, and the moral imperative to address the pandemic has brought prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS to the forefront. Increasingly, it is clear that a multidisciplinary team approach including social scientists, behavioral specialists, clinicians, researchers, and policymakers is essential to address this global pandemic.

Advances in epidemiology, molecular diagnostics, bio-informatics, and genomics have enriched our understanding of ancient and emerging pathogens and offer new avenues for addressing infectious diseases. Vaccines, pharmaceuticals, and new paradigms of public health have increased our ability to control and even eradicate infectious agents. The control of many formerly common childhood diseases has been effectively achieved through the development of vaccines. Smallpox and measles provide examples of diseases that have been eradicated by the culmination of modern innovative public health approaches and widespread vaccination. In the news today, the potential for a viral antigenic shift resulting in a more transmissible form of the deadly H5N1 influenza virus has led to extensive media coverage and disaster planning at local, state, and federal levels of government, as well as international public health bodies.

Teachers and students need a strong foundation in the biologic and social sciences to place these events and responses in context and to allow transfer of vital information and understanding to the community at large. There have been few initiatives to provide high school teachers with accurate, up-to-date knowledge on infectious diseases. U.S. high school students continue to be exposed to global infectious diseases through sensationalized media coverage including popular films and television.

We have been developing a high school curriculum unit with Stanford students Robin Lee, Michelle Silver, Piya Sorcar, and Jessica Zhang and Gary Mukai of SPICE to allow teachers and students to place news concerning infectious diseases in perspective; appreciate diverse social and economic responses to infectious diseases; and understand infectious diseases in the context of a global, interdependent world. The curriculum will also encourage students to consider issues related to epidemic and pandemic infectious diseases and their own personal risk.

The proposed five-module unit is as follows, with the first module having been completed this summer:

I: Introduction to Virology and Infectious Diseases

II: The Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in the United States and around the World

III: Science, Economics, and Business in Infectious Diseases

IV: Local and International Politics and Policy in Infectious Diseases

V: Community and Personal Health