Month: August 2018

2018–19 Grant Proposal Now Available

The Jefferson Trust is excited to announce our new web-based grant proposal form is now available!  Visit our Apply page to learn more about the application process and view the form.

Also, make plans to attend our applicant information session on Wednesday, September 5th at 4 p.m. at Alumni Hall.

Proposal submission deadline is October 1, 2018.

With the start of the 2018–19 fiscal year, the Jefferson Trust is excited to welcome James Aldigé as our new Vice-Chair. Although new to the Trust, James has been an active alumnus since his graduation from the College in 2003. He is a member of the Alumni Association’s Board of Managers, sits on the reunion giving committees (additionally serving as his 15^th Reunion co-chair), participates in the Jefferson Scholars National Selection Committee and the Advisory Board for the UVA Licensing and Venture Group seed fund, is Co-chair of the David Magoon Jefferson Scholarship Initiative, and guest lectures at the Darden School of Business.

James considers his time at UVA impactful in helping to shape who he is today. “It gave me a chance to pursue a variety of interests, take on leadership roles, and make great friends. I believe in the mission of the University and its strong commitment to a campus-based undergraduate education and student self-governance.” As an undergraduate student, he was an Echols Scholar, lawn resident, a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, IMP Society, TILKA Society, 13 Society, and the Raven Society. Other involvements included Fourth Year Trustees, Inter-Fraternity Council community service chair, Big Sibling program director at Madison House, and Habitat for Humanity house coordinator.

After UVA, James went on to earn an MPhil in Economic History from Oxford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has worked in multiple capacities in the investment field, and currently is a Managing Partner of Clio Asset Management, an investment advisory firm based in Charlottesville. James is excited to be joining the Jefferson Trust.  “Having been a part of the Jefferson Scholar interview process for many years now, I always come away from those weekends with a renewed sense of optimism about our collective futures, based on the exceptional achievements and aspirations of the applicants. At the Trust, I am excited to see what talented students can achieve now that they are on Grounds and have the opportunity to put their ideas into action for the betterment of the community, and I look forward to playing a small role in that process.”

Words on Paper, a 2018 grant, is the brain child of Environmental Sciences Professor Deborah Lawrence. The concept involves undergraduate students studying the development of climate science history and climate policy history. With this knowledge, students create interactive art of key texts (“engagement experiments”) to share with the community on Grounds and eventually in Charlottesville high schools. Combining experiment with performance art, students will guide others through our country’s climate story, ultimately curating a series of art shows based on these shared experiences. The project has already started on Grounds, but funding from the Jefferson Trust will aide in taking the concept into area schools.

This past spring, tables were setup around Grounds asking people to participate in writing about the climate story, choosing from various prompts such as sharing a fact about the history of climate science, policy history, why they care about climate change, or how they are modifying their effect on climate change. Then, the class displayed these written responses in the Mural Room at Clark Hall, encouraging people to continue to add their thoughts on climate policy and change as the art was on display. Environmental Sciences Professor Scott Doney commented that the exhibit was “a good way of engaging people in an optimistic way and breaking down the polarizing debate that often surrounds discussions about climate change.”

The art installation was only the first step in this project according to Professor Lawrence. Next, the class took the pieces of paper from the exhibit in Clark and created art as a group project. “We’re going to show the potential impacts of climate change if action isn’t taken,” shared one student. Along with the art, the class participated in the Earth Week Expo, and the project will be taken off Grounds to work with area high schools to further share the climate story. “So far, we’ve touched 1,000 people, and we hope to go even further,” commented Professor Lawrence.

UVA’s Medical Design Program addresses the rapidly changing landscape of healthcare by teaching medical students design thinking as a framework for developing and leading new approaches to patient care throughout their careers.

“It’s more than a design course. You learn how to listen and what it means to truly empathize with a patient.”
—Dhruv Desai (SMD ’19)

Design thinking is a structured, team-based approach to problem solving and innovation that is widely taught, primarily in business schools. At UVA, the Medical Design Program offers first-year medical students the opportunity to use design thinking to improve patient care. Through a series of monthly hands-on ‘sprint-style’ design workshops and structured research experiences, students learn design-based approaches to clinically relevant skills like patient interviewing, synthesis of quantitative and qualitative research data, and use of prototypes to rapidly test and refine ideas in context of team-based healthcare environments. Students work directly with faculty physicians, patients, nursing, and other healthcare team members.

Since the 2015–16 academic year, teams of students have addressed topics such as: Preventing patient falls; Comfort in the Emergency Department waiting room; Transparency inpatient admissions; Reimagining the waiting room; Comfort and privacy for hallway bed patients; Empowering patients with information.  In addition to the impact on student learning, data gathered during these exercises has resulted in actions taken in patient-care and design concepts at the medical center.

The program has been highly successful and popular with students since inception, and interest continues to grow. In addition, course alumni join a growing community of medical designers at UVA. Throughout their time at the medical school, they can participate in special events on grounds and put their design training to work through summer experiences, ongoing involvement in the program as peer mentors and teaching assistants, fourth-year research electives, and work as physicians-in-training and emerging healthcare leaders.

UVA is one of only a handful of medical schools in the country offering this type of program, and is already emerging as a national leader in the concept of applying design thinking to medicine. The teaching team leading the initiative was invited to present at Stanford’s Medicine X conference in both 2016 and 2018. Jefferson Trust funding has allowed the program to get off the ground, and in 2017, additional funding was secured through the School of Medicine to develop open-access, online learning materials to bring design thinking education to a broader audience of UVA medical students as well as students and faculty at other medical schools. You can learn more about this fascinating program at uvamedical.design.