C-SED Graduate Facilitator Program

The Center for Socially Engaged Engineering & Design (C-SED) opens a once-a-year call for master’s and doctoral students to become graduate facilitators and facilitate workshops, in-class sessions, and lectures utilizing, customizing, and creating content for the C-SED library of educational resources.

The work itself focuses on the facilitation of content related to socially engaged design in curricular and co-curricular contexts, as well as working with C-SED staff, faculty, and other facilitators to update and develop new content. Facilitators in this role are part of the C-SED community and interact with other facilitators, students, staff, and faculty members who are developing new models and approaches to work in socially engaged design.

Learn more about graduate student experiences with teaching and facilitation skill development through C-SED’s Graduate Facilitator Program in this paper:
Cameratti-Baeza, C. G., & Michaels, C. (2025). Graduate student perceptions of teaching and facilitation skill development through a graduate facilitator program. In 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition. Read the paper ›

Characteristics of an ideal candidate

• A Bachelor’s Degree in any field
• Enrolled as a Master’s or Doctoral student in a design-related discipline
  • We believe any discipline could be understood through a design lens. Examples may include: engineering, architecture, art & design, education, information, business, anthropology, public health, social work, public policy
• A strong interest in design processes
• One or more relevant design experiences and/or can describe their experience and interests in terms of design 
  • Examples may include: designing products, services, social interventions, creative projects, curricula, web interfaces, etc., with a specific population, community, or client.
• Experience in facilitation, teaching, mentorship or leading a groups or teams
• Excellent communication skills including strong writing and interpersonal skills
• Availability to work at least 5 hours per week

Knowledge and experience gained in the facilitator role

• Socially engaged design practice, including design tools and sociotechnical case studies
• Facilitating workshops, and leading discussions in different learning environments
• Planning and implementing educational experiences
• Developing customized design content

The diverse groups that utilize C-SED’s services (including students + faculty from engineering, information, business, education, public health, and more) will provide facilitators with opportunities to develop a broad skill set in interpersonal communication, facilitation techniques and practices, and effective organization of learning activities. These skills can be applied to experiences in academia and beyond.