Social design
works with communities, organizations, governments, businesses, and the planet through:
Strengthening Relationships + Care
Advocating for health, access, ecologies, restoration, joy, and healing. Supporting shared values and interdependence while honoring nature’s wisdom.
Social Design asks good questions and deepens connections, with care.
Co-Creating Intentionally.
Collaborating with communities, advocating for mutual benefit, accountability, and abundance. Centering lived experience and responsibility, while reducing harm.
Social Design can shift power while building leadership and creatively responding.
Embracing Complexities
Breaking from things that no longer serve us. Recognizing the continuum and pluralities, and making the invisible visible.
Social Design supports new thinking over more things, to imagine possibilities and lead with vision.
APPLY NOW
MFA DSI Scholarships have increased!
Apply before January 15 Priority Deadline for earliest consideration
Good news! We are thrilled to announce that our Fall 2026 scholarship amounts have increased. Our Paul Polak and Equity in Design scholarships are now $28,000 each. These are two-year awards (distributed $14,000 per year) offered to two applicants who submit their applications before the January 15 Priority Deadlines. Read more about our scholarships and how to apply to MFA DSI.
THESIS
Check out: MFA DSI Thesis Show 2025 Videos available now
Through inspiring interventions, social issues, and partners, MFA DSI Class of 2025 designers find a common coexistence in future-building. Check out our graduates’ Thesis Show videos as they present their thesis projects.
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Pilar Finuccio (MFA DSI '18) leads the Center for Urban Pedagogy, CUP
Take a look inside CUP, the award-winning nonprofit dedicated to civic education and engagement, in an interview with Pilar Finuccio (MFA DSI ’18), CUP Executive Director, by Gregory Herbowy, SVA Communications.
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Susanti Vijaykumar (MFA DSI '25) receipient of 2025 Design Award
The Sapna Rannaghor Cookbook Project, co-designed in the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes at Sapna NYC centers cultural assets and native Bangla language skills using food and recipes to build English proficiency and community.
Thesis 2018
Thesis 2018
Moms Make Books
Pilar Finuccio (MFA DSI ’18)
Moms Make Books is a bookmaking workshop for mothers with children between the ages of 4 and 12 who want sexual health development to begin at home – and include the messages and values they want to impart to their children.