Envisioning Honors Education as Complex Problem-Solving: A Human-Centered Design Approach for Global Challenges

Abstract

This article reimagines honors education as a catalyst for change by embedding human-centered design and interdisciplinary problem-solving into undergraduate curricula. The authors describe curriculum that centers on local problem solving informed by both local and global issues and human-centered design models and methods. These curricula emphasize empathy, stakeholder engagement, and iterative prototyping to help students tackle wicked problems such as food insecurity, housing inequity, climate resilience, and overall sustainability. We contextualize these examples both within European frameworks, including the Global Design Thinking Alliance and the Kyoto Design Declaration, highlighting cultural sustainability and cross-national collaboration, and within our own local communities and the strategic initiatives and visioning found there. Based on internal assessment data and qualitative feedback, we find that participants gain transferable skills in empathy, critical thinking, and civic leadership. The article concludes with a call for expanded collaboration to adapt these pedagogical strategies across global honors contexts.