Below are a few quick guides to get you up and running in Zoom. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact our Tech Guru’s for the event. info@mirafellowship.org
During her fellowship year Heather engaged military veterans to figure out how to prevent veteran suicide and increase their own sense of belonging after service. Together they co-designed several new solutions that are being used today. Heather believes that those who are rarely asked are our greatest design resource. They know the problems because they live them. By activating communities of lived experts to address the problems they care most about, we can solve big issues and build stronger communities.
Through her organization, Atoma, Heather is building a world where activating the knowledge, skills and expertise of all of us improves our individual lives and brings together communities to solve the hardest problems our societies face.
During her fellowship year Jill explored roadmaps to help veterans transition into a life of meaning and purpose outside of military service. Through her own experiences, Jill discovered that being a veteran is an art, and like any creative masterpiece, is often as traumatic as it is transformative.
She is currently writing a book that will guide veterans to new definitions of concepts like courage, belonging and life purpose. Armed with this knowledge, Jill believes that vets can not only shorten their transitional learning curve, but also allow us as a society to build a strong and steady pipeline of diverse, compassionate individuals who can lead us into the future.
During his fellowship year Kevin began building Superorganism, a new venture firm dedicated to businesses that benefit biodiversity. As one of the first venture firms to center these kinds of world-positive companies, Superorganism is building a community that spans conservation and entrepreneurship, to marry the expertise, values, and networks of ecologists with the speed and scale of startups--all in service of a world where humans and nature alike can thrive.
During his fellowship year Seanan created the SF Public Chapel, a place to pause for everyone. In our increasingly secular society, we don’t have clear, common places to turn in times of heartache or loss or celebration – which leaves our communities fragmented and individuals lonely. As a response to this need, the SF Public Chapel is a place where anyone can come to mourn, celebrate, and otherwise honor the human experience in a shared container. Today, the SF Public Chapel is a pop-up space in public parks providing a set-up for reflection and ritual, as well as facilitated events for structured contemplation. Seanan imagines a world where people in every neighborhood can celebrate, mourn, and honor their human journey together, no matter who they are or what they believe.
During his fellowship year Torran created and tested new games that support community building. Germination Games are designed to activate players to solve wicked real world problems in new ways. Current projects for Germination Games include a Story Grow Card Game, to explore challenging environmental situations through collaborative storytelling, and a deck of community engagement cards, where participants pull cards that give them prompts to engage with their community. Germination Games encourage participants to create new possible futures instead of being stuck in despair.
Sudarshan has been developing the curriculum of the Tiny Monkey Stage programme to help children grow up to be confident, emotionally intelligent and creatively prolific. With almost 50 in person events conducted in 2023 and over 200+ hours of virtual coaching, Sudarshan has developed frameworks for contemplation and storytelling that could be used by children anywhere in the world.
For the past year, Tanya has been exploring how to ensure that a diverse set of voices, with a particular focus on women, are brought to environmental decision making tables. While everyone agrees that we need all members of society contributing to solve our environmental crises, why do we still struggle with how to listen equally. The Charter has begun to lay out the ground work to ensure this respectful listening is done thoughtfully and consistently, while creating a community of practice of like minded organizations who are dedicated to thinking differently about not only just who we invite but how we create space for everyone to be heard in decision making processes. Tanya imagines a future where no voice is too small to contribute a solution.
In the past year, Solomon has been building a Water-Energy-Climate security startup (geothara.com) which has grown from 1 to 3 full-timers plus a dozen part-time interns. Through the Mira Fellowship, Solomon has been conducting design jams for product/concept/user profile development, customer discovery exercises and even conducted a cross country road trip to first-hand witness American water infrastructure projects and their history, issues and problems to imagine ground-up solutions.
Melanie imagines a world where the process of designing together is as transformative as the product. During her basecamp year, she was a student of transformation, understanding what designers and facilitators might miss when it comes to holding people creatively through times of transition. She’s begun blending existing models with concepts from the the world of somatics, developmental psychology, and relational community development—to create a model for Holding Possibility.
This work is emergent and experiential. After immersing in the liminal world of summer camp and conversations with doulas, hospice chaplains, clowns, middle school teachers, and psychedelic guides, she is actively exploring partnership models for a pilot exchange program with design and change leaders. In the meantime, she is piloting a transformation workshop and telling stories collected from the year.
The 2020s will be the decade of holding— crisis, change, and collective imagination. Here’s to holding each other into new possibilities.
For the past year, Aideé has been driving the growth of SuperVive Comunidad, which started as a pilot in April 2022. SuperVive Comunidad is an app where Hispanics can access culturally relevant wellness education and, most importantly, build social capital. The power of community is crucial for achieving health and wellness goals. SuperVive Comunidad currently has 550+ members, 83% in the United States and 17% outside the country. Members can find information through live classes, podcast episodes, group coaching, healthy recipes, wellness challenges, expert capsules, wellness videos, a virtual gym, and a meditation center. This is accessible through freemium and premium memberships that invite everyone to enjoy the benefits of building a healthier, happier, and more resilient community.
