Students will engage directly with internship hosts to uncover authentic employer expectations in the hiring process. Through structured interviews and empathy mapping, they will surface assumptions about resumes, cover letters, and interviews, and ground their understanding in real user evidence that will inform later problem definition and prototype development.

Students will synthesize internship host interview data and empathy artifacts to define a focused, evidence-based problem statement that guides their job acquisition design work. They will identify patterns across users, reframe assumptions, and produce a clear How Might We statement grounded in real employer needs.

Students will generate a wide range of innovative solutions to their defined employer-centered problem, evaluate ideas against authentic user needs from internship hosts, and produce annotated concept sketches that clearly show how their proposed solution improves candidate readiness and job acquisition outcomes.

Students will build and refine low- to higher-fidelity prototypes of their workforce readiness solutions and interview simulations, test them with authentic users, and document how feedback drives meaningful iteration.

Students will conduct a final validation test of their workforce readiness prototype with a new user, refine their Mock Career Fair Hiring Experience & Workforce Readiness Toolkit, and present their full human-centered design journey to internship hosts, counselors, and staff—tracing decisions from employer interviews through iteration and remaining growth areas.