Grand Rapids — Students at Southwest Middle High School – Academia Bilingüe have come up with new ways to improve social connections and inspire belonging at their school for the 2025-2026 West Michigan Design Prize.
Teams of three to six students from both middle and high school brainstormed project proposals for the design competition, which was developed by the Greater West Michigan MiSTEM Region and Ferris State University’s Kendall College of Art and Design (KCAD), in partnership with Kent, Muskegon and Ottawa Area ISDs.
Since the challenge kicked off in September, the students have explored possible solutions to the question, “How might we improve social connections within our school to support wellbeing and a sense of belonging?” They also met with community and industry professionals to gather feedback on their design ideas.
Earlier this month, six teams pitched their ideas to a panel of four jurors — professionals representing Filter Studio, KCAD and Common Object Studio. The jurors determined that all six groups from Southwest would advance to the final competition on Feb. 27.
One middle-school team saw their school’s library as a potential location to improve student engagement with each other and books. They pitched something called a Book Recommender kiosk as a way to encourage students to try new books, write honest reviews and connect with their peers based on shared interests.
“The Book Recommender is for everyone who comes to the library,” seventh-grader Iker Guzman-Reyes said. “We hope that it will bring (students) together.”
The team paired a large touch screen with their companion app prototype, which showed the jurors how writing reviews and recommendations of books could connect students digitally and in-person.
Iker explained that finding a book he likes in the library is sometimes a challenge. With a digital collection of peer reviews synced with the school’s library catalog, he and his fellow students could discover more titles to enjoy.
“We tried to make it look cool so that other people who are younger think it looks cool and actually want to see what it does,” seventh-grade Amaury Serrano said about the Book Recommender, which was inspired by arcade games.
Juror Fernando Ramirez, owner of Common Object Studio, said the group “thought through the digital aspects of the idea beautifully.”
Other teams presented ideas to strengthen social connection through outdoor table spaces, community chalk boards for positive messages, and game tables in the cafeteria.
Designing a Future of Possibilities
Last year, the regional pilot program — inspired by the state-wide Michigan Design Prize — provided 100 fourth- through eighth-grade students from Kent, Muskegon, and Ottawa counties the opportunity to collaboratively develop solutions to a design prompt, with guidance from industry mentors.
MiSTEM Network’s Regional Director Ginger Rohwer said this year, there were more than 250 students participating. The program also expanded to include high school teams.
“Empowering students is what I am most excited about,” Rohwer said. “This competition centers students as problem-solvers and innovators and grows their awareness of career pathways here in West Michigan.”
By taking part in the competition, middle- and high-schoolers experience the full design cycle from start to finish and work with industry professionals, who engage with them and take their ideas seriously.
Southwest science and STEM teacher Emily Hollingsworth said the West Michigan Design Prize has been an “incredible opportunity” for her students to “practice a wide variety of skills in an authentic, real-world context.”
“The process can be long and challenging at times, but that is what makes it so valuable,” she said. “They see their thoughts and ideas validated and can begin to imagine themselves as tomorrow’s problem-solvers.”
Starting in January, the remaining 20 teams from the three ISDs, including the six from Southwest, will work with local college students to refine their designs.
At the final competition in February, they will present a five-minute pitch to a panel of judges, who will choose the first, second and third place teams to receive Olympic-style medals, designed and produced by students in a mechanical and architectural design class at Grand Rapids Community College.
Read more from Grand Rapids:
•Bringing comfort to students impacted by immigration crackdown
•High school participating in national initiative to rethink secondary education
