Community members and students shuffled through snowy downtown streets to the Intro to Design Thinking’s capstone event, hosted at CELEB, Beloit College’s Center for Entrepreneurship. Brett Gabrielatos, the course’s instructor, prepared a business casual atmosphere, tugging desk chairs and gigantic couches into place, checking technology, and posting the order of the night’s presentations. She naturally transitioned into greeting students and guests, pausing to nibble on upscale appetizers with participants.

Gabrielatos, who has a masters in human-centered product design and development and a background in business innovation strategies, imagined the course in conversation with Brian Morello, director of CELEB. The two believe in the impact of design thinking’s problem solving approach – how to ask questions, navigate ambiguous circumstances, and solve “wicked problems” – for college students. This was Gabrielatos’ second semester teaching the course. Last fall, she and Morello developed an interactive session for faculty and staff to introduce them to the design thinking process and ways in which students describe its value.

“Brett brings so much real world experience,” says Hitali Kothari ’26. “Working on real issues in the Beloit community made the work feel meaningful, and I liked seeing how our ideas could turn into something useful. You get to tackle real challenges, think in clearer ways, and build simple tools that actually help outside the classroom.”

In the Intro to Design Thinking Innovation class, students learned fundamentals, practiced what they learned through in-class activities, and social innovation projects. Students worked on teams with community partners that included the Beloit Chamber of Commerce, the Hendricks Family Foundation, and the Beloit Public Library.

Teams used an iterative process first to define the ‘right’ problem, and then to identify solutions which consisted of multiple prototypes based on customer feedback. Wicked problems, by definition, are complex issues characterized by conflicting factors, multiple stakeholders, and unclear definitions and solutions. During the capstone presentations at CELEB, each group told their learning story: how they embodied design thinking, empathized with users, and developed prototypes using key insights from their data.

Gabrielatos notes that elements of design thinking are increasingly in demand, specifically empathy in leadership. She stressed that trends and excitement are not the same as skill development, which is why coursework that includes theory and practice, is so important. Beloit College’s School of Business innovates interdisciplinary course instruction that reaches students across major areas of study through relationships with experienced professionals. “Design thinking will make you better because you know how to solve problems differently,” says Gabrielatos.

From left to right: Bailey Darneal ’27, Yaa Boatemaa Akosa ’27, Julia Kennedy ’28, and Kateri Zitzelsberger ’25 at the Beloit Public Library conducting research interviews.

Jeff Adams, president of Beloit Public Library Foundation board and Beloit College professor emeritus of economics, agrees about the impact of design thinking. “[The students] helped BPL to plan for a 5-year evaluation program (to be carried out by Belmark Associates) with unique capacities for both determining effectiveness and to assist staff with program development. Discovery Play(ce) is of vital importance to Beloit’s future. The team’s research and presentation on how to evaluate DP effectiveness was simply wonderful. ”

Gabrielatos used design thinking to build her course on design thinking. She enjoys sharing that process with her students and clients.

“Even a not-so-great experience is a learning experience for me. I am doing research and iterating the syllabus based on what I observe and hear,” she says. “The first semester provided so much data to improve and change. It’s an exciting process.”

At the capstone event, Gabrielatos stepped to the microphone to explain the purpose of design thinking for the students and the community to the local stakeholders in attendance.

“This course mimics challenges found in professional life, equipping students with empathetic and creative problem solving skills, tools so that they can sit back and think, ‘let me approach this differently,’” said Gabrielatos. “It’s an imagination skill.”

Stepping back, she demonstrated design thinking’s key roles she held throughout the course: observer, facilitator, question-asker, a thought-partner, and cheerleader, for her students.

The evening would end like every other week of the semester, with Gabrielatos following in her students’ footsteps down the sidewalk. She would return to the day-to-day management of her boutique consulting firm that spans both coasts, using design thinking to analyze how her path to a small liberal arts college might provide insight for the next project not imagined, yet.