Shad Canada is a program to prepare high-aptitude students for taking on social and economic challenges. The month-long Summer program includes a real-world design challenge that asks students to work on issues such as food security, water management, and waste. In normal times Shad delivers a highly effective program designed around an in-person experience.

Shad came to us in the midst of a pandemic looking for help creating an effective program within a virtual environment. We worked closely with Shad to understand the network of information they need to create diverse teams of students and facilitators having enough similarity, and difference, among them to lead to projects that support the program’s goals.

Facilitators and students were able to adapt to new circumstances throughout the summer similar to the in-person program. Facilitators were able to assemble project teams that took student preferences and demographics into account. Facilitators could check-in with teams throughout the summer with integrated surveys and students could showcase their projects outputs at the end of the summer. Shad decided to use Exaptive software again for their 2021 Summer program.