Harvard-Westlake Community Design Studio
Pioneering Collective-Minded Education on the West Coast
The New Community Project
Chidi Asoluka, Founder & CEO
The Problem We All Feel
Even at elite schools like Harvard-Westlake, students are asking these questions.
The honest answer our system gives them:
"For your success. For your career. For winning the next game."
That's not enough.
Education Has Become a Game
Where the win is Stanford or Harvard
The Result: Incredibly talented students who see education as a ladder for individual climbing, not a toolkit for collective building.
They inherit failing systems (climate crisis, deepening inequality, institutional breakdown) but don't feel equipped to transform them.
Because they've been trained to navigate systems, not redesign them.
What Is a Community Design Studio?
❌ NOT This
Service learning where Harvard-Westlake students "help" less fortunate communities
Students leading charity projects
One more college application line item
✓ But This
Infrastructure for collective-minded building where students from all backgrounds learn together
Leadership flows to those most proximate to challenges
Education connected to community restoration
Three Things Transform
1. Your Infrastructure Opens
Campus, networks, resources become accessible to students from partner public/charter schools in South LA and surrounding communities
2. Your Students' Role Shifts
They support community-led projects. They learn to follow proximate leadership from students with lived experience in the communities being served.
3. Success Gets Redefined
Not just "Did they get into Stanford?" but "Do they leverage education for collective thriving?"
Note: We develop strategic partnerships with specific public/charter schools in close proximity to Harvard-Westlake, and students from those partner schools "join" your Community Design Studio.
Democratizing Three Forms of Capital
Networks, connections, mentorship democratized through Supper Clubs, Industry Studios, authentic collaboration
Institutional wealth funding community transformation through $10K Fellow projects and paid consulting opportunities
Elite campus infrastructure—libraries, labs, meeting spaces—opened as community design studio where all students build together
What Students Actually Experience
Community Leadership Fellows
Students with lived experience in communities we're serving (South LA, etc.)—whether they attend Harvard-Westlake or partner public/charter schools
- Lead $10,000 community projects with full decision-making authority
- Serve as paid consultants to organizations ($1,500-$3,000)
- Access Harvard-Westlake infrastructure as tools for their work
- Design community interventions using professional research and budgets
Harvard-Westlake Engaged Members
Students who don't have proximate experience in the communities being served
- Join professional committees supporting Fellow-led projects
- Learn to follow proximate leadership while contributing skills
- Participate in Supper Clubs with industry leaders
- Gain authentic cross-cultural collaboration experience
Example: How This Works in Practice
Community Health & Safety Project
Community Sponsor (hospital, foundation, city agency): Poses a complex challenge facing a specific LA community—perhaps around youth mental health access, neighborhood safety and design, or health equity.
The Fellows (collectively): Research the challenge, develop multiple hypotheses for addressing it, debate approaches, and collectively decide which intervention to pursue with the $10K budget. They design, implement, and evaluate the project.
Harvard-Westlake Engaged Members: Support Fellows' chosen approach—contributing research, data analysis, communications support—but Fellows make all final decisions about project direction and implementation.
What Your Student Learns: "I'm using my education to support the Fellows' project addressing this community challenge. I'm learning that my skills are tools for collective impact, not just individual advancement."
What Harvard-Westlake Gains
For Your Students
- Purpose beyond competition: Education connected to solving real challenges, not just college game
- Skills money can't buy: Cross-cultural collaboration, following proximate leadership, leveraging privilege for impact
- Differentiation: Documented experience building WITH communities for college applications
For Your School
- Mission alignment: "Developing ethical leaders" becomes concrete practice, not just aspiration
- Competitive edge: First West Coast Community Design Studio—national pioneer
- Cultural transformation: From individualistic competition to collective-minded building
What Success Looks Like: 3-Year Vision
Year 1: Launch
- 10-12 Fellows from LA communities
- 20-30 H-W Engaged Members
- Ecosystem building: cultivate partner schools & community project sponsors
- High satisfaction
Year 2: Integration
- Monthly Supper Clubs launch
- Public identity as Design Studio
- Curriculum integration
- West Coast schools interested
Year 3: Model Proof
- Differentiated college outcomes
- Documented community impact
- Culture shift visible
- National recognition
The Ultimate Success Metric
"Why are you learning chemistry?"
Old Answer
"To get into Stanford."
New Answer
"Because I'm using it right now to address environmental justice in Watts—building with the community, not waiting until I graduate. I'm learning that my education is a toolkit for collective thriving."
The Investment
Founding West Coast Partner: $100,000 annually
What This Funds
- Fellow stipends and project budgets ($10K per project)
- Comprehensive programming (Supper Clubs, Design Studios, Industry Studios)
- Dedicated staff support and year-round coordination
- Technical assistance for institutional transformation
- National visibility and marketing as pioneer school
What You Receive
- Exclusive West Coast founding partner status
- National platform and recognition
- Transformative educational model other schools will replicate
- Network effects from elite school consortium
- Ongoing partnership with NewComm leadership
This isn't purchasing a program—it's investing in becoming foundational infrastructure for a national movement.
Why This Moment Matters
Independent schools are uniquely positioned to answer a question parents, students, and society are all asking:
Harvard-Westlake has an opportunity to lead this conversation—showing that concentrated resources and networks can be infrastructure for building collective thriving, not just pathways for individual advancement.
This is the future of independent school education—and you can define it for the West Coast.
The Ask
Not another elite prep school with a service requirement.
But the first West Coast Community Design Studio—infrastructure for cultivating collective-minded builders who will transform systems, not just succeed within them.
Your students gain purpose beyond competition
Your school differentiates itself nationally
Your capital gets democratized
Our country gets citizens who see success as tethered to collective thriving
Will You Join Us?
Harvard-Westlake has the resources, the mission, the students, and the potential to pioneer this on the West Coast.
We're building new communities where education serves restoration, not just individual advancement.
Let's discuss next steps.