The Center for Digital Thriving’s Fellowship program exists to help amplify efforts that support young people to thrive in a tech-filled world — particularly through projects that amplify teens’ voices and experiences. We support innovative researchers, educators, podcasters, artists, and practitioners whose work is shaping a future where young people thrive, however technology fits into their lives.
Our inaugural fellows cohort is carrying out an inspiring set of projects, including:
- Partnering with youth to redress negative impacts of school monitoring software and surveillance technologies and design healthy, youth-centered digital ecosystems
- Building an app that promote positive digital habits, agency, self-awareness, and resilience
- Developing frameworks for tech product and platform design aimed at youth well-being
- Curating a youth podcast series focused on digital thriving and the qualities of digital havens
We’re so grateful to support our new fellows — the awesome people who are leading these projects — and we can’t wait to share their work with you as it unfolds!
MEET oUR 2024 FeLLOWS
Alija Blackwell
they/them
Alija Blackwell is a futurist and creative technologist. As the Principal Foresight Strategist at the Oneiric Lab, Blackwell’s work maps historical patterns and emerging trends at the intersections of technology, climate, and transformative justice to anticipate pathways to equitable futures.
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Most recently, Blackwell has served as a strategist for U.S. and international NGOs, academic and cultural institutions to guide the implementation of long-term operational plans through policy innovation and multimedia narrative strategies to advance social change. Blackwell has led participatory research on youth digital rights using game design and multimedia policy toolkits to combat misinformation and advance youth digital agency. In the past, Blackwell has facilitated speculative design workshops and cybersecurity scenario planning initiatives on global digital governance, human rights, and climate migrations. For their efforts, Blackwell has received honors and awards from the Institute for the Future, UNESCO, U.S. Department of Education, New America, The Aspen Institute, 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics, among other institutions. In their creative practice, they enjoy circus arts and speculative fiction.
Youth Affirming Systems (YAS!) is a speculative platform powered by the imaginations of systems-impacted youth that offers a repository of tools, policies, and practices that school officials, youth-serving organizations, policymakers, and technologists can draw inspiration from to co-create healthy, youth-centered digital ecosystems. Through a series of speculative design workshops rooted in Black and Indigenous futurities, this initiative will:
- foster awareness about school monitoring and surveillance technologies
- develop a critical optimism about tech through the lens of youth agency and digital rights
- build the public imagination for youth-centered tools and solutions that foster well-being by redressing the impacts of school monitoring software and surveillance technologies.
Adrienne
Joe
she/her
Adrienne Joe is a fellow at the Center for Digital Thriving. She is currently a Lead Technologist at Booz Allen Hamilton, where she builds and deploys AI and machine learning-based decision support tools for the Pentagon’s Chief Digital AI Office (CDAO).
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Through the fellowship, Adrienne is developing a Generative AI tool designed to help young people identify their core values and provide real-time guidance for restructuring negative thoughts into positive actions online. Leaning on her background as a user experience strategist, she is conducting UX research to inform the tool’s development and establish its effectiveness. Adrienne’s work explores the intersection of philosophy and technology, highlighting the nuanced ways in which our values affect tech use. By using Generative AI to promote positive digital habits, she aims to help youth develop greater agency, self-awareness, and resilience in their digital lives.
Adrienne holds a BA with Honors in Economics and Public Health from Williams College. She currently resides in Washington DC, where she enjoys playing tennis, biking around the city, and discovering the best Mediterranean restaurants.
Molly
Josephs
she/her
Molly Josephs is an educator who runs the youth dialogue and podcasting program, This Teenage Life (TTL). She started TTL with teens while working at High Tech High, inspired by many summers in cross-conflict dialogue at Seeds of Peace camp.
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For her CDT Fellowship project, Molly will be producing a podcast series with teens from around the U.S. and the globe. Through storytelling, they will explore their experiences with social technologies, investigate the nature of digital thriving, and surface the qualities of digital havens.
The goal of this series and related resources is to create conditions for more youth-driven communities where young people use technology to authentically connect across differences through dialogue and creative expression.
Molly currently teaches middle and high school computer science and biology in New York City. She studied ecology and evolutionary biology at Brown University, and received her master’s degree in school design and leadership at Harvard.
Chrystal Koech
she/her
Chrystal Koech is the Senior Director of Digital Operations and Strategy at Facing History and Ourselves. She is a proud alumna of the Harvard Graduate School of Education with a Master’s in Education—Technology, Innovation, and Education and a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from Tufts University.
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She combines academic rigor with hands-on expertise, specializing in guiding non-profit organizations through digital operations, strategy, transformation, and change management.
With nearly a decade of experience, Chrystal designs operational solutions, creates meaningful digital experiences, and builds digital talent and culture. She leads a team of talented professionals who provide the organization with product management and support services. She has played a central role in launching a range of digital products, including reimagining Facing History & Ourselves’ traditionally in-person professional learning and redesigning FacingHistory.org.
Currently, as a fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Center for Digital Thriving, she is developing a comprehensive framework to help make sure that digital products and platforms are designed to support the digital well-being of young people. This initiative underscores her commitment to creating equitable, inclusive digital experiences that empower all learners.