IDEO.org Fellow Danny Alexander breaks down our newest IDEO.org project and explains why he's been spending a lot of time on college campuses over the last few weeks. 

In the United States, one in three sexually active teenage girls becomes pregnant. One in four teenagers smokes cigarettes. This stat is the same for binge drinking. That teenagers are exposed to risky behavior is nothing new, but with recent public school budget cuts, comprehensive health courses and health education professional positions are being eliminated, leaving teenagers unprepared to make informed, healthy decisions that protect their bodies and their futures.

Enter Public Health Exchange (PHE), and their 1500+ volunteers.

Founded in 2003, PHE’s mission is to ensure that all students have the knowledge and skills they need to make healthy decisions. By training college volunteers to teach comprehensive health programs in under-resourced high schools, PHE has been able to support thousands of high school students every year, and they’re growing rapidly.

In anticipation of continued growth, IDEO.org has partnered with PHE to reimagine the volunteer experience with an end goal of improving the quality and accessibility of health education for high school students. Our IDEO.org team has spent the first few weeks of the project talking with PHE staff and with PHE's college student volunteers. We've also been speaking with high-school students and various experts from the world at large for inspiration and insights into how we might make the PHE experience truly transformative for volunteer and student alike.

In true IDEO.org fashion, we’re moving (really) rapidly. A week into the project, we’ve set up interviews with teens, sports coaches, and health and education experts. And we’ve been hanging out on college campuses to understand the student experience. Note: there’s no better way to feel old than trying to blend in during orientation week at colleges. Trust me on this!

There’s lot’s of learning left to do, but we’re already full of inspiration. We have a wall full of ideas at the IDEO.org studio, and we’re still a couple weeks away from the official concepting phase. Inspiration is easy to come across when working with people as passionate as PHE volunteers, so we’re eager to return the favor by making their experience even more rewarding and with even more impact.

Our IDEO.org team is John Won, Molly Norris and me, Danny Alexander.