Emma Fitchner

My name is Emma Fitchner, and I’m in my second year at Lab51. When I think of something that breaks my heart in the world, the first thing that comes to mind is the downward spiral or substance abuse. My goal and passion is to help those who are struggling, whether that means changing just one life or many. In this term at One Stone, I had the opportunity to use the design thinking process to focus on helping with the treatment and prevention of substance abuse in our community. This is where I discovered this passion and my group is currently in the ideation process. Oftentimes, when people are not using empathy to help someone struggling with substance abuse, more harm is done than good. I chose to use a photograph of Rhodes skatepark for my artifact because this is one example of that in our community. Although Rhodes has provided so many good opportunities for people, it has also done harm to certain people who are experiencing the cycle of substance abuse by taking away a place for them to stay and causing them to fall deeper into this cycle. In my interview with Jodi Peterson, the co-founder and executive director of Interfaith sanctuary, I learned about this cycle and so much more. This is just one example of this in our community and my goal is to prevent more of these dangerous things from happening in the future.