ND and SBVTC students co-created a board game designed to build financial decision-making skills and foster conversation, turning a classroom idea into reality.
Design challenge prompts learning and drives function
In Spring 2024, students in Professor Emily Harris’ Innovation and Design Thinking class were challenged with the question: How might we help St. Bakhita’s Vocational Training Center Innovation Scholars thrive after graduation? Since early 2020, students in the course have worked with the Innovation Scholars of Saint Bakhita Vocational Training Center (SBVTC) to develop business solutions and drive financial sustainability for the school in Kalongo, Uganda. Relying on a variety of immersive and ethnographic techniques to more fully understand the local community and its needs, teams ideate, prototype and iterate on business ideas, before eventually pitching the idea for funding. This class was the first to focus specifically on the Innovation Scholars’ experience after graduating and leaving SBVTC, where they would have to put their learnings into practice.
After a semester of deep research, co-creation sessions and countless ideas, one project stood out for its potential to uniquely address the challenge, fostering practical and fun learning while bridging generational gaps: a board game called Bakhita Business. Developed by Adam Herrera ('26), Alex Mazzucco ('26), Mya McClure ('25), and Rocco Pacchiana ('26), Bakhita Business was created to promote financial conversations between the Innovation Scholars and their families.
Team Zoom Meeting
This team, known as “Team Family Fusion”, realized that a successful design depended on their ability to first understand and empathize with social norms that often prevent the Innovation Scholars from fully thriving after graduation. Through in-depth conversations with Innovation Scholars and their parents, they were left with three key takeaways:
Shared Wealth
Ugandan families typically view financial success as a shared resource, expecting more well-off family members to contribute to the expenses of their immediate family, and often to their extended family, as well.
Financial Direction
While women tend to be the main household providers through subsistence farming, product sales or other jobs, husbands often are in charge of the family finances, potentially leading to the blending of business and personal finances.
Short-Term Focus
Many older family members lack education in financial literacy and, given that businesses in rural Uganda are often focused on generating basic income, profits are often seen for their short-term benefit rather than their long-term potential.
On the whole, the team learned that there was often a breakdown between what the Innovation Scholars learned at SBVTC and how their families viewed money, and refined their goal to address this divide.
As ideas began flowing, Team Family Fusion conducted a series of co-creation sessions with a team of Innovation Scholars to further explore topics like family dynamics, financial literacy and knowledge sharing, the team learned that deep family conversations most often happen in the evening, seated around the fire. They also learned that the best ideas were ones that involved simple, tangible solutions that sparked joy and empathy along the way.
Bakhita Business was Team Family Fusion’s response to the challenging prompt. The board game moves players through a path full of potential business opportunities and threats to create a friendly environment of competition, yet is simultaneously designed to proactively foster discussion between Innovation Scholars and their families. Scenarios in the game help simulate the complexities of entrepreneurial decision-making and encourage players to critically examine how they use their resources to balance short- and long-term success. Together, these elements transform Bakhita Business into an educational tool, putting financial literacy principles into practical use.
Alumni testing adds complexity
Bakhita Business recently left the classroom and was tested at SBVTC in Kalongo, Uganda during Professor Wendy Angst’s Innovation and Design Thinking Immersion trip in January 2025. Spearheaded by Jessica Vickery (‘25), the game's first round of testing prioritized alumni feedback and got input from:
A recent alumni of SBVTC's tailoring program and her sister.
An alumnus and current staff member at SBVTC, and a current catering student.
Other Notre Dame students on the immersion trip.
While more family members were not immediately available for feedback while the ND was there, future students will look for ways to incorporate the family and community perspectives. The testing focused on the feasibility of gameplay, common strategic approaches amongst different demographics and comprehension of instructions. Each testing session consisted of pregame questions regarding resource management, actual gameplay, and post-game feedback and reflections.
Gameplay revealed several challenges, which provided the team with valuable feedback and recommendations for the next design iteration. Specifically, Jessica determined a need for certain stylistic changes like differentiating between different colored cards or adding asset cards to help participants track the value of their business. Similarly, she noticed the potential benefit of including deeper card complexity in the next design, hopefully sparking deeper and more immediate discussion among players regarding financial choices. Jessica noted that each participant showed an increase in knowledge of financial literacy as a result of playing the game, demonstrating potential for use as an academic tool. In the future, the team looks to introduce the game to even more students, graduates, family, and community members to identify further improvements, and ultimately create a game that effectively fosters collaboration and discussion between Innovation Scholars and their families.
We want to provide opportunities for students to connect and design 'with' rather than simply 'for' communities from around the globe.
Emily Harris, Assistant Professor
This project is reflective of the type of work that is done within the Impact Consulting minor within Mendoza. As Jessica noted, "The opportunity to go on this trip is a testament to the values of Mendoza to ‘Grow the Good in Business.’ I appreciate that I was able to participate in this process through the prototyping of the board game as well as through everyday interactions within the community."
Students are connected with communities from around the world to gain first-hand experience in empathy, innovation and collaboration, working over multiple semesters to design and implement ideas. Partnering with local organizations enables more than just practical application of business skills – it builds a deeper level of trust and engagement between all stakeholders. Professor Emily Harris notes, "We want to provide opportunities for students to connect and design 'with' rather than simply 'for' communities from around the globe.” By getting proximate with other communities and perspectives, the process of co-creation drives more effective and sustainable impact.
Reflecting on her experience at SBVTC, Jessica stated:
The immersion trip to Uganda gave me the chance to experience the full design thinking process: starting with the inspiration phase, into prototyping and finally implementation. Although I was not the original creator of Bakhita Business, undergoing the design process with this invention completed my classroom experience. I can’t think of any other program that would allow a student to develop a product in class and then test it with its intended audience a year later. It makes the work feel worthwhile and like I’m actually impacting someone!”
Bakhita Business is more than just a game, but rather a platform for empowerment, entrepreneurship and financial literacy!
Nate Butler is a current sophomore in the Mendoza College of Business studying Marketing, Spanish and Anthropology.
Emily Harris is an Assistant Teaching Professor, teaching in the Management and Organization department in the Mendoza College of Business, and in the Art, Art History and Design department in the College of Arts and Letters.
Quin Gallagher is a program administrator for the Powerful Means Initiative.