Give Your Student the Design Thinking Edge Top Colleges Are Looking For

As an Oracle employee, your student is eligible for a $250 discount on Design Tech's Innovation Certificate Program, a hands-on program that helps teens build the creative problem-solving skills that stand out on college applications and beyond.

Use discount code: ORCL250

ENROLL NOW, SAVE $250

LEARN BY DOING ➔

Why Design Thinking Matters for College-Bound Students

Every year, students tell us they feel lost when it comes to figuring out what's next for college applications, for their future careers, for their own sense of direction. Design Tech's Innovation Programs give students something rare: real projects, real mentorship, and a repeatable process (design thinking) they'll use for the rest of their lives.

Students walk away with:

  • A portfolio-ready project they can speak to in college essays and interviews

  • 1:1 mentorship from real industry and design professionals

  • A genuine, lasting interest in design thinking — not just a line on a resume

Internship Accelerator

After earning their Innovation Certificate, students can enroll in this month-long virtual internship — a short-term, task-based program that gives them a real snapshot of professional work, helps them start building a network, and shows them how their new skills translate into the working world.

Investment: $1,500 | $1,250 with Oracle discount

Upcoming session: June 22 - July 17 (4-week program; may be taken multiple times)

PROGRAM OVERVIEW ➔

Innovation Certificate + Mentorship

A 40-hour program (meets twice a week) that starts with a fast-paced, learn-by-doing introduction to design thinking, then moves into a guided design studio where students complete a real project addressing an issue they care about — with 1:1 mentorship from industry and design professionals along the way. Students finish by presenting their prototype in a design review.

Includes: Innovation Certificate

Investment: $1,850 | $1,600 with Oracle discount

Upcoming sessions: September 15 - November 19, 2026 · January 12 - April 1, 2027

ENROLL NOW, SAVE $250

Design Your Future Studio Course

A 32-hour course (prerequisite: Innovation Certificate) where students apply design thinking to their own future — reflecting on passions, values, and strengths, exploring career and educational paths, and building a "Future Design Portfolio" of goals, prototypes, and next steps.

Investment: $1,200

Upcoming sessions: August 31 - November 19, 2026 · January 11 - March 31, 2027

Enroll in Innovation Certificate

  • "My time at d.tech taught me to be adaptive and creative when approaching unfamiliar situations and daunting problems, and it started building the foundations in me to approach designing and building solutions with empathy at the forefront... the 5-step design-thinking process... has grown to be part of the work that I do and the way I approach new challenges."

    Joelene L., UC Berkeley — Intern at Slack & Kleiner Perkins

  • "I was recently offered an internship with the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Department... The internship was supposedly directed at graduate students, but I think my unique background stood out... d.tech and my experiences with design thinking really shaped my application."

    Adelyn C. — The Wharton School at Penn

  • "The design thinking process has proven to be a very powerful thought process that constantly makes me think about how I can better my surroundings... I am grateful for my background in design thinking because it has ingrained within me the ability to think outside of the traditional framework of academia and to think creatively about how I can take what I've learned to... solve problems in my community."

    Meghna G. — BA/MD Student at Northwestern University

Video Interview

Nicole Cerra, Director of Innovation talks about the Innovation Certificate.

The Oracle Advantage

As an Oracle employee, your student saves $250 when you register for the Innovation Certificate Program or the Internship Accelerator. It's our way of making the design thinking skills that matter most — creativity, resilience, real-world problem-solving — even more accessible for Oracle families.

ENROLL YOUR STUDENT

Frequently Asked Questions

  • No — the Innovation Certificate + Mentorship program has no prerequisites. It's the starting point for every student

  • After completing the Innovation Certificate, students can continue on to the Design Your Future Studio Course, Innovation Project Coaching, or the Internship Accelerator.