In the third installment of the Off the Grid design studio held this spring 2025, NuVu High School partnered with a group of educators, architects and students in Syria. The inspiration came from co-founder Saeed Arida’s first visit back to the country of his birth in decades.

As Saeed wrote in a piece for the NuVu news page, “I didn’t come back just to wrestle with my emotions about Syria—I came to help. What pulled me here in the first place was the vision of rebuilding the schools in my town. After meeting the team on the ground, walking through the damaged schools, talking to the leaders, the teachers, the students—I feel an undeniable sense of purpose. The suffering of the last 13 years cannot be undone, but maybe, in some small way, I can help ease the weight of what people have endured."

Led by coaches Heide Solbrig and Ayush Gandhi, the studio represents the kind of work both say they are deeply committed to—exploring how education at NuVu can have a truly global point of view.

Heide describes this as a unique partnership. In the Off the Grid studios earlier in the year, students explored how we depend on infrastructure and systems. Now, they’re learning what happens when people are cut off from those systems—sometimes forcibly.

“Looking at it through the lens of Syria was really interesting,” says Ayush. “Given the civil war and how the infrastructure there is broken or non-functional, restabilizing the grid involves rebuilding the societal component—and using education as a tool to do that.”

In Part I of Off the Grid, students explored what a grid actually is and how we might gain control over our lives apart from it. “Grids are these sort of mysterious power sources that young people think about,” Heide says. “So in the first class, they were thinking about how to liberate society from the power grid. By the second class, they were thinking, ‘how do we liberate ourselves?’ The grid is a metaphor for how we organize power in society.”

A point hammered home during the studio was the enormous privilege that the NuVu students have access to. “I think it gives the students a lot of awareness of the privilege they have and also inspires a certain generosity of wanting to share that,” remarks Heide.

While empathy was an intended learning goal, both coaches were surprised by what stood out most for students.

“One of the most interesting moments was when our students met theirs—though it was limited, due to internet access issues,” says Ayush. “Still, when they did connect, there was this true bonding moment. The kids in Syria started roasting our students, asking, ‘Are American students bad at geography?’ They were just curious. It instantly brought everyone together. That kind of banter—we could never plan for it. It has to happen organically.”

During Zoom meetings with Syrian students and partners, NuVu students asked about their interests, concerns and problems they were having in life and their education.

“I was really impressed that our students heard and held onto the things that the kids asked for,” recalls Heide. “One Syrian group mentioned they were interested in sports, so a group of our students focused their project on that. Others talked about access to water, and that became another key area. Our students really heard them—on a deep level. All that learning about listening to the client, about the user journey—it really had an impact.”

“When you are interviewing someone, you have to be in listening mode,” explains Ayush. “All of this theory behind it, we have always shared, but I think the students naturally did it this time.”

Mohamad Alkudaymi, an architect based in Stockholm, Sweden, also participated in this Off the Grid studio. Currently working at Sweco, a European engineering consultancy, Mohamad focuses on the design of schools and hospitals, both in Sweden and internationally.

A follower of NuVu and of Saeed for more than a decade, Mohamad says he’s long been inspired by NuVu’s approach to education and design. “After a visit to Syria in January 2025, where I toured several schools, I witnessed firsthand the urgent needs and challenges facing students and educators,” he says. “That visit sparked the idea of collaborating with NuVu to create a project that could bring new perspectives and meaningful engagement to Syrian schools. That’s how Off the Grid: Syria was born.”

Mohamad hoped to bring fresh, outside perspectives—new eyes to familiar problems. He also wanted to show Syrian students that people outside the region care deeply about them and are actively thinking of ways to support their education and future. “The project aimed to foster communication between students and introduce modern, innovative teaching approaches,” he says. “Another goal was to take inspiration from the ideas generated and explore how they could be implemented in Syria, even under difficult conditions.”

Beyond the projects themselves, Mohamad says seeing Syrian students genuinely excited to engage with peers from different backgrounds was heartwarming. “They expressed joy at being asked thoughtful questions and participating in meaningful dialogue,” he recalls. “It gave them a strong sense of connection to the wider world—they didn’t feel forgotten or isolated.”

One of the projects that emerged from Off the Grid: Syria was titled Meshtastic. As Heide explains, “In a previous studio, the students created a communication device with similar technology, but that version was about escaping the corporate overlords and not being listened to by adults or institutions—they felt bombarded by internet media,” she says. “In the Syria-inspired version, the students thought very deeply about the kids they were designing for. Their idea offered a peer-to-peer communication device—really about empowering students in a dynamic and unstable war environment.”

“The bamboo project was the most exciting for me, from an innovation perspective,” adds Ayush.

Through one of their conversations with students in Syria, the NuVu team learned about a shortage of building materials. One group dove into researching fast-growing alternatives and determined a type of bamboo that would be appropriate for the region.

“The students didn’t just figure out which species could survive in Syria,” says Ayush. “They also looked into the ecology behind their idea—whether it was invasive, and whether introducing a foreign species would be the right thing ecologically. The project had so many learning angles to it, which is why it was my favorite.”

For another project, Solar for Syria, the students explored ways to support Syrian schools by providing solar panels as a reliable energy source, and developed methods to teach the science behind solar energy. Currently, the NuVu students are working with local solar partners to bring this project to life.

Partnering with a NuVu design studio is nothing new—it happens a few times a year—but this one took the idea to a new level. Both Syrian and NuVu students felt empowered by the exchange.

“That kind of empowerment and hope was one of the most powerful outcomes of the experience,” says Mohamad. “The students are now even more eager to see these ideas become real, tangible changes in their schools.”