Leilani Elkaslasy, a Spring 2019 semester alumna, has a vision to harness design for good. 
As an undergrad student studying engineering at Harvey Mudd College, Leilani founded Adaptive Design at Mudd—or A.D.A.M. for short. The club brings together students from diverse disciplines to design custom solutions that improve accessibility for people with disabilities in the local community.

Creating Solutions To Support Her Community

Leilani’s inspiration to start A.D.A.M. began in middle school when she had the opportunity to work at a local workshop, The Adaptive Design Association, in New York City. One of her first projects there was building a chair for a child with cerebral palsy. She had the opportunity to get to know the child’s family and learned that something as seemingly simple as a custom chair finally allowed him to join his family at the table for meal times and to play with his sister. 

At Harvey Mudd, she saw an opportunity to bring this work to life on campus. Leilani just launched the A.D.A.M. at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, and they’ve already been able to recruit a cohort of students who are passionate about growing the club and impacting the community. 

The club’s first major project involved building accessible toys and games for a local after-school program. Leilani also had the opportunity to build another custom chair—this time for a young girl with muscular dystrophy. As Leilani enters her senior year at Harvey Mudd this fall, she is excited to watch the next generation of A.D.A.M. leaders take the reins and continue this good work.

Driven by Leadership Effecting Change

Leilani attributes much of her leadership and mindset to her time as a student at The Island School. She reflected, “The Island School helped me to take action and find my own style of leadership that works for me. I learned leadership isn’t necessarily being authoritative, but connecting with and listening to your community, and figuring out how best to support it. I got to practice this as a Tree House lead as our community navigated its own challenges. I learned I can lead by example and help people grow by encouraging them and meeting them where they’re at with warmth. I also really got to feel how interconnected everything is. Good intentions and actions are fruitful in more ways that we imagine. While we might be setting out at A.D.A.M. to help our community, we’ve all grown a lot as engineers along the way and found a lovely community within each other.”

Leilani continues to be an excellent example of leadership effecting change in her community and beyond. We’re excited to see where her journey continues to take her with A.D.A.M. and beyond.