PROMPT #1:

• Identify the three specific stakeholder groups most impacted by your project. For each one, go through the five elements of framework #2 and identify different answers for each group. In other words, if you’re telling your story to stakeholder group #1 (let’s say, middle school students), what is the context that would be most meaningful to that group? What is the catalyst most meaningful to that group? And so on.

• Stakeholder#1: citizens of Almaty
  • Context: air pollution is decreasing their health and they must start taking preventative measures
  • Catalyst: citizens need to be cautious of the air pollution each day
  • Complication: many citizens don’t care or don’t know about how harmful it is
  • Change: spread awareness about free preventative measures they can take
  • Consequence: the resolution is for citizens to avoid highly polluted areas as much as possible
• Stakeholder#2: air quality and monitor makers 
  • Context: only upper class citizens are able to afford monitors and filters
  • Catalyst: we are bringing cheap monitors and filters to the market in Almaty
  • Complication: only expensive ones are on the market right now
  • Change: we bring our monitors and filters and make an assembly shop in Almaty
  • Consequence: all citizens can afford monitors and filters
• Stakeholder#3: study participants: Haileybury students
  • Context: students have low impact on society as their thoughts and actions are often neglected
  • Catalyst: students are working on this project together to improve their environment
  • Complication: in addition to opposing social expectation, they will have to juggle between academics and project work
  • Change: influence and urge their community to take actions and look beyond social norms
  • Consequence: impact their environment and improve the air quality

PROMPT #2:

• From the two story frameworks, CHOOSE ONE of them. Doesn’t matter which – choose the one that speaks to you more, or choose randomly. Once you’ve chosen one framework, ignore the other one for this prompt.
• As a team, write the story of your project (as it exists today), using the five story elements in the order in which they are given, #1 through #5. Each element’s section should consist of at least 2-3 carefully constructed sentences. 
• The result should be a coherent, beginning-middle-end story about your project which someone of reasonable intelligence who is unfamiliar with your project can follow and understand, and more importantly, be inspired by. The blog entry should be written as a text-based story, not a bulleted list. You should write it as a first-person plural story – in other words, the character is “we,” the project team.
• Talk it through as a team. Does it make sense? Does it say everything you want and need it to say? If this were the essential structure of your Fall presentations (stretched out to 7 minutes), would it be successful and would the referees know what you were talking about and why? 

Every year, 10,000 people die prematurely due to air pollution related diseases in Almaty Kazakhstan (Tyo et al., 2022). This number is inevitable in an environment where P.M. 2.5 levels reaches 17 times what WHO recommends as safe. 

However, what is more dangerous than the air pollution itself is people’s indifference towards the issue. A belief that they cannot do anything to improve the situation and protect themselves. A belief so strong that they prefer to keep silent rather than taking actions. 

So, here we are, Breathe Almaty, to ring that bell, to remind these people that they are in charge of their life, health, and the environment. Our project has four elements: cognitive study and public outreach (for ringing the bell); air monitor and filter (for equipping people for the fight against the air pollution).

This work is impossible without our partners in Almaty: the Almaty Management University and the Haileybury school. With these dedicated individuals, we are bridging Lehigh and Almaty and working towards one ultimate goal: to create a society where people are not only aware of their situation but also are willing to take actions and sacrifice their comfort to protect their environment.

We see behavioral change and the following social change as a way to prevent those 10,000 premature deaths. From simple mask-wearing habits to a policy change, it all starts with us. Our decisions matter. Our actions matter. We just need to remind ourselves that we are in charge. 

Tyo, V., & Gu, Y. (2022, September 5). Cleaning the Air and Improving People’s Health in Almaty. UNDP Kazakhstan. https://www.undp.org/kazakhstan/blog/cleaning-air-and-improving-peoples-health-almaty