1. List ten things that make you feel human.

There are many things that make me feel human in life. Some of them include:

1. When I witness someone struggling and I feel compassion towards them
2. When I do something that helps another person (improves their day or betters their life)
3. I feel human when I am with my family and friends
4. When I am struggling with something (personal or work) and I need to ask someone else for help
5. I feel human when I make mistakes 
6. I feel human when I am running
7. I feel human when I travel to different parts of the country, or an entirely different country and see how life can be so different
8. When I am sick or injured
9. When I am working really hard on a project or assignment
10. When I am listening to music and it brings people together (unites them)

 

2. Articulate your philosophy of engagement as it pertains to your work with the GSIF / LVSIF.

I believe it is everyone’s duty to do what they can to better the lives of others around them. There will always be someone worse off than you, and there is always something you can do to help them. For our Smart Cities project in Kazakhstan, we have the technology and materials to create a useful smart innovation that can improve the lives of the citizens in Almaty. I believe that I should engage because I know I have the creativity in me to help my team, along with working with the students at KazNU, come up with an effective innovation that can better the city. I believe I should engage just like that; I should add my ideas and thoughts to the ideas and thoughts of my other team members. More importantly, we must work with the students in KazNU and the citizens of Almaty to make sure we are designing something that they see as effective and helpful as well. It is imperative to first hear from them, what their opinion is, and what they see as an issue that needs to be fixed. The innovation we end up creating will only be effective if it solves an issue that they think needs to be addressed. 

Because of this, it is important to take culture into account when creating our product. An innovation that we have researched that has worked in another country or in a different region, might not work properly in Almaty, because of climate, population, etc. It will be important for us to observe the city and the lifestyle in Almaty when we travel over the summer. We must make it our priority to fully understand what life is like in Almaty before we can begin to brainstorm how to “fix” it.

We must be patient with our project. Being a new team and entirely new project, we are starting from scratch. It will take a while to build up our relationship with the students in KazNU and the people of Almaty. It may take us longer than we expect to begin to develop and prototype innovations. We must remind ourselves that change takes time, but being patient and doing it the right way will create a sustainable change.

I hope that someday my epitaph might read “Left the world better than she found it.” I know that is a HUGE statement, but if I could just make the community around me a little better, or affect the people’s lives I am in touch with and make their lives a little bit better, that would be a major accomplishment for me.