Living an Impact-Focused Life

What’s your Why?

I believe I was put on this earth to…

• Help the environment/others. Enable others to live an enjoyable life.

 

My purpose is to…

• Help others/environment
  • enable others to live good lives

 

I believe (my core values)…

• Be respectful
• Give others the benefit of the doubt

 

The one thing I must do before I die is…

• Achieve my purpose
• Travel more, experience the world

 

My advocates and supporters all believe that I…

• Will do what I say
• Try my best and give an earnest effort

 

The evil I want to eradicate in this world is…

• People believing their actions don’t matter
• Making decisions based on money instead of values

 

I want to work in order to…

• help others/ the environment

 

Walk the Talk – Your How

If you are truly committed to your Why, you show it in your everyday behavior. It is all air until you do it. Working from your Why, How do you prove that you are true to your Why in all you do?

 

I always…

• look at problems and try to find solutions
• try to find ways to reduce waste/conserve energy

 

I never…

• do things half way

 

My work style is…

• analytical and persistent

 

I try to treat people…

• with respect and empathy

 

I approach problems by…

• learning what the cause is before trying to find a solution

 

Victories are time to…

• relax and celebrate

 

If someone attacks my point of view I…

• listen to what they have to say, and think about why we differ

 

If I fundamentally do not agree with what an organization or person is doing, I will…

• Withdraw my support

 

Your Credibility – Your Whats 

You have spent some considerable time at Lehigh, and specifically in the Impact Fellowships, on many whats. Your whats include lab research, formal presentations, writing research papers, engaging with people in other cultural contexts, building prototypes, designing and building systems, raising funds, hiring employees, etc. The whats you have collected along the way are critical to your credibility when you are entering the workforce or applying to the best graduate and professional schools. They signify a credible currency to which organizations can assign value. Create a list of your Whats that are truly reflective of your Why & How. You did these things because you believe (Why) and you acquired them in the following (How) manner. These are examples you can use in interviews.

 

What Have I Done	List of Experiences, Accomplishments, and Lessons Learned
Degrees, Minors, Certificates, Fellowships	CSWA Certificate, Mechanical Engineering Degree, Chinese Minor, Impact Fellowship
Research Experiences	AgriWrap – MTSE
Inventions and Innovations	Bioplastic this summer
(Social) Entrepreneurial Ventures	AgriWrap
Publications (Formal and Informal)	2 hopefully – PMF paper and finishing up the paper form last year
Formal Presentations (at Lehigh and Beyond)	Agriwrap presentations at Lehigh and during fieldwork
Awards and  External Recognition	3rd place writing award freshman year.

Articulating and learning from IF-related Experiences. For each of these prompts, we want you to identify one and only one specific and compelling event/incident/experience/moment and identify exactly how you grew personally and professionally through that moment.

 

THESE ARE GOOD INTERVIEW STORIES

 

Teamwork Experience (and Lessons Learned)	During fieldwork, our team of 4 distributed tasks to accomplish more. We split up into pairs to take on different assignments and were able to accomplish more by doing so. I learned the benefits of distributing work and working with others.
Conflict Resolution Experience (and Lessons Learned)	During fieldwork, we were considering a new direction to take Agriwrap. It was a big pivot from our initial goal, and not everyone wanted to make it. To resolve the issue we sat down and had a discussion about it, and came to a group consensus that the change would be best for the project. I learned how best to deal with conflicts like this
Leadership Experience (and Lessons Learned)	When we began fieldwork, our group was nervous about just going up and  talking to strangers. However, it was something we needed to do, so I just went up and did it, and in doing so the rest of my team felt more comfortable doing so too. I learned that sometimes you have to lead by example.
Dealing with Chaos, Ambiguity, and Uncertainty (and Lessons Learned)	Going into fieldwork, we were uncertain as to what we would be doing during our full 2 weeks there. But as we got working, things came up and we ended up having more than enough to do. From this I learned to embrace uncertainty and act in the moment. Taking opportunities can often to lead to more opportunities,
Personally Challenging Experience (and Lessons Learned)	Writing research papers has been the hardest part of this Impact Fellowship. But what I learned during the writing retreat is that starting is the hardest part. Once we started making progress it was easier and more manageable.
Cross-cultural Experience (and Lessons Learned)	Traveling to the Philippines was an amazing learning experience. From my time there I learned how to respect local culture, make sure we were working with them to solve problems.
An experience that helped you connect your IF work to your discipline / major.	Developing bioplastic over summer as part of MTSE. I really enjoyed designing and iterating the experiments as was able to use my CAD skills to design parts I needed.
A moment that boosted your sense of agency and self-efficacy – you felt like you could speak for yourself, get stuff done, take on the world and make it better.	When I was talking with experts about our bioplastics at the plastics conference, I could carry a conversation with them and understand the intricate details of the issues they were describing.
A moment where you felt like you were making the future – like you were creating something that had never before existed and would (or could) influence your future and that of others.	Creating bioplastic this summer, it was great to actually create something that felt like we wanted it to – like another plastic. When we finally achieved that I felt that we were onto something and could really create some impact.
A moment where you felt like you truly have a strong sense of purpose and belonging in this dynamic, globalized, interdependent world.	At the plastics conference, the experts we were talking to expressed interest and were excited about our bioplastic. It was validating to have people this knowledgeable excited about our solution.