Why did you join this Impact Fellowship program (motivation, prior interests)

When initially applying for the Impact Fellowship program, I knew I was interested in pursuing a hands-on learning experience, while making positive impact on society. Now, being accepted into the Southside Permaculture Park program, I am excited to be active and make impact within the Lehigh Valley and campus community. While looking at the different program opportunities, I knew I wanted to join a program that could integrate my passion of understanding food as medicine. I firmly believe that eating clean and eating foods that heal your gut microbiome is one of the best natural forms of preventative medicine. With Bethlehem being a food desert, limited to only one food store on the South Side that does not provide the best quality produce and products, I am excited to be able to connect with the community through growing organic food. I am passionate about making access to healthy food more affordable and I am excited to learn more about how permaculture can impact our internal ecosystems and the Lehigh Valley community at large.

 How do you envision this course making you a better (Environmental Studies) student? 

As an Environmental Studies major who is also double minoring in Entrepreneurship and HMS, I’d imagine this course will strengthen my understanding of transforming interests into sincere impact. With my future interests of one day working at the intersection of environmental health and business, I am excited to gain entrepreneurial experience being a “driver” of my project, as well as be able to connect with the entirety of the Creative Inquiry program. The CINQ course will challenge me, making me have to use critical-thinking skills and apply my knowledge to try to be an effective problem solver.  I believe that this program will allow me to challenge my weaknesses, such as public speaking and trusting myself to deliver information. This is something that I am hoping (and determined) that over the next year, will transform into strengths. Additionally, as an EVST major, I believe that participating on a project that is rooted in sustainable practices and making local impact will allow me to hands-on understand how communities interact with their environment.

The World Health Organization estimates that over one billion people who need eyeglasses do not have access to them. The vast majority of these people live in developing countries where there is barely one optometrist for every one million people. Given the high poverty levels, access to eyeglasses is almost non-existent. Lack of proper eyeglasses severely impacts people and their livelihoods by decreasing their productivity at work, limiting or eliminating new opportunities, affecting their quality of life, deteriorating their general health, and possibly leading to (preventable) blindness. What solution do you propose to address this problem?

I would first travel to areas in the world most affected by lack of access to better engage and understand the communities heavily impacted by lack of eye care. Getting to know the demographics of who is most significantly impacted and understanding the daily challenges that come with impaired vision will help to truly figure out how to act as efficiently as possible to solve this “pandemic”.

As an initial approach to solve the problem, I would suggest the mandatory implementation of annual/semi-annually eye examinations within the school systems. The school systems should have nurses/ volunteer groups that are able to complete screenings for students to check their vision. Without healthy vision, students are unable to learn effectively, making it difficult to read and see interactive tools used within the classroom space, potentially putting them at a disadvantage for success in future years. By providing in-school examinations, volunteer groups can then provide the proper care to improve the vision of youthful generations. This includes the administering of glasses and education surrounding the importance eye care. With youth gaining their sight, literacy skills will increase and the risk of injuries/fatalities due to poor vision will decrease.

Additionally, eyeglass prescriptions are only good for about 1 to 2 years before needing to switch out eyewear. According The Green Dandelion at the University of Rochester, “an estimated four million pairs of glasses are thrown away each year.” Organizations such as the Lions Club International collects these glasses, cleans/repairs them, and then donates them to locations across the globe dealing with this health crisis. Rather than discarding glasses, ophthalmologists in places such as the US, should collect expired prescriptions and donate them to the Lions Club for international administering, reducing waste and saving lives. Glasses can then be administered to the community through the organization/ other volunteer groups that may specialize in eye examinations or through the school and hospital systems. Therefore, people in these regions can also receive new pairs when their prescriptions expire.