- I chose to join the Impact Fellowship program because I want to create a positive impact on my local and global community through the arts. One of the most valuable parts of the Impact Fellowship for me is being able to create meaningful connections through working with likeminded motivated peers and through building relationships with my community, specifically through the Lehigh Valley Social Impact Fellowship. As someone who is passionate about the arts, the Open the Doors to the Arts program is the perfect fit for me. Having the chance to create interactive 3D resources for kids in the Lehigh Valley who have learning disabilities is my chance to create a positive impact while also doing something I love. Through working at the art gallery on campus on the educational team, my job is to educate the campus and surrounding community on the arts and bridge the gap between the campus and the Lehigh Valley through the arts. Upon hearing about the project Open the Doors to the Arts, I decided that this was the chance for me to accomplish that goal in addition to building a relationship between the Lehigh University Art Gallery and the Centennial School.
- This course will help me develop better entrepreneurial thinking skills, learn how to conduct research in academia, and improve my design-thinking skills. This course will present me with obstacles that I am unfamiliar with which in turn will lead to me strengthening my creative and design mindset while also helping me develop an entrepreneurial mindset. As a graphic and product design major and a marketing minor, my classes rely on my design thinking and having the ability to creatively complete my work while also staying within design and project constraints. Moreover, my field of study mostly relies on my ability to create products and market those products creatively. I believe that this course will help me understand what my mission is in the design sphere: what the purpose of my products to be, what impacts my product will have, how I will make the world a better place through design. Continuously, I will be interning at Lehigh@NasdaqCenter: Startup Academy this summer and this course will help prepare me for that. Startup Academy’s mission is to build the entrepreneurial leaders that will transform industries of the future. The Impact Fellowship program will prepare me for the creative problem-solving, pioneering research, and innovative skills needed for Startup Academy.
- Everyone deserves access to healthcare such as prescription eyeglasses, although this is not the reality for many people worldwide. Even in the US, glasses are not very affordable: ever since the mid 20th century, there have been two main companies in the eyeglass industry: Luxottica and Essilor. They are represented in the majority of eyeglass brands that are known in the US such as LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, FramesDirect.com, etc. Additionally, they have licensing agreements with well-known brands such as Coach, Chanel, Oakley, Ray-Ban, and many more. With that being said, they have the majority of the control when it comes to setting the market prices of glasses and are practically a monopoly in the eyeglass industry. I believe that a way for the prices of eyeglasses to be more affordable is to create alternatives. Continuously, Warby Parker, a new eyeglass brand is the perfect example of this. They have quickly created a wave in the eyeglass industry by monetizing on the need for good quality low cost glasses through cutting out the middle-men and connecting directly to the customer. They design their own frames to avoid licensing fees and they source their own materials by contacting manufacturers directly to be able to afford lowering prices while also maintaining the standard quality. In addition, they save spending on shaping, polishing, and inserting lenses into their frames by having their own optical labs. Warby Parker is the type of business we need more of. Furthermore, glasses should be a necessity, not a luxury; adding onto the Warby Parker business model, when one purchases a pair of glasses, a pair is given to people who can not afford eyeglasses, which should be implemented in other businesses. Through the Pupils project, a number of organizations like the Department of Health in Baltimore and Johns Hopkins have provided research and support to elementary school children in need of glasses around the US; I hope to see them expand this program internationally to low-income countries that do not have affordable access to eyewear.