FINAL BLOG

Living an Impact-Focused Life

What’s your Why?

I believe I was put on this earth to…

paint a new picture of healthcare in underserved areas.

 

My purpose is to…

acquire the skills to be able to contribute to making more sustainable, affordable and accessible healthcare technology. 

 

I believe (my core values)…

that every human being has the right to timely, affordable, decent and accessible healthcare. 

 

The one thing I must do before I die is…

work on these goals but in my native country.

 

My advocates and supporters all believe that I…

 

The evil I want to eradicate in this world is…

The greed that causes healthcare disparity

 

I want to work in order to…

gather the skills needed to not only attack but also deeply understand the problem. 

 

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…

first analyze the system rather than its parts. 

 

I never…

pretend to be right

 

My work style is…

make a plan, but don’t forget to adapt as you go 

 

I try to treat people…

as I’d like to be treated.

 

I approach problems by…

reading and understanding background information to get a full picture.

 

Victories are time to…

celebrate and practice gratitude.

 

If someone attacks my point of view I…

take a step back and reevaluate.

 

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

dissociate from them, evaluate the ramifications to determine whether it requires getting involved to stop a larger issue.

 

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 In progress:
Bachelors in Biomedical Engineering

Minor in Material Science Engineering
Research Experiences Informal research in Makeni on the perceptions of conversational AI in low resource clinical settings.
Inventions and Innovations Completely new Alexa skill from scratch.
(Social) Entrepreneurial Ventures

Partnered with new champs who will be key in advancing our project forward.
Publications

(Formal and Informal)

Working on a publication about the personas of early adopters of technology.
Formal Presentations

(at Lehigh and Beyond)

 Presented our poster at IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference 
Awards and 

External Recognition

N/A

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.

 

Teamwork Experience

(and Lessons Learned)

Learned to communicate and delegate. Being in Makeni meant making the most of our time and the only way to do so was to delegate and split tasks
Conflict Resolution Experience

(and Lessons Learned)

 On multiple occasions we struggled with agreeing on a course of action, while these may not be conflicts specifically, it taught us to be sensitive to everyone’s opinions and feelings 
Leadership Experience

(and Lessons Learned) 

I felt the support of my advisor when it comes to building leadership experience, having him trust me with tasks surrounding leadership gave me the confidence I needed to execute other tasks better.
Dealing with Chaos, Ambiguity, and Uncertainty (and Lessons Learned)

This summer we learned to be quick on our feet, we faced so much uncertainty and ambiguity and it only made us sharper when it comes to adapting to the unknown.
Personally Challenging Experience (and Lessons Learned)

Personally, I was challenged by trying to be as productive as I can be while also being met with different attitudes towards work. This was difficult to navigate and caused great frustrations but I think I was able to persevere and grow from the experience.
Cross-cultural Experience (and Lessons Learned) I learned not to assume anything about anyone, good or bad. On many occasions we were caught off guard about what the people we spoke to knew or didn’t know, and not assuming anything would have saved us a lot of time.
An experience that helped you connect your IF work to your discipline / major.

Being able to observe clinical settings from up close and personally speak to providers about their needs allowed me to prepare for a career in bioengineering.
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. After the 10th introduction of our project, I realized I now had a way better understanding of it, and realized I could speak less, but say more. 
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. When we had a demo at Branda and then they completely took it over and started fully conversing with AISHA.
A moment where you felt like you truly have a strong sense of purpose and belonging in this dynamic, globalized, interdependent world. Working at Branda, same demo, different staff. Seeing AISHA at work really changed my perception of our project and gave me a very fulfilling feeling.