Motivation

Up until now, I’ve felt that my academic career has consisted of mostly theoretical exercises with hardly any opportunities for real applications. I was excited to learn that Lehigh’s Impact Fellowship program offers undergraduate students a chance to solve real world problems, right away. I knew I wanted to do the CSIF program because I am limited travel wise, and Ecorealm Environments had a description that resonated with me. I find peace in nature, I try to support environmentally conscious products, and I enjoy the design process. To me, this project is primarily an opportunity for me to develop entrepreneurial skills while creating a tangible impact to improve human lives.

Student Development

Secondarily, working with the Ecorealm team should provide me with knowledge and professional skills that are relevant to my coursework. I’m taking a dual-degree in accounting and EVST because I want to embark on a career integrating economic development with environmental health. Given the nature of Ecorealm’s work, I will likely find myself working on both aspects of my degree. I plan to work on everything from grant proposals to energy efficiency methods, from budgeting to building partnerships with green activist groups. I can apply the Excel skills I’ve gained since enrolling at Lehigh and build on those throughout the year. This will help me prepare for my summer internship as well and serve as a networking tool during my future job search process.

I consider myself an independent person, and I hope for a future working on my own business or freelancing, yet every job I have worked has been as an employee. The fellowship is an opportunity for me to understand how to successfully (or maybe unsuccessfully) work without a boss. Specifically, I look forward to developing the right skillset to effectively finance a startup and manage these finances for continuous growth.

The Eyeglass Problem

“Over one billion people who need eyeglasses do not have access to them…people live in developing countries where there is barely one optometrist for every one million people“

To address this issue, I would start by identifying all of the factors which contribute to eyeglass scarcity as well as reasons why countries lack optometrists. I would compare the characteristics of countries with good eye care against those with poor eye care to help identify all of the contributing factors.

Then, I would rank the significance of each of these factors and prioritize problems to decide which changes need to be made first. In all likelihood, the process of increasing access to eyeglasses or contacts would be intensive- fully solving the problem might take years. Therefore, I would design both a short term and long term plan to address immediate needs while solving the problem in its longevity.

The quickest (and most temporary) solution would be to mobilize relief groups to provide contact lenses to those in need. However, this solution is not nearly comprehensive, given that finding “those in need” requires knowing who needs what. The relief groups would need to bring licensed optometrists with them to accurately diagnose whether or not someone is visually impaired and determine the correct prescription. The group would need to collect patient information and create a database to store medical records, since those are likely to be sparse in places with bad eye care.

Long term, the higher level education in these countries would need to improve, and one way to encourage students in these areas to study optometry would be to introduce economic incentives. This might necessitate lobbying to government agencies to subsidize related fields of study or forcing school systems to incorporate eye care programs into their education plans.

It should also be considered that no mass solution will entirely solve all problems at the individual level. I would advise that plans be made to increase resources for visually impaired in ways that accommodate those hindrances beyond what can be fixed. This might mean translating written information into audio versions, or educating students about how to best treat, communicate, and interact with someone who is blind.

Without specific knowledge about the ins and outs of eyeglass accessibility, it will be hard to make any conclusive decisions about what to do. However, the recommendations I make above might serve as an outline for how to approach issues similar to the one in the prompt.