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I decided to enroll in this course because last year, one of my friends was a Global Social Impact Fellow and had nothing but positive things to say about this program. I was also interested in enrolling because all of these projects address real world problems and work to assist others/the environment in a meaningful way. Last year, I was enrolled in an Environmental Science course as an elective but took note of the devastating state our planet is in and immediately knew I wanted to take part in fixing and addressing some of these complex issues. I previously found extreme difficulty in choosing my major because I knew for sure that I wanted to make a difference in others’ lives, but was not sure which major in the business school could make this possible. I eventually decided on supply chain management, being that there are a plethora of things you could do with this major and fields you could branch off into. Combining my major with my interest in making a difference, I looked into the GSIF program and saw they were looking for a supply chain management student on the PlasTech Ventures team, and was thrilled to be able to be a member of this project. While all projects being offered were extremely fascinating, this project interested me the most because it not only looked for ways to reduce plastic waste in the Philippines, but also ways to empower and encourage women in the workforce there to create their own high-value products out of plastic.

In general, this course will make me a better student because working with an interdisciplinary team will expand my knowledge on various topics that I never would have had the chance to learn about. For example, my team consists of mechanical engineering and material science majors, which in all honesty I do not know a lot about. However, I believe that having different majors will allow us all to learn a lot from each other. This course will definitely make me a better supply chain management student as our project is dealing with sourcing and testing different types of plastics, finding where they come from, and studying the plastic’s in the Philippines various distribution channels. This class will give me hands-on knowledge that would be difficult for me to learn from a textbook. Additionally, this course will improve my communication skills, as we will all need to collaborate to achieve our goals.

“The World Health Organization estimates that over one billion people who need eyeglasses do not have access to them.”  This problem not only leads to a person’s decreased productivity at work, but more importantly deteriorates their general health. A simple approach to address this problem, specifically in Kenya where poverty levels are high and where there is barely one optometrist per one million people, would be that a basic eye test be distributed for people to use and test on themselves. This basic prototype would give descriptions and instructions on what to do if the person experienced eye blurriness, and directions on how to get to the nearest eye doctor in the area. Not only this, but these prototypes should come with a list of eye exercises that could potentially improve your vision. Perfectlensworld.com explains in detail five quick and easy eye exercises that can improve people’s overall vision – if we educate people on these preventive health measures, the amount of people that need eyeglasses in Kenya could possibly go down over time.

However, giving directions to the closest optometrist may not be a feasible solution if the closest optometrist was hundreds of miles away from people in certain areas. The larger-scale solution would be to incorporate the next step of addressing whether or not the person was near-sighted or far-sided, as the eye test would explain. A local market should begin selling two types of glasses, near and far-sighted, to allow eyeglasses to be more accessible. While these glasses may not be customized to each person’s specific prescription, it is still a first step in the right direction for people with current eye problems to see better, feel better, and perform better.