Living an Impact-Focused Life

What’s your Why?

I believe I was put on this earth to:

• Use my ambition and caring nature to work relentlessly to improve the lives of others, both directly and indirectly

My purpose is to:

• Use my strengths and experiences to affect positive change

I believe (my core values):

• Hard work and honesty will be rewarded
• Everything will work out as it should, as long as you set yourself up for success

The one thing I must do before I die is:

• Make an unforgettable (positive) impact on someone outside of my family and close friends

My advocates and supporters all believe I:

• Am grounded in reason and logic
• Am incredibly determined

The evil I want to eradicate in this world is:

• Selfishness and apathy toward other inhabitants of the planet (people, animals, ecosystems)

I want to work in order to:

• Stay intellectually stimulated and grow as a person
• Learn and understand the world so I can make it a better place

 

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:

• Take my time, making sure that I’m thorough and have all the facts before acting

I never:

• Leave a task unfinished (or completed to a substandard degree)

My work style is:

• Thorough and deliberate

I try to treat people:

• With respect and kindness

I approach problems by:

• Trying to understand the drivers and causes that have created the problem in the first place
• Relying on patience and determination to find the best solution

Victories are time to:

• Be proud of my hard work and acknowledge my personal growth

If another attacks my point of view I:

• Rely on logic, reason, and facts to support my point of view
• Try to understand the reason that they disagree with me

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

• Present my case and supporting facts as to why they should change, if it’s egregious
• Not engage

 

Your Credibility – Your Whats

You have just spent some considerable time at Lehigh, and specifically in the Global Social Impact Fellowship, 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	IDEAS – Materials Engineering, Economics, Environmental Studies
Research Experiences	Real Food Challenge, Lehigh University Partnership for Sustainable UN Missions, Biopolymers researcher, Iacocca International Internship
Inventions and Innovations	A new melting process for recycling PET
(Social) Entrepreneurial Ventures	PlasTech Ventures
Publications (Formal and Informal)	Comparing the Properties of PET Plastic Bricks to Conventional Concrete Masonry Units
Formal Presentations (at Lehigh and Beyond)	GHTC conference, Permanent Mission of Sweden to the UN, Real Food
Awards and External Recognition	Dean’s List

 

Articulating and learning from GSIF-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)	It is important to hold each other accountable but also to be understanding of your teammates. There were times when I was having a particularly difficult week and had to prioritize other projects, but my teammates were always understanding. I was able to do the same, which developed trust and a good team dynamic.
Conflict Resolution Experience (and Lessons Learned)	Over the summer, our team disagreed with our advisor about the what the focus of the research for Mountaintop should be. I tried my best to respect the direction that he wanted to take the research but tailored it so that I was still able to achieve the goals that I felt were the most important. He got what he asked for, but I was also able to make what I felt to be meaningful progress.
Leadership Experience (and Lessons Learned)	Shortly after joining the project, taking the lead for materials research and testing, then moving forward as the lead author of the paper, I learned that I could quickly adapt to new situations and learn a lot about an unfamiliar subject, which made me more confident in myself.
Dealing with Chaos, Ambiguity, and Uncertainty (and Lessons Learned)	I learned that nobody really knows exactly what they’re doing and nobody is perfect. We’re all trying our best and learning from each other. I came to this realization while talking to industry experts during VentureWell.
Personally Challenging Experience (and Lessons Learned)	I often struggled with the ambiguity of an entrepreneurial project. I felt that I never had enough information to make a decision and always kept searching for a “right” answer. Eventually, I realized that there isn’t always a right answer and you can’t let yourself be paralyzed by the unknown. At some point, you have to be confident in yourself to follow what you believe to be the best plan of action.
Cross-cultural Experience (and Lessons Learned)	It took some time to realize that communication styles are different in the Philippines. I reached out to a company over email but didn’t receive a response. I reached out over Facebook messenger and received a response the next morning.
An experience that helped you connect your GSIF work to your discipline / major.	I was the lead author for a paper that analyzed not only the material properties of PET but also the environmental and health affects associated with using the material. This experience allowed me to understand the connection between my engineering, economics, and environmental courses.
A moment that boosted your sense of agency and self-efficacy – you felt like you can speak for yourself, get stuff done, take on the world and make it better.	During one of our team’s early presentations, we received several questions about the feasibility of using plastic as a building material. I was still quite new to the project and hesitant to speak up during Q&A, but I had spent so much of my time researching the material properties of PET that I was confident I was the best person to answer the questions.
A moment where you felt like you truly have a strong sense of purpose and belonging in this dynamic, globalized interdependent world.	This summer during the VentureWell workshop, I met with a particularly enthusiastic serial entrepreneur. He was so excited about the prospect of our project and was incredibly encouraging. This meeting reminded me of the potential for impact that our venture has and the importance of my work.