Living an Impact-Focused Life
What’s your why?
I believe I was put on this earth to…
- Fulfill my parent’s biological duties, but they wanted a boy because of Chinese culture.
- Earn money to support my family, and now I want to do that while being sustainable.
My purpose is to…
- Go to school and achieve a good education, so I can have a good career and earn money.
- Contribute to research related to solve environmental problems, currently.
I believe (my core values)…
- Kind
- Empathy
- Hard-working
The one thing I must do before I die is…
- Try to make a significant positive impact on current environmental crisis.
My advocates and supporters all believe that I…
- Can achieve my goals when I am determined.
- Am self-driven.
The evil I want to eradicate in this world is…
- Companies that are unsustainable and profit-driven because they are destroying the environment.
I want to work in order to…
- Create new solutions
- Or contribute in a way to find the new solution for solving environmental problems.
Your How
I always…
- Work on environmentally related research since I came at Lehigh.
- Dedicate to complete my work/assignment no matter how challenging they are or unrelated to my past experiences.
I never…
- Stop trying, although I do procrastinate when facing challenges, and I would reach out to professors or peers for help immediately.
My work style is…
- Staying up on things so I can complete my work on-time while ensuring its quality.
- To find as much information as I can on a subject that I am researching.
I try to treat people…
- Nicely and without judgement/racism.
- Openly to their opinions, and I want to become more welcoming and approachable.
I approach problems by…
- Understanding the problems’ background information, so I don’t make any assumptions. However, I do tend to make assumptions.
- Communicating with people involved (stakeholders), so I can understand their situations.
Victories are time to…
- Celebrate!
- Motivate me to do more and make myself more confident in what I try to do.
If someone attacks my point of view I…
- Will back-up my opinions
- Will address their side’s weakness
- Will acknowledge my incorrectness and compromise when necessary.
If I fundamentally do not agree with what an organization or person is doing, I will…
- Talk to the organization or the person individually through one-on-one meetings or emails.
Your Whats
| What Have I Done | List of Experiences, Accomplishments, and Lessons Learned |
| Degrees, Minors, Certificates, Fellowships |
B.S. in Environmental Engineering |
| Research Experiences
|
Charge-Regulated Membrane Research Assistant, Bethlehem, PA
February 2021 – Present • Conducted preliminary research experiments, calibrated lab equipment, and collected data with detailed observation notes Remote Sensing Research Intern, BIOS, St. George’s, Bermuda June 2021 – August 2021
Summer Research Assistant, Bethlehem, PA May 2020 – August 2020
Wastewater Treatment Research Assistant, Bethlehem, PA February 2020 – March 2020 • Assisted Ph.D. student in their research and tested wastewater samples from Bethlehem water treatment plant weekly |
| Inventions and Innovations
|
· Proposed transportation function to be implemented in the App AirVision. The function will collaborate with local public transportation system in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and monitor the usage of public transportation. The use of public transportation will be encouraged among Almaty Citizen through implementing a point system. With increased public transportation usage and points, the citizens will be able to win prizes. In the future, this function can be further implemented to calculate citizen carbon footprints. |
| (Social) Entrepreneurial Ventures
|
Global Social Impact Fellow, Bethlehem, PA
January 2021 – Present
|
| Publications
(Formal and Informal)
|
Peer Reviewed: Bastola, H., et al. Role of Precipitation Patterns on the Bankfull Hydraulic Geometry of Alluvial Channels [abstract]. In: Fall Meeting 2020 of the American Geophysical Union; Dec. 2020; American Geophysical Union; 2020. Abstract #154-11.Non-Peer Reviewed: Jiang, M., et al. “CSW 65 Statement Submitted by Tarumitra.” United Nations, 8 Dec. 2020. A second non-peer reviewed CSW statement was just submitted in October 2021. |
| Formal Presentations
(at Lehigh and Beyond)
|
Lehigh Classes:
Presented research or project results formally in front of the class throughout my Lehigh career. Especially this semester, all my classes required some sort of presentation of my projects.
Research: In my summer research internship, I was required to give two presentations on remote sensing and my research to a room full of marine experts. |
| Awards and
External Recognition |
· Dean’s List since Freshman year
· Lehigh Honors Convocation and Reception |
Articulating and learning from G/LVSIF-related Experiences
| Teamwork Experience
(and Lessons Learned)
|
Throughout the semester, no one on the team is always on top of the project because of academic stress, but we were able to effectively communicate and motivate/remind each other. So, I learned that communication is key, which I also applied for my other group projects in my classes when group members are not working on the project together. Most of the time, team members will be busy with other commitments, but I believe it’s a good idea to remind them on our emerging tasks. |
| Conflict Resolution Experience
(and Lessons Learned) |
In the beginning of the venture, when we were trying to develop our own app and coming up with functions that we can implement, I spoke for my idea on the transportation function that I mentioned earlier. I believe through this function and making people aware of the impact of carbon footprint or personal greenhouse gas emission can motivate them to learn more about the environmental issues. This can also be applied to house power (coal, electricity) uses. However, for some reason, we stuck with providing the advice and we never went back to this idea until this semester when I met with AirVision. I asked AirVision if they can implement a system where they can track the public transportation usage, and luckily, they agreed. So, now, I am really looking forward to this implementation, and I think there’s so many ways this function can be tweaked to better educate app users. Finally, now I learned to become more confident in my solution and support why it would be a good idea. |
| Leadership Experience
(and Lessons Learned) |
Through this venture, I learned to moderate a Zoom meeting or a conversation. We often have Zoom meetings either within the cohort or internationally with our partners at AlmaU and AirVision. Often, it’s just us, the students, attending the meetings, and no one really knew how to take the lead in the conversations. So, I gradually learned to take the first initiative, start the conversation, and ask others to participate or provide ideas/opinions. |
| Dealing with Chaos, Ambiguity, and Uncertainty (and Lessons Learned) | There was a lot of uncertainty that I faced personally when I learned that we are collaborating with AirVision and using their app as a platform to reach our audience, because creating the app was our goal initially. However, I talked to my teammates and listened to our mentors, which provided a clear direction as on what we need to do and what we need to focus on, because our end goal is not to create an app but to increase environmental awareness so that Almaty residents can reduce their air pollution exposure or emissions. |
| Personally Challenging Experience (and Lessons Learned)
|
I think it was challenging in the beginning when I was working with teammates that I don’t know before, and we all had such a different dynamic, major, and interest. Anyways, throughout the months, we learned about each other and found the most effective way of communicating. I think it’s great, because one of my professors said something along the lines of in the real world, I often don’t get to choose who I want to work with. |
| Cross-cultural Experience (and Lessons Learned)
|
One conflict that occurred we were trying to meet with AlmaU earlier this semester was we were trying to schedule a meeting at a time that they were off on vacation for a holiday. I thought this was very different culturally, because in my family, there’s no such thing as designated time frame (a week, a month) for vacation (usually only one day break). My family would work continuously throughout the year with minimal breaks, so whenever there’s still work to do, I tend to comply to it because I feel I am obligated to work and feels bad to take breaks. In addition, I think our team wasn’t aware of the holiday situation in Almaty, and we should keep that in-mind for the future. |
| An experience that helped you connect your G/LVSIF work to your discipline / major.
|
So, originally, I thought Air Quality in Almaty would be very related to my major, but it ended-up very differently (in a good way). My goal is to create solutions to solve environmental issues (which is exactly what this venture is trying to do), but I wasn’t aware of things like:
· Am I creating something that this community needs? · Will they use it? (Because I would just assume they would) · Etc. Thus, I thought this project gave me a real-world perspective on how solutions will work. The solution might be able to solve the problem, but it won’t be successful if it’s not successfully implemented in the target community. |
| 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. | Every solid step/progress that we have done for the project. With all the progress made, I feel confident to say that I have contributed something to the project. The final presentation is the moment where I feel confident and presenting all our hard work so far. |
| A moment where you felt like you truly have a strong sense of purpose and belonging in this dynamic, globalized, interdependent world. | I think I am still getting there, because I think I haven’t achieved a lot of things yet for the society. But this motivates me to accomplish more, conduct research, and find viable solutions. |
Draw Your Life
