All my teenage life, I have suffered through random and burdening migraines. When these migraines started to become a normality, I went to go see Doctor Davis Thomas, a dentist with focus on orofacial pain and migraines. Being able to finally understand the source and pathways of my migraines and my pain was incredibly interesting to me. He was able to solve my mystery of migraines, accessing trigger points on my body and tracking the headaches up to my head. I was so intrigued by the seemingly simple way in which these migraines were explained when they seemed so complex and impossible to understand. My excitement about this prompted me to ask Dr. Thomas if he would allow me to work with him, learning more about dentistry, and helping him with his ongoing research. He was working on a brochure about the anatomy and physiology of the temporomandibular joint and the basics of facial pain for a clinic in India. Reading lots of journals and online publications, I was able to take lead on gathering and organizing the research. Doing everything from researching the correct scientific paper format to searching for easy to understand diagrams, I experienced the real-life research and analysis side of medicine and science. I was able to learn so much information with the knowledge that it would be helping Indians with the same issues I had struggled with myself. It was truly a rewarding experience that solidified my interest in medicine and allowed me to experience gathering research. I would never have known that some of my most painful hours would become the reason I went on to acquiring all this knowledge about the temporomandibular joint and helping in creating an informational brochure for a clinic in India. Although I never really got to see the true results or impact that this brochure made, I was able to connect with people of my ethnicity and hopefully inspired some positive change.  I felt so empowered and glad to have spread knowledge that most Americans are lucky enough to have. Inspired by this experience, as I received an email about the CINQ classes and all the opportunities that lie within them, I knew there was no way I could pass up the ability to cause large impact globally.

In addition to my main motivation to help other people, I really believe that this class, CINQ, and the GSIF will help me. I believe it will solidify my strong interest in bioengineering and provide me with the knowledge of health issues globally. In addition, it will help me understand the needs of the people and how products and ideas need to be more than just good, but that they need to be sustainable, attractive, demanded, manufacturable, etc. In addition, I will learn to use the skills and lessons I’ve been taught in the classroom in a setting other than a four o’clock test or homework assignment. It will force me to think beyond just applying a formula, but apply these ideas to one of the most complicated things in the world: people. Overall, I think an international experience will help me to have a change in perspective of the world and the different issues people face in different areas. Meeting new people and being introduced and surrounded by different cultures will broaden my horizons and help sharpen my communication and people skills.

To address the sunglasses problem in Kenya, not only access to sunglasses is needed, but the proper education and educated individuals are physically needed in Kenya. The correct care cannot be given without optometrists from other nations or areas going to Africa. That initial information and knowledge needs to come from an external source, to begin with at least. At first, care would have to administered, and then hopefully eventually a long term educational program could be implemented for sustainability and long term results. As for the glasses, hopefully a product made with low cost, local, super accessible products, such as wood, could be created. This would stimulate the local economy and provide a low cost solution.