Why did you enroll in this course (motivation, prior interests)?
Never in my life would I have thought to be cooperating in this opportunity to conduct research with a mission to finding a solution to diagnosing Sickle Cell Anemia in Sierra Leone. What ignited my motivation to pursue research all began with my AP Research during my Senior year of high school. AP Research involved conducting year-long individual research with a 20-page written report and a 15-minute presentation. After many consultations on choosing a topic with my instructor, I landed myself pursuing research about “Avian Botulism and How it Affects the Koloa Maoli (the Hawaiian Duck)”. Hawai’i really prides itself in protecting our native flora and fauna, and the Koloa Maoli is one of the many waterfowls that are endangered. Currently, less than 2,000 are living on Kaua’i and many of them are affected by Avian Botulism type C (Clostridium Botulinum), a naturally occurring soil bacteria that becomes activated under anaerobic conditions.
To entirely engage in my research, I took the initiative to find a mentor and after numerous emails, an expert from the Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge from Kaua’i had shown interest. My initial data collection consisted of emailing which lead to phone calls with her then leading to an actual invitation of traveling to the refuge for an on-field case study accompanied by her. I diligently worked to fund my flight to Kaua’i and as I took my first steps out of her field truck, I felt this sensation when I saw the vast land covered in taro fields, this was true research. I realized you can only learn so much through online databases and scholarly articles. I was able to personally explore 917 acres of the sanctuary, the areas where avian botulism outbreaks have occurred, research facility, and observe the various endangered waterfowls that have made this refuge their home. After the first visit, I was invited once again for the next month to visit a wildlife clinic running a program called, Save Our Shearwaters and another preserved land (Hule’ia) off-limits for protecting the endangered waterfowls.
In any type of research, it is so important to make connections to actually start your journey of making an impact. I realized it is difficult to start something alone. With the guidance of my mentor, she opened my eyes to a whole new perspective of biodiversity and the importance of her work. She connected me with many more experts to reach out to, who all held the same passion for their work as my mentor did. To personally see the condition these waterfowls were in after being paralyzed by the disease encouraged me to strongly emphasize this concern in my presentation and speak up about it. These one-day trips spent with just her, me, the field truck and nature really endowed me a sense of purpose, reason for being and overall appreciation of my research. One day I hope to return and perform research to discover a vaccination that could relieve the waterfowls from Avian Botulism. Due to this experience, I came to Lehigh because of their outstanding research-based curriculum. I began working under Professor Cheng’s research on the Sickle Cell Diagnostic Device and sparked an interest in becoming involved GSIF!
How do you envision this course making you a better (<your major>) student?
I, once again, would like to participate and partake in these rewarding practices. From the first impression of lecture taught by Professor Khanjan Mehta, I immediately felt an atmosphere of engagement and a sense of dedication. It was nice to share a space where everyone is determined about making a difference in the world one way or another. As a bioengineer, we have the moral responsibility to extend our hands to provide help in the global crisis. We’ve been taught with everything behind classrooms, ranging from mathematics to biological principals. However, these skills need to be applied especially to places that are poor and have limited resources, which involve real ventures and people. This semester I will learn multidisciplinary factors as I work with my teammates, professors, and fellow classmates. Ultimately, this fieldwork will transform me to become more globally educated and emphasize the sole purpose of why I want to be a Bioengineer.
The World Health Organization estimates that over one billion people who need eyeglasses do not have access to them. The vast majority of these people live in developing countries like Kenya where there is barely one optometrist per one million people. Given the high poverty levels, access to eyeglasses is almost nonexistent. Lack of proper eyeglasses severely impacts people and their livelihoods by decreasing their productivity at work, limiting or eliminating new opportunities, affecting their quality of life, deteriorating their general health and possibly leading to (preventable) blindness. What solution do you propose to address this problem?
We use our eyes from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed at night. Our eyes are a part of our daily lives and without it, it feels like you have lost a type of communication; to your surroundings, to your peers and inevitably to yourself. As can be seen, the low and middle-income countries need accessible emergency care. However, countries like Africa is a large continent and it takes many of its residents to travel far just to have access to medicine. In other words, a gap because the people there should have access to decent transportation for their healthcare. With a transportation system established, I believe building and developing clinics around the continent should be encouraged. To promote convenience, vision care can be incorporated into an existing hospital, so patients can all be diagnosed in one clinic without having to travel to find an eye doctor. Significant factors that determine the clinic’s location is the population marginalized since Africa currently lacks the fundamental inventories of health care service provides. Also, vision care can be implemented into schools since most children attend school, while families tend to pick up their children from school. The end goal is for glasses to be supplied regionally, manufacturing labs to be built near each region and teach the natives the system, so they can independantly sustain permanent access to vision care.
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Good work Tiffany! It will be good to keep thinking about specific insights you gain throughout GSIF and how you can apply them to your professional interests – perhaps even for developing a vaccine for Avian Botulism.