Week #13: Living an Impact-Focused Life – Blog #10 Fall 2021
Living an Impact-Focused Life
What’s your Why?
I believe I was put on this earth to…help others. For me, helping others can be the work that I do on a daily basis to improve our public K-12 educational system. At a more granular level, helping others can be seen in my efforts to to assist individuals that I encounter during my “regular” day. I find myself stepping in to help with things like translating for someone having difficulty communicating in English, stop to help the person on the side of the road with a flat tire, or helping an elderly person at the grocery store carry their groceries to their care. I instinctively step forward to help.
My purpose is to…serve.
I believe (my core values)…Assist, Collaborate, and Serve. Central to my philosophy is the importance of building a culture of excellence with others to deliver high-quality service to the thousands of children and families served.
The one thing I must do before I die is…? I do not have a pending list of things that I must do before I die. I try to live my life to the fullest, everyday. I work towards making everyday better than the day before for the people that I serve and my loved ones.
My advocates and supporters all believe that I…am a hard worker and a role model for others. They believe that I am a man of his word.
The evil I want to eradicate in this world are…the roadblocks often put in front of children of color that makes their journey in life more challenging than their white counterparts.
I want to work in order to…help children and their families experience a positive, supportive, and nurturing learning experience.
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…treat others with respect, volunteer to serve, and look for ways to grow/develop myself, and hold myself to higher standard.
I never…not follow-through, disrespect others, or drop the ball (on purpose).
My work style is…to be positive/constructive, punctual, inclusive, honest, and direct.
I try to treat people…as I would like to be treated, or better!
I approach problems by…brainstorming all possible solutions alone or with others.
Victories are time to…pause, reflect, and celebrate with the team who helped with the accomplishment.
If someone attacks my point of view I…first listen, then ask for understanding why they have a different perspective, reflect to see if I can truly see their perspective – if I determine that it could be fruitful debate, will offer my thoughts. If not, simply stay silent and thank them for their opinion.
If I fundamentally do not agree with what an organization or person is doing, I will…ask for permission to share and share my opinion and respectfully share my opposing views. I always speak the truth, even if not the popular thing to do.
Your Credibility – Your Whats
You have spent some considerable time at Lehigh, and specifically in the Global / Lehigh Valley 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 |
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| Research Experiences | Dissertation on the Affective Domain of Learning; created and validated an instrument to measure how interactions between teachers and students can be used to measure affective teaching practices. |
| (Social) Entrepreneurial Ventures |
Save Tuba: Almaty, the commercial capital of Kazakhstan and a major hub in Central Asia, is facing enormous challenges with sustainable urban development. Uncontrolled migration burdens the housing infrastructure, outdoor air quality, access to clean water, and waste-water management systems at the constantly-growing periphery of the city – leading to negative environmental consequences which prevents economic growth. For example, despite investing over $500M over the last 15 years in recycling systems, only 11% of municipal solid waste is actually recycled. To increase recycling rates, “Save Tuba” is a venture focused on sustainability education to students ages 10-14 within Almaty, Kazakhstan. “Save Tuba” is a gamified app following a character by the name of Tuba, a critically-endangered saiga antelope native to the Kazakh Steppes. Tuba is in need of assistance as they face several challenges in an attempt to restore their home after suffering from environmental destruction. Together with the user, Tuba takes students on a journey that connects knowledge, inquiry and action to help students build a healthy future for their communities and the planet. Kazakh students will engage in a series of minigames, individual/small group activities, and class/community-wide projects with guidance from their teachers and families to start recycling, reduce litter, educate their peers, use public transportation, in order to develop sustainable and healthy habits. Save Tuba enables young students and their teachers to embark on a series of real, relevant, and meaningful sustainability actions with the goal of long-term behavioral change. The Lehigh team is collaborating with diverse partners like Almaty Management University and the Kazakhstan Ministry of Education to develop and validate the app to pilot-test it with schools in Almaty before moving on to creating the final product. |
| Formal Presentations
(at Lehigh and Beyond)
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| Awards and
External Recognition |
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Articulating and learning from G/LVSIF-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) |
Teamwork was challenging, especially if the intrinsic motivational levels differ among the team members. An important lesson that was reinforced during the experience was to push forward and not give up despite the inclination to want to walk away from the venture due to the challenging team dynamics. |
| Conflict Resolution Experience
(and Lessons Learned) |
It was difficult to work past some of the conflict since members were not willing to voice the reasons for their challenges or be part of the honest conversation needed to resolve the issues. |
| Leadership Experience
(and Lessons Learned) |
It was interesting to see others hesitate to take the lead with our collective efforts. In my attempts to allow others to lead, I believe the venture was negatively impacted since we did not make the needed or potential progress. |
| Dealing with Chaos, Ambiguity, and Uncertainty (and Lessons Learned) | This was a challenge! The team seemed to barely show progress at times and fully stalled at some points without any progress as a result of the chaos, ambiguity, and uncertainty of the venture. |
| Personally Challenging Experience (and Lessons Learned) | Practicing patience with the less dedicated members was personally challenging. I struggled to see how Lehigh students would not be as motivated, dedicated, and committed to the venture/class as I was. |
| Cross-cultural Experience (and Lessons Learned) | The limited collaboration with the AlmaU partners was probably the highlight of my experience with GSIF. The challenge to work with a group of students from another country, who predominantly spoke another language, and had an 11-hour time difference was difficult but rewarding. The progress made as a result of the true commitment to work through the challenges are highlights of our growth. It includes the data from focus groups with students and teachers and much of our content translated into Russian and Kazakh. |
| An experience that helped you connect your G/LVSIF work to your discipline / major. | The focus groups were the closest of any experience from GSIF that was connected to my discipline as an educator. I had a small part with the curriculum development, which is also part of my discipline. |
Draw Your Life
What’s Your True North?
Create the story of your life. How do you want to contribute to the world through your talents, passions, and unique strengths? Think about your values, the roles you play, what gives you a sense of purpose, and ultimately, what you have to offer by being your best, authentic self. Draw a picture of your life as you envision it. Be remarkable. Be yourself.
