GCSP

The Grand Challenges Scholar Program (GCSP) provides the opportunity for engineering students to conduct engaging work that has an impact in global community. By tying together research experiences, interdisciplinary studies, entrepreneurship, and a global dimension, GCSP is a unique experience that will mold students into truly global citizens working on the important problems seen around the world. Internationally-focused work has let me participate in a number of great projects and between my time spent in the Peace Corps in Cameroon from 2011 to 2013 and HESE-related travel to both Kenya and Sierra Leone, I have gained valuable knowledge about life, culture, and work in developing countries. My work with the Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship (HESE) Program as well as my graduate studies in the College of Information Sciences and Technology have allowed me to experience a number of GCSP-related projects.

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Personal Development
  1. Working with HESE has helped shape my career goals. HESE was the first experience I had working on project for low-resource contexts and led me to pursue a career doing the same type of work.
  2. My Peace Corps experience as well as HESE travel and fieldwork have shown me that I both enjoy working in developing countries and can be effective while doing it.
  3. Working with social enterprises as a part of HESE has shown me the potential of entrepreneurship in the developing world. This has shaped a lot of my personal views about development economics.
Professional Development
  1. Working with HESE as a graduate student has provided me many opportunities to mentor undergraduate students. This has allowed me to share some of my experiences with younger students and help them learn something about this type of work.
  2. HESE has provided the opportunity to complete multiple publications. As a graduate student publications are important and the variety of HESE publications has added a great deal of depth to my CV.
  3. I am interested in launching my own social entrepreneurial startup following the completion of my PhD. Working with this type of venture with HESE has been valuable experience that I will be able to apply to my own work.
Short-term and Long-term Career Prospects
  1. HESE publications are especially valuable to me as a graduate student doing research about technology in developing countries. HESE also allows me the opportunity to work on research that might not be directly related to information technologies but is nonetheless interesting and useful for my long-term career goals.
  2. HESE fieldwork directly led to my master’s thesis which is about Mashavu health workers and their use of technology. HESE has also provided many opportunities for academic publication, as previously mentioned.
  3. Having worked with HESE for approximately 10 years now, I hope to continue the engagement during the completion of my graduate studies and after. The type of work I hope to undertake is very much related to HESE and I hope a future partnership can be valuable to both HESE and myself.
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