ThinkImpact

Academy for Social Enterprises

Background

Throughout high school, I noticed that one major issue causing societal rifts and poverty is the inequality of education.

As an aspiring engineer, one of the ways that I wanted to help improve education is by starting a non-profit to create engineering and musical toys that inspire kids to pursue STEM as STEM will always be a relevant field. Along with the engineering side of things, learning music develops patience, persistence, and a sense of community.

With this idea, I wanted to make quality, personalized education more accessible to all.

Experience in ThinkImpact

In ThinkImpact, I was introduced to the world of entrepreneurship, and realized how similar it was to engineering: working in teams to generate solutions and choose the best idea, observing others to determine pain points, conducting research to gain a better understanding of the problem and how to solve it, and so much more.

The program included weekly meetings, each packed with lessons and exercises to develop the ThinkImpact Fellows' skills in speaking, ideating, and teamwork. Every other week, we also met with students in the United Arab Emirates over Zoom to continue developing the same skills and gain a sense of entrepreneurship in a different country.

Wait... we need a passport for this program??

One of the coolest opportunities we had in ThinkImpact was a trip to Ireland over Spring Break. This trip not only widened our perspectives of how to conduct business and what kind of problems can be solved with social entrepreneurship, but our ThinkImpact Fellows also became a much closer group through our fun outings.

Our program was very lucky to be immersed in such a different culture from each of our own. The line-up of speakers and activities gave us a holistic view of social enterprises in Galway and Dublin, and our tour guides gave us a great appreciation of the quaint Republic of Ireland.

Why ThinkImpact?

Even though I won't be continuing my project, this program was still a valuable learning experience.

Obviously, I learned that social entrepreneurship is not exactly what I'd like to put my time into. But, that doesn't mean that this program was a waste. I met some of the best and most interesting students at CWRU, who balanced so many other meaningful activities with ThinkImpact and came from all over the world. Thanks to our advisor, Megan Buchter, we are now connected with a wealthy network of accomplished people. And, most importantly, I got a glimpse of a world separate from engineering.

ThinkImpact introduced me to new ways of thinking and collaborating, and those are skills that I'll take to my engineering endeavors. As I continue through my college career and beyond, I will continue to find such experiences like ThinkImpact that allow me to explore different places, cultures, ways of thinking, and more.