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spotlight: Making a world of difference | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Student blogs highlight international development projects. |
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This summer, MIT students are working around the world to develop sustainable solutions to challenging problems. Under the auspices of MIT's Public Service Center, the students below are working to improve health services in India, redesign wheelchairs for use in Tanzania, provide affordable Internet access in Uganda, and document development work for a photo exhibit at MIT in the fall.
Read their blogs below to learn how these MIT students are indeed making a difference. Catherine Tweedie 'G: Cat in India Catherine is a graduate student in materials science and engineering spending the summer in India as part of the Public Service Fellowship India Team. Catherine writes, "I leave for India in two days with my team of 4 other MIT girls: Yamilee, Sony, Jessica, and Julie. We will be the first team participating in a multi-year collaboration between MIT and the Rai Foundation in India. We will work with Indian students for one of three local NGOs. The organization that I am most likely to work for is HCRA (Handicapped Children Rehabilitation Association). The goal of this project is to improve health care access for disabled children in New Delhi. I will write more about the project mission and what we hope to achieve once I get to New Delhi. I have a visa and malaria pills...I think I am ready to go :)" Read Catherine's blog: http://catinworld.blogspot.com Tish Scolnick '10: Tish Takes Tanzania Tish, a sophomore in mechanical engineering, is a Public Service Fellow working in Tanzania on improving wheelchair technology and improving the mechanisms through which disabled people can get mobility devices in Africa. Tish writes, "The man testing our chair this week is named Richard and he seems like the perfect man for the job. He lives in a very rural area, and uses his wheelchair to travel at least 5 kilometers each day. He even pushes himself all the way to town sometimes which is over 10 kilometers each way! I had the opportunity to sit down and ask him many questions about his wheelchair usage (while Abdullah translated) which provided some great information. He'll be using our chair for a week and then we'll be back next Wednesday to get his feedback. And of course the atmosphere wouldn't be complete without pigs and chickens running around behind us." A week later, she reports back, "Overall Richard really liked our wheelchair! He took it on the daladala (Tanzanian public transit) on Sunday and his experience was much better than when he has tried with his old, rigid wheelchair. Usually he is turned down by several conductors, but when he told them that his wheelchair could fold he was picked up by the first one that stopped! Before we left he asked if we wanted to trade--he would keep our folding chair and we could have his rigid one! He tested the chair in some really rough situations and he was very happy with how it performed. There are a few small things that we can improve on, but I'm really happy that it's working out so well!" Read Tish's blog: http://tishinafrica.blogspot.com Course website for SP.784 "Wheelchair Design in Developing Countries" Biyeun Buczyk '10: Interconnection Uganda Biyeun Buczyk is a member of the class of 2010 and a Course VI-II (electrical engineering & computer science) major. She was first introduced to the Computers for Uganda (CFU) Project by her high school's computer science teacher, and went to Uganda for the first time in 2005 as a student technical leader. She writes, "After the first visit, I was hooked. The lush, green beautiful countryside made me feel right at home, and the Ugandan people, especially the students I met at the schools, were so inspirational--many faced incredible hardships at such a young age, yet still held onto the hope that they could change their world. Since then, I've been determined to share with them the technology that has helped me so much in my own life--the computer, but more specifically the Internet. My hope is that in the near future, not only will every school lab have an Internet connection, but anyone in Uganda will have access, and at a much lower cost than it's currently available for at the moment." "This summer will mark my third time back to Uganda. I will be there for two months, working on the inital setup of the InterConnection Uganda computer refurbishing warehouse, and on the curriculum that will eventually be taught by computer science students and professionals at the center. Throughout the two month stay I will keep you updated through this blog as often as I am able to. Hopefully my story will inspire you and teach you a few wonderful things about a country that many people have not had the privilege to visit." Read Biyeun's blog: http://uganda.mit.edu Christina Kang '08: Through My Eyes Christina is a senior in brain and cognitive sciences with an interest in both international development and photography. She is traveling, with partial funding from MIT's Public Service Center, to India, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and China this summer. She will be documenting the various projects Public Service Fellows have embarked upon--from a rehabilitation center in India to a wheelchair project in Tanzania. Christina's goal is to showcase students' efforts and accomplishments in a publication documenting MIT student involvement in international development. She writes, "In my search for a summer project, I wanted to be able to make a difference to my immediate community, MIT, and to the world. I never dreamed that my interest in photography would show me the way to the perfect project. The idea began as a seedling, but the seedling quickly sprouted as I realized that my photojournalism could serve to celebrate students' achievements, teach the MIT community about problems in other countries, and motivate others to get up and volunteer themselves. Despite a lot of international development work being done by the MIT community, a lot of the work goes unrecognized by both MIT and the world around it. Here was a way to spread the word!" Read Christina's blog and see her photos: http://csk07.blogspot.com |
 Catherine Tweedie 'G: in front of the Taj Mahal
 Tish Scolnick '10: testing a wheelchair prototype... she seems to have made some new friends!
 Biyeun Buczyk '10: bringing affordable Internet access and IT training to Uganda
 Christina Kang '08: photo courtesy of the Deepalaya students... they seem to like the lower half of my face :) |
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