World We Dare To Imagine 1
The first step in making the world a better place seems like something with so much weight. It’s almost intimidating to think about.
The first thing that comes to mind is international aid.
Coming from Kenya, I’ve always been interested in providing opportunities to developing countries because I was provided those opportunities. Often people migrate from developing countries to seek a home in a new space. However, that has consequences on their connection with their culture and community. Instead of moving people out from their home country, we could instead bring to them the opportunities they are looking for.
One specific area is in the realm of education. Education has an enormous impact on society. In developing countries, most of the leaders in society are educated. Often people try to come from the west and be a leader of these countries. But this is a problem because how can they lead a community that they don’t belong in. That’s why I’m interested in providing educational opportunities to people who already reside in that community. So that they can help their community. Helping people help themselves. With this in mind, I would like to cater to youth.
I would also like to implement access to education resources in lower-income spaces in the U.S. I don’t know the full scope of this idea yet, but the target audience would be high schoolers.
Another area is poverty alleviation everywhere. Whether it’s through philanthropic measures or on-site work. This idea was first for developing countries but after living in LA for a bit my perspective shifted. I think although the U.S has a lot of opportunities, the American Dream often screws up a lot of people without resources.
Although I don’t want to go into the medical field as a doctor, I’m interested in providing health resources to those who don’t have access, specifically mental health resources.
I would also like to make an impact through art/ creativity. I think in all the things stated above there will be some sort of art component linked to them.
Lastly, access to travel. I feel like people would empathize more with a group of people if they could travel and experience their culture. To be real though, travel is not very accessible. How can people change the world if they can’t see it?
All this to say, I don’t have the first step just a broad picture. I think research would be a good step to gain more context.
Hi Lesley,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed how your post spoke about a lot of efforts to make the world a better place, and I think all of these things are things that you 100% can accomplish throughout your lifetime. I think your perspective will forever be different than mine because you have moved to the United States from somewhere else, and are even continuing to have the experiences to travel throughout college. Although I did live in a suburb of London for a few years as a toddler, I wish I remembered that experience and I wish it would have shaped who I see myself as a person more. I genuinely learn something from you every time you speak in class, and I really appreciate what you have to say.
Especially as you travel in WBB, my suggestion for your next step would be to do the research you speak of in each different place you live in. How could you try and immerse yourself in each of the new environments you will be in?
Thank you,
Zoë
Hello Lesley,
ReplyDeleteThe best business idea for your goal came to me--a school! You could make a university at extremely low rates (I don't know how, but just roll with it). This would solve your education problem. The school's mission would be to educate people about worldly issues while giving them the option to travel at a reduced price (again, don't know how this would happen). It could be a university and have a requirement for a year abroad. And since it's a college, that means people will get access to healthcare! You might not see direct change in a year, but the alumni will start changing the world after a couple of years. It'd also be interesting to have the majors only deal with issues. Like clean politics, or environmentalism.
- Ellie Aguirre
Lesley,
ReplyDeleteSeems like you have a lot of great ideas, and a pointed focus on education throughout all of them. I agree that aid needs to build a foundation that can then be built off of, it can't just be momentarily adding something only for its effect to diminish later. I think your idea of educating individuals to be leaders and educators themselves is incredibly important, and reminds me of the old idiom of teaching a man to fish.
It's definitely interesting to see how you noticed that similar problems are rooted in countries so geographically separated, and even how this seems to betray the notion of the American dream. I think a good step would be to synthesize your ideas about poverty alleviation and education. Maybe educational programs which teach lifelong crafts would be helpful in both alleviating poverty as well as creating generational streams of knoweldge.
- Kevin
Hi Lesley!
ReplyDeleteYou have so many ideas and I can clearly tell that you have thoroughly thought about different ways to make the world a better place. Since I focused on education and educational resources throughout the US and other countries as well, I will speak more toward that.
Would you want to focus on high school aged students across the globe, or just in the US? Either way I think it is an important idea to provide these materials and opportunities so kids can grow up with passions and interests that they want to pursue. I have worked for an NGO providing educational materials before, and you may want to consider something similar to their operations in Brazil. While they distribute boxes of resources to children, they also host classes and workshops for kids to learn in a more in-depth way. The classes could also focus on health and wellness, so some of your other goals could also align with this. I think it may be more beneficial for you to pick one region of a country to start with, as tackling the entire globe at once would clearly pose some challenges.
That being said, I really think your next step is to do research on what region you would want that to be--which I think could benefit from you traveling and seeing, rather than just looking places up online.
-Samantha
Hi Lesley,
ReplyDeleteI dig your post. I think that education is so important for this world in terms of making it a better place. How can we expect our fellow human beings to do right, act morally, provide for themselves and others, treat family right, etc if they were never taught how to do so!? In a strange way, I think that your post relates to Ellie's post. Her post was about the importance of therapy (some of it was). How can we expect people to grow if they do not know the past traumas that are holding them back? That is a question that incorporates ideas from both of your posts. I wish you the best on our journey Lesley. Stay safe and do you!
Mason