In case you’re new here: Hey there, welcome! I’m a student interested in the fields of product design, IoT, nonprofits, and many other things!
Thank you, and I genuinely mean it. Every year around Christmas, I write letters, cards and send emails to people that I’m thankful for — this year was no exception, although I wasn’t able to meet people as I wanted to.
This December, I’ve been able to reflect on the past year, thinking about all the global issues that happened, the international events I’ve been to, the crazy relationships I’ve built, and the life-changing projects I’ve worked on. From donating over 20k items of PPE with my experience at Social Diversity for Children to working with over 6,000 members at Erevna, 2020 was a blast, but also a very crazy journey. I can’t thank everyone enough — thank you for making this year a very special one.
I’d definitely agree that 2020 has greatly transformed our lives: most people faced the greatest economic crisis we’ve ever had in the past few decades; my family was no exception. But I really appreciate the fact that this has been a year of opportunities and growth: my community has evolved through the pandemic; rather than going to in-person coffee chats and conversational meetings, we’ve moved completely online, allowing greater flexibility in time management. Rather than being limited to the resources available to me in person, my interests and connections expanded through the digital sphere; this can be seen through my active presence on the Intercollegiate Discord server, where I developed a hobby of guessing where people are from, based on their accent. These interactions ultimately helped shape who I am by the end of 2020, and the differences in my personality compared to 2020 is clearly visible.
Through these experiences, I’ve cultivated a greater understanding of Appreciation — not just being thankful for the assets you have, but being thankful for the connections you’ve developed, the unforgettable memories, and striving for a larger goal in the future.
Projects 🧑🏻🔬
Revolutionizing the education system with Students Improving Schools 📚
During the first week of December, I’ve hosted the Students Improving Schools (SIS) conference as an organizer at Policy for the People, a Harvard student-led initiative organizing events that bring students and mentors together to write policies.
From a discussion-based conference and close-knit workshop sessions to collaborative proposal writing and 1-on-1 mentoring office hours, the SIS Conference of 2020 was jampacked with policy ideas on all things education reform. As one of the lead organizers of the organization, I’ve mentored students from all around the world (especially New York!) and discussed the future of education.
Students like Jen is one of 100+ selected individuals to participate in this event; I had so much fun crafting policy proposals on the topic of “Equity and Excellence in K-12 American Schools”, a material from Harvard Course Gened 1076.
I’d love to see you participate in our events as well! Click the button below and learn more about us!
Introducing Merge! 🤯
Since launching Hack Vancouver in September 2020, I’ve realized that there was so much potential for us to impact billions through our initiative. Thus, we’ve incorporated as a provincial non-profit as the Hack+Policy Foundation; we’re encouraging youth engagement in solving our society’s most pressing issues.
Although I haven’t officially released the event on our social media platform, we’re launching Merge, a 30-hour global intercollegiate hack+policython gathering people in STEM and Humanities together. With over $40k in prizes, we’re trying our best to deliver the best possible experience for all attendees. Learn more about us through the link below!
Creating Social Impact through IoT 🤝
This past month, I’ve also released my first article on creating social impact through IoT. As an active community leader, I always seek to find better solutions to improve the quality of life in my community; moving forward, I’m interested in scaling these impacts to certain locations in the world where the quality of life is significantly lower than my own community, and I found IoT to be the perfect solution to that.
As I mention in my article, one of the ways IoT can create a social impact is through boosting Food Production in Africa; this is done through finding the intersection of IoT, Machine Learning and robotics. This transforms the entire farming process into automation, which reduces human labour and shows an increase in output.
Moving forward, I’d like to create a practical application of IoT in real-life situations like this. If you know any experts, professors, or industry leaders that are currently working towards solving humanitarian crises through IoT, please let me know!
501cTHREE City Challenge
Following up on last month’s newsletter, my team has finally finished our deck for the 501cTHREE Consulting Challenge! We have a two-fold recommendation: by reducing the cost of the Water Quality Measuring System and creating a user-friendly app, we believe that we can improve the water quality in the impacted areas by impacting over 3 million Americans.
Our pitch is going to happen in the first two weeks of January, and we’re excited about what result this will bring. (Hopefully, a good one!) I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my teammates Adam, Ahmad and Ava for dedicating over 40 hours in the past month to work on this challenge — it has been an amazing experience so far. Check out my LinkedIn for further updates on this project; I’d love to come back with a positive message!
Upcoming… 🤩
You can find me organizing, or participating in these events! I’d love to see you there :)
nwHacks 2021, January 9-10
Hack the Northeast, January 15-17
Vancouver Model United Nations 2021, January 29-31
The Education Policython, February 20-21
If you’ve made it through the end of this newsletter, thank you! As always, I love receiving feedback for my content! Feel free to reach out or schedule a coffee chat with me :)