Gateway to honors
Interview Insight Reflection
Food Insecurity
I was told that you get exposed to many different cultures and socioeconomic classes when coming to college, but I never expected the extent to which this would impact me in just two months of being on campus. Coming from a small town, I knew my exposure to different kids of people was not huge, but I thought it was better than it was. Through exposure to others, my views on politics and social issues are changing with each person I meet. After talking with Tony Fairhead, the Executive Director at Childhood Food Solutions, a not-for-profit that helps combat food insecurity in Cincinnati, Ohio, my perspective on food insecurity and the cycle of being stuck in socioeconomic classes has drastically changed.
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Tony Fairhead talked us to about a report that was published twice regarding questions asked to figure out if people who hungry. The statistics were shocking, yet nobody contacted his organization to help, so he concluded that the problem of food insecurity is hidden. He told us that people don’t want to admit that they can’t feel their kids because of the risk of their kids being taken away. Not only was I astonished by the fact that 51% of adults in poverty responded “sometimes” or “never” to “During the past year, did you ever run out of food and not have enough money to buy more?” but since this problem isn’t being noticed, helping to take on the problem makes it even harder. But this makes me want to change even more. Tony said, “we are going to end child hunger in this zip code (45225).” He helped show that there’s a way to take on a big problem by starting smaller.
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But as we continued talking, I soon found out that even though Tony is doing a phenomenal job helping to combat food insecurities in 45225, there are so many pockets of this poverty all over the nation. This opened my eyes to have lucky I grew up, and how many opportunities I have to make a change. The issue of food insecurities will not go away quickly. And if it gets solved in a certain area, there are so many other areas that are in desperate need of help. As Tony said, “you begin to see it everywhere.” There needs to be enough people who get how much this matters to start enough change. We, as UHP students can help spark change in those around us. This interview has reinforced my view that it is necessary to get out of certain cycles in lower socioeconomic classes to make a difference in one’s family and community. Food is one of the factors that will help get these kids out of poverty. When they can stop worrying about where their next meal comes from, they too can become Global Citizen Scholars and make influential change around the world.
Problem Pitch
Global Citizen Scholar Plan
My Global Citizen Scholar Mission
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I am driven by my passionate beliefs in curiosity, knowledge, and love. I pursue these passions by utilizing my core strengths of learner, achiever, and input. I plan to live out these values through opportunities where I am learning and creating to achieve action and excellence that impacts families and special needs. To do so, I will seek opportunities to use design thinking and make ideas-driven changes. When I face challenges or obstacles along the way, I will remember to accept that change is inevitable and track my progress on goals.
Reflection
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As an industrial design student, I feel as if I have a unique opportunity to be able to create products that can both directly and indirectly impact the lives of those I design for and their communities. I feel as if my Global Citizen Scholar Mission reflects my desire to change lives, whether it is through the designs themselves or action taken from preliminary research at the beginning of the design process. Industrial designers and Global Citizen Scholars share a common goal—to fix problems that bother them. I plan on starting a journal where I constantly jot down things that bother me. By carrying this with me as much as possible, I will be able to have a working idea book to never forget an idea I have, whether it is just identifying a problem or coming up with a solution. Being active in this journal is a goal that I have for myself, through college and after, to help facilitate change that I want to make in this world.
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I am interested in designing products and creating change for people who do not benefit from the current products on the market. Although my interest in what specific special need to help changes often, every passion of mine relates to helping people in one way or another. My current ideas resonate around helping my mother and those with other speech related issues. My mom’s vocal cords are deteriorating, making it difficult for her to speak loudly and clearly, which is detrimental to her at work. Her current microphone to help combat this is clunky and embarrassing. With a redesign, her life at work would be vastly improved as her ideas to help enact change in her own way would be able to be better expressed and shared with her colleagues. In addition to that, her personal life would improve as well, helping to make her more comfortable talking with friends in casual situations. A solution to her problem could also impact many others who have this rare issue but are too scared to get more help.
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Even impacting one person’s life could improve the lives of a community or group of people. My mom’s case is a small and close to home, but bigger topics, like children’s exposure to the arts and knowledge of careers in design also interest me. On the other end, I am interested in helping to combat food insecurities to allow kids to thrive in school and have better lives. No matter the size of the issue, I believe that just being mindful and aware as I progress through my life, and keeping track of my ideas, will help me to identify problems that bother me and find or design solutions to help combat them.
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As with product designs, solutions can always be improved and revised as needs develop and change and new problems are discovered. Because of this, it is important to reflect to be able to sum up my thought processes and how I think about the topic and the work I put into solving the problem. I plan on doing this in the same journal to have a bounded collection of all my ideas throughout the whole process. Then as time progresses, I can read back through this journal and evaluate and redesign past projects.
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Overall the opportunity to be a Global Citizen Scholar will impact my college experience positively and start a habit of caring for others and helping them through change for the rest of my life.