On June 17, 2016, when I was volunteering with my teammates from the U.S. and Brazil in Ghana for an American NGO called Saha Global, we tested drinking water from a sample of households in a laboratory for fecal coliforms and E.coli in water to ensure the disinfection process had worked. After 3 weeks of strenuous work, we could proudly claim that we were successful in making contaminated “chocolate milk” like water from a local dugout in rural Ghana germ-free and safe to drink. It was not a personal or a one-person accomplishment by any means, but I had never been more proud of myself in anything I had achieved before that day, as I was able to make a tangible difference in peoples’ lives. It was because of our collective efforts that the …show more content…
However, it was my volunteering experience in Ghana that persuaded me to take several courses in the Environmental Studies department at my college so that I could at least be eligible for picking the Environmental Management concentration within my minor in Business & Management. In ‘Introduction to Geographic Information Systems’ in fall 2016 with Prof. Katherine Adelsberger, we were assigned to create a map using data from internet sources. This map had to both illustrate spatial dimensions and attribute data related to a topic of our choice. It took me very little time to decide that I should base my map on my work experience in …show more content…
I was a getting a great opportunity to apply my education in economics in a real-life setting by teaching local women entrepreneurs in the community about how to monitor their water sales. From the standpoint of economics, the ultimate objective was to be able to alleviate the economic condition of the people in the community through establishing a sustainable water business. However, the reason this business could exist in the first place was because contaminated water was made safe to drink using scientific methods. This very moment made me realize that science can have the most tangible impact on a person’s life than any other