Leadership in Action (LiA) Outline (Part A)
Your full name: Shilvaan Patel
Cornell University
Title of your LiA project: Defusing Schistosomiasis and Reducing Global Resource Shortages
The organization or partner with which you are working: EPLS and SIA (Senegalese partners on the project)
The need or cause you are supporting: What is the specific problem, cause, or opportunity you are exploring?
The specific cause I will be exploring involves using geospatial data to find communities that our proposed intervention may benefit as well as conducing focus groups in these communities to eventually determine the most effective way to sustain the changes we introduce.
Goal: What is the big-picture idea/vision and desired outcome that your LiA project is trying to achieve in order to address the need or problem above?
The project as a whole seeks to find a sustainable method of eradicating schistosomiasis. Schistosomiasis is the second most devastating parasitic disease in the world, most prevalent in the developing world. In Senegal, where I propose my LiA experience take place, parasite is primarily carried by two types of snails that both feed off of a specific kind of aquatic vegetation. Removing this vegetation from freshwater sources may therefore significantly reduce the spread of schistosomiasis in affected communities. Furthermore, the removed vegetation will be used as compost or livestock feed and could then significantly increase food production, and using it as fuel in biodigesters could offer both fertilizer and cooking gas. In this way, the project seeks to address the root cause of an extremely prevalent and devastating infectious disease while also addressing food, water, and energy shortages in affected communities.
Objectives: How will you achieve your goal? Write 3-5 SMART objectives outlining how you will achieve the overall goal.
List any challenges, barriers, or risks to achieving your objectives.
What are some ideas you have to overcome those barriers or challenges?
Weekly milestones: What are the significant activities/objectives of the LiA project outlined by week?
|
Week |
Start Date |
Milestone |
Details |
|
1 |
7/8 |
Get into field |
Get settled in Senegal, meet collaborators, start going into field |
|
2 |
7/15 |
Data collection |
Visit roughly a quarter of the villages in our sampling frame and collect data |
|
3 |
7/22 |
Data collection |
Visit roughly a quarter of the villages in our sampling frame and collect data |
|
4 |
7/29 |
Data collection |
Visit roughly a quarter of the villages in our sampling frame and collect data |
|
5 |
8/5 |
Final data collection |
Visit remaining villages and gather data |
|
6 |
8/12 |
Final checks |
Ensure we have all the data we need, visited all villages we were supposed to etc. |
Addressing requirements
- An experience in a new and personally challenging environment
- Have never been to Africa (and have never spent more than a few weeks in developing countries). This would be my longest exposure to third world communities
- Working with communities in need doing something that makes the world a (sustainably) better place
- Our project seeks to determine the effects of a potentially valuable intervention in one of the most underserved communities in the world while also devoting extensive resources to determining how to make the intervention as sustainable as possible for the community
- Developing and demonstrating your leadership skills, attributes, and Laidlaw values
- While I won’t be leading a team, one of my biggest takeaways from the Capstone was how community-engaged leadership is just as much about listening to stakeholders as it is about action. In this sense, there is a significant leadership component
- Learning through service overseas
- Won’t be paid (aside from stipend)
- Serving communities by communicating valuable information
- Can talk to Professor Barrett about action objectives involving # of communities we interact with, regional variation, and the depth of those interactions