Inspirational Projects & Documents

Inspirational Document: What is the What by Dave Eggers

This book has been extremely inspirational to me in choosing this particular thesis, and I describe its influence in detail in my personal statement. By reading What is the What, I gained a larger awareness of the history and current issues in Africa (though obviously these vary largely from country to country). One of the central themes in the memoir is the main character's struggle to obtain education, which directly relates to the mission of Streetwise. Although the book isn't written as a call-to-action for education—the emphasis is on Achak refusing to be silent about his life—it portrays a detailed picture of the difficulty of obtaining education in some regions of Africa. The book is successful in terms of its critical acclaim and number of copies sold, which isn't directly related to its depiction of educational issues; however, its popularity serves to increase awareness of the issues, such as education and genocide. Similarly, one of the most important components of my project is publicizing Streetwise with the hopes of obtaining contributions.

Inspirational work: The Game of LIFE

The second inspirational work for my thesis is The Game of LIFE. Many aspects of a person's life are greatly influenced by the cards he or she is dealt at the start. Certainly people can work to improve their lives, but not all things can be overcome with just hard work. Sometimes, even where there's a will, there's still no way.

The kids on the streets of Accra were dealt a difficult hand with which to start the game, at least in aspects such as education. I can imagine a slightly different edition of the game in which people who have extra cards can choose to donate them to or share them with others. Streetwise will continue to work toward obtaining public education cards for these kids and hopefully improve their chances in The Game of LIFE.

Inspirational Project: BioBronc – ITP thesis of Megan McMurry '07

During my first year at ITP I became friends with Megan McMurry and participated in several informal peer review/feedback sessions regarding her thesis – the BioBronc. My vision of a thesis was something physical, something one builds over the course of the semester. It was tangible and probably used physical computing. Megan's thesis, however, was largely theoretical, at least to the extent she was able to develop it during the semester. She made plans to build the BioBronc, publicized it, and most importantly, applied for grants to finance the it. The whole grant application process never seemed feasible to me -- I assumed it was only for people who have government-sanctioned projects or people who run non-profits. Because of Megan's work on the BioBronc, I was able to expand the realm of thesis possibilities and choose a topic I find more interesting, though less tangible. I am also encouraged to investigate the grant application process and research potential grants for which I, as an individual student with a small project, can apply. Finally, her project changed my expectations for what a "finished" project looks like. She didn't have the BioBronc actually built by the end of the semester - she's continuing to work on it almost two years later. That gives me confidence that I, too, can work on a project that I enjoy, that requires money, and that doesn't have to be 100% complete by the end of April.