What I Don't Want

Although it is only the beginning of the school year, I already have decided what I don’t want this semester. I don’t want to simply perform the tasks that are traditionally expected of students. I don’t want to exist in a community where “the way things have always been” remains the way that things are. I don’t want to continue engaging in “business as usual” when that business is not productive, sustainable, or responsible.

To me, innovation is looking at a problem and seeing an opportunity. It is easy to sympathize when you see an individual who is suffering. Unfortunately, it is also easy to then walk away. The issues that we face seem insurmountable. How can one student take on a problem that involves many complex, systems-level forces?

A colleague recently told me, “Don’t try to change the world. Change a world instead”. Changing the world is solving complex problems. Changing a world is seeking solutions that can have a meaningful impact, regardless of the size of that impact. While systems-level changes may not be the initial result, it is possible to generate smaller, local changes that have a meaningful effect on people I encounter in my community every day.

As a student in SE400: Capstone Course in Social Entrepreneurship, I am required to launch a social enterprise. Throughout the process, my goal will be to approach each challenge I encounter not as a problem, but as an opportunity to learn, create, and innovate. I don’t want to accept “business as usual” when I don’t agree with it. When I look at a challenge, I want to see an opportunity to study, explore, learn and ultimately positively disrupt the way things have always been.

This is a photo of me taken at Google Kitchener-Waterloo, which I had an opportunity to visit during Doors Open Waterloo Region. Through Doors Open, I was able to see how groups in fields like international affairs, theoretical physics and technology all innovate in our community every day.

#StudentBlog #SE400 #Innovation