While many students consider their senior year of high school to be a time for making some lasting memories, incoming freshman engineering student Zachary Davin decided to test his abilities by participating in the Social Innovation Challenge, held by World Vision Canada, in June.
The Social Innovation Challenge was created to tap into existing talent and ideas being generated by innovators across Canada, and was recently relaunched as a global collaborative innovation platform that allows different challenges to launch in parallel in different countries.
Davin’s team competed in the Water Challenge, which asked students to invent a way to deliver safe and clean water to the remote and highland villages of Sogod on Cebu Island, Philippines. Contestants were able to present their ideas in Seattle to World Vision and expert industry partners for a chance to win $25,000 in funding to implement and incubate their ideas.
“We chose that challenge because we were really driven by the fact that we had an opportunity to make a real, promising change in the lives of people across the world,” Davin said.
He first learned about the competition in his high school’s new engineering class, and began to quickly form his team in November.
“We found it challenging to balance all the work needed for the competition and the rest of the time needed to be a full-time student,” Davin said. “However, the experience gained was more than worth the extra effort required.”
Throughout the year, the competition included different phases. The first involved all participants submit their solutions and business models. After this, five teams were shortlisted to work together in a mentor community to further develop their ideas and business models. Eventually, the teams pitched their final business models in Seattle.
“It felt very gratifying knowing that the trip we made, and thoroughly enjoyed, was the fruit of our past year’s labor,” Davin said. “It was a very meaningful time, and the opportunity to give our vision for a healthier, more productive community was quite special.”
Davin said that his ability to participate in such a large-scale competition as a high school student makes him confident in branching out at Texas A&M University. He expects his future academic pursuits to amplify his experience as he plugs his newfound competitive nature into engineering student opportunities like Aggies Invent.
“It’s all about striving toward achieving your dreams,” Davin said. “Going through what may seem to be an impossible task can lead you to accomplish things you never thought possible, and it’s an asset that cannot be gained by inaction.”