*Insert Senior Thesis Title Here*
Thesis Week 1:
Ever since I decided to switch from Industrial Design to Interaction Design freshman year of college, I thought I had found my life-long passion, and thought that through that thriving passion for helping people I would eventually have that ‘aha!’ moment, and find my ultimate focus and goal I would instinctively want to work with and make a difference with on my final senior project. Truth is, I haven’t.
Make no mistake, I have found my passion, but exactly what that passion narrows to? I don’t know. It’s that passion what opens up the possibility around an endless sea of things that I could make a change in the world… that is what makes it hard.
One thing I do know? I want to help those in need.
It’s inevitable, I want to make a difference to the my very beloved my community I grew up in through interaction design. What community? México. Why? No matter how hard I try to deviate away from it to try and find other design opportunities, I always end up coming back this. I feel a responsibility to give back to the community that shaped me into who I am today, and that has enormous potential that is unfortunately being hindered by unethical causes.
Corruption in México
“Power doesn’t corrupt people, people corrupt power” — William Gaddis
PRO: Simple, this is the very backbone of everything that prevents México from thriving as a prosperous nation and as a group of people collectivity. It is also the source of origin for my next two thesis options. Corruption is not only a result of the decisions and actions those in higher power make, but it’s also a collective phenomena that can be tracked back to the singular ethics and values of each individual that grow and change in time, accumulate, and take effect as more people with like-values unite. If change in ethics and values is made on a single individual from an early age, and slowly scattered through larger communities, a door for transparent change is opened.
CON: I don’t except to solve corruption. How does anyone even begin to approach such an issue? Of course, I could begin to approach it from a singular perspective rather than a collective. However, diving into such large issue would open a pandora box of more questions than answers.
Access to education in México
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” — Nelson Mandela
PRO: Education is the key for personal prosperity, and prosperity as a community. Education inequity is the largest factor preventing equal access to education. In México, Indigenous youth, of whom only two out of ten have the privilege of attending school, and youth from rural areas lack, in most cases, both the accessibility and the infrastructure for a proper education. Equal access to a proper education across the 30 million youth around the country, especially those hindered from it, would be radical in every social, economical, and political aspect.
CON: Politics are directly involved with the creation of infrastructure and accessibility of education on the areas where there is education inequity among the youth. Corruption from a local to a federal level are involved is what has caused such effect. Total disruption of such would require immense efforts from all governmental branches.
Poverty in México
“Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings” — Nelson Mandela
PRO: 45% of Mexicans live in extreme poverty. Poverty leads to the a reduction in basic resources, such as access to clean water, food, housing, education, employment, among a plethora of others. Reduction in poverty would not only raise the standard of living for individuals and families, but would come along with and increment in education accessibility and corruption reduction.
CON: Ending poverty is a dream. As with my previous two thesis options, corruption and access to education are directly involved with the continuation of poverty at such a massive number as it currently is.
[BONUS] Environmental Awareness/Access to Environmentally Friendly Infrastructure
PRO: Regardless of who where are and where we live, climate change is real and will continue to worsen and affect both, us and the environment in more catastrophic situations. Awareness leads to action, which leads to result.
CON: Depending on socio-economic status, politics, and area of living around the world, applying a well established infrastructure, and creating a change of mind and habit in people will most likely take a large period of time.
