An inventor is someone who creates something new and creative that can help society in innovative and efficient ways. It is also someone who may decide to, say, make a parachute for her Barbie out of a plastic grocery bag, hypothetically, of course... I am an inventor because I believe that every object has potential to become something else, something no one has thought of before that is just waiting to be discovered. Overcoming the monotonous idea that tangible objects have limits is key to learning how to be an inventor. My invention of a self-correcting glasses kit has become the startup company I run today, called WeyeZE. It is a way to give sight to people who do not have access to vision care. My invention includes a base corrective lens in a glasses frame for either a nearsighted or a farsighted individual. Each glasses kit comes with specialization options to customize the glasses to the individual's needs. We have just done our first round of beta testing and are excited to run the first pilot program in February. This business started with the idea of providing it to my local community in rural North Carolina. As I've grown and am currently a junior at UNC Chapel Hill, I've realized that my business will help many people including those in my local community. I’ve ideated something that no one has done before, and most importantly, its purpose is to benefit others in their basic right which is not just sight, but clear vision. My vision for WeyeZE, if you’ll forgive the pun, started with a March 2018 article in the New York Times about the lack of affordable vision care worldwide. Having suffered from myopia myself, I knew how difficult it would be to try to accomplish anything in a world without corrective lenses, and was amazed at how prevalent the problem is in underdeveloped countries. Where others focus, nobly, on clean water or disease prevention, I was captivated by the idea that there had to be some method by which people without easy access to Western ophthalmological equipment could have their vision corrected anyway. After all, without good vision, people cannot read, and without the ability to read, long-term development is practically impossible. If I thought that education needs to become a priority in undeveloped nations, proper eye care was a hurdle I’d never considered before. I began to research both the economic and social side of the problem and the optometric side, because without understanding both I could not solve either. Dual enrolled at Stanford University Online High School and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM), I found resources and mentors able to help me tackle both. I met with engineers who mentored me through the process of developing self-prescribing lenses with the use of, essentially, stickers, and won a $550 microgrant to develop a prototype. I couldn’t stop there, however, as I would need more to make my vision a reality. Currently, I am a full-time student at UNC Chapel Hill. I have raised over $70,000 in non-dilutive funding for WeyeZE, and will be running the first pilot program in North Carolina on 50 people in the summer of 2024. I will continue to develop my business with creativity and always the motivation to make the world a better place with my business by creating clear vision care for all. This is my legacy: one of clarity, access to needed healthcare, and offering value to the individual, enabling them to "see" their true potential.

I thought everyone missed Saturday cartoons, but apparently, Chinese school was not a normal part of every kid’s routine. When I was two-years-old, I started learning Chinese. I lived 1.5 hours away from the Chinese school, and the drive there was spent studying. Despite my lack of Chinese heritage, the Raleigh Chinese Language School became my second home, along with the people and culture it connected me to. I loved spending every Saturday immersed in Chinese; practicing for tests with my classmates, sneaking a bite of a white-rabbit candy, and running around the halls, parents yelling “Man-yi-dian!” (“Slow down!”). Every year, the school would decorate for my favorite holiday, the Chinese New Year, adorning the halls with brilliant red and gold decorations. My fluency benefited me at the 2018 FIRST Robotics World Championships in Houston, where I conversed freely with Chinese teams and made plans to collaborate the following year, as seen in this world-award-winning video I created: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wxPFFVT77Y&t=15s. I later became the publicity officer for the Chinese Language and Cultures Club at my school, the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, during my junior year. I was then chosen to be the Events Chair during my senior year, responsible for bringing Chinese culture to campus. Even though I graduated from the Raleigh Chinese Language School, I still feel at home whenever I hear the intonations of Chinese conversations, reminded of the culture I wasn't born into but nevertheless is part of my identity. I was supposed to travel to China during February of 2020, but that was derailed due to the pandemic. I am ever thirsting for international experiences because it connects me with what makes everyone human, that which is universal across all origins and upbringings. Once I enrolled at UNC Chapel Hill, I had the opportunity to travel to Alaska, California, and Ireland, which helped me learn more about myself as well as other cultures, even in the US. I hope to be able to travel to Portugal, Spain, and Italy, in order to study sustainable business and climate practices. Portugal has been the first country to run on sustainable energy for six days. In order to create a sustainable and successful business and career, I must learn how healthy environmental practices can be incorporated into daily life, as the climate concern will be an essential aspect in the coming years of all careers. My Mandarin fluency opened my eyes at a very young age to how different cultures and peoples are based on their origins. I hope to learn about as many people's origins as I can in order to better understand many of the world's perspectives and creative thought processes.

An inventor is someone who creates something new and creative that can help society in innovative and efficient ways. It is also someone who may decide to, say, make a parachute for her Barbie out of a plastic grocery bag, hypothetically, of course... I am an inventor because I believe that every object has potential to become something else, something no one has thought of before that is just waiting to be discovered. Overcoming the monotonous idea that tangible objects have limits is key to learning how to be an inventor. My invention of a self-correcting glasses kit has become the startup company I run today, called WeyeZE. It is a way to give sight to people who do not have access to vision care. My invention includes a base corrective lens in a glasses frame for either a nearsighted or a farsighted individual. Each glasses kit comes with specialization options to customize the glasses to the individual's needs. We have just done our first round of beta testing and are excited to run the first pilot program in February. This business started with the idea of providing it to my local community in rural North Carolina. As I've grown and am currently a junior at UNC Chapel Hill, I've realized that my business will help many people including those in my local community. I’ve ideated something that no one has done before, and most importantly, its purpose is to benefit others in their basic right which is not just sight, but clear vision. My vision for WeyeZE, if you’ll forgive the pun, started with a March 2018 article in the New York Times about the lack of affordable vision care worldwide. Having suffered from myopia myself, I knew how difficult it would be to try to accomplish anything in a world without corrective lenses, and was amazed at how prevalent the problem is in underdeveloped countries. Where others focus, nobly, on clean water or disease prevention, I was captivated by the idea that there had to be some method by which people without easy access to Western ophthalmological equipment could have their vision corrected anyway. After all, without good vision, people cannot read, and without the ability to read, long-term development is practically impossible. If I thought that education needs to become a priority in undeveloped nations, proper eye care was a hurdle I’d never considered before. I began to research both the economic and social side of the problem and the optometric side, because without understanding both I could not solve either. Dual enrolled at Stanford University Online High School and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM), I found resources and mentors able to help me tackle both. I did research at NCSSM on vision care as a fundamental human right, through my Research Experience in the Humanities class, and an economic impact study at NCSSM as part of an internship program in computational science. I met with engineers who mentored me through the process of developing self-prescribing lenses with the use of, essentially, stickers, and won a $550 microgrant to develop a prototype. I couldn’t stop there, however, as I would need more to make my vision a reality. Currently, I am a full-time student at UNC Chapel Hill. I have raised over $60,000 in non-dilutive funding for WeyeZE, and will be running the first pilot program in North Carolina on 50 people in February of 2024. I will continue to develop my business with creativity and always the motivation to make the world a better place with my business.

An inventor is someone who creates something new and creative that can help society in innovative and efficient ways. It is also someone who may decide to, say, make a parachute for her Barbie out of a plastic grocery bag, hypothetically, of course... I am an inventor because I believe that every object has potential to become something else, something no one has thought of before that is just waiting to be discovered. Overcoming the monotonous idea that tangible objects have limits is key to learning how to be an inventor. My invention of a self-correcting glasses kit has become the startup company I run today, called WeyeZE. It is a way to give sight to people who do not have access to vision care. My invention includes a base corrective lens in a glasses frame for either a nearsighted or a farsighted individual. Each glasses kit comes with specialization options to customize the glasses to the individual's needs. We have just done our first round of beta testing and are excited to run the first pilot program in February. This business started with the idea of providing it to my local community in rural North Carolina. As I've grown and am currently a junior at UNC Chapel Hill, I've realized that my business will help many people including those in my local community. I’ve ideated something that no one has done before, and most importantly, its purpose is to benefit others in their basic right which is not just sight, but clear vision. My vision for WeyeZE, if you’ll forgive the pun, started with a March 2018 article in the New York Times about the lack of affordable vision care worldwide. Having suffered from myopia myself, I knew how difficult it would be to try to accomplish anything in a world without corrective lenses, and was amazed at how prevalent the problem is in underdeveloped countries. Where others focus, nobly, on clean water or disease prevention, I was captivated by the idea that there had to be some method by which people without easy access to Western ophthalmological equipment could have their vision corrected anyway. After all, without good vision, people cannot read, and without the ability to read, long-term development is practically impossible. If I thought that education needs to become a priority in undeveloped nations, proper eye care was a hurdle I’d never considered before. I began to research both the economic and social side of the problem and the optometric side, because without understanding both I could not solve either. Dual enrolled at Stanford University Online High School and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM), I found resources and mentors able to help me tackle both. I did research at NCSSM on vision care as a fundamental human right, through my Research Experience in the Humanities class, and an economic impact study at NCSSM as part of an internship program in computational science. I met with engineers who mentored me through the process of developing self-prescribing lenses with the use of, essentially, stickers, and won a $550 microgrant to develop a prototype. I couldn’t stop there, however, as I would need more to make my vision a reality. Currently, I am a full-time student at UNC Chapel Hill. I have raised over $60,000 in non-dilutive funding for WeyeZE, and will be running the first pilot program in North Carolina on 50 people in February of 2024. I will continue to develop my business with creativity and always the motivation to make the world a better place with my business.

An inventor is someone who creates something new and creative that can help society in innovative and efficient ways. It is also someone who may decide to, say, make a parachute for her Barbie out of a plastic grocery bag, hypothetically, of course... I am an inventor because I believe that every object has potential to become something else, something no one has thought of before that is just waiting to be discovered. Overcoming the monotonous idea that tangible objects have limits is key to learning how to be an inventor. My invention of a self-correcting glasses kit has become the startup company I run today, called WeyeZE. It is a way to give sight to people who do not have access to vision care. My invention includes a base corrective lens in a glasses frame for either a nearsighted or a farsighted individual. Each glasses kit comes with specialization options to customize the glasses to the individual's needs. We have just done our first round of beta testing and are excited to run the first pilot program in February. This business started with the idea of providing it to my local community in rural North Carolina. As I've grown and am currently a junior at UNC Chapel Hill, I've realized that my business will help many people including those in my local community. I’ve ideated something that no one has done before, and most importantly, its purpose is to benefit others in their basic right which is not just sight, but clear vision. My vision for WeyeZE, if you’ll forgive the pun, started with a March 2018 article in the New York Times about the lack of affordable vision care worldwide. Having suffered from myopia myself, I knew how difficult it would be to try to accomplish anything in a world without corrective lenses, and was amazed at how prevalent the problem is in underdeveloped countries. Where others focus, nobly, on clean water or disease prevention, I was captivated by the idea that there had to be some method by which people without easy access to Western ophthalmological equipment could have their vision corrected anyway. After all, without good vision, people cannot read, and without the ability to read, long-term development is practically impossible. If I thought that education needs to become a priority in undeveloped nations, proper eye care was a hurdle I’d never considered before. I began to research both the economic and social side of the problem and the optometric side, because without understanding both I could not solve either. Dual enrolled at Stanford University Online High School and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM), I found resources and mentors able to help me tackle both. I did research at NCSSM on vision care as a fundamental human right, through my Research Experience in the Humanities class, and an economic impact study at NCSSM as part of an internship program in computational science. I met with engineers who mentored me through the process of developing self-prescribing lenses with the use of, essentially, stickers, and won a $550 microgrant to develop a prototype. I couldn’t stop there, however, as I would need more to make my vision a reality. Currently, I am a full-time student at UNC Chapel Hill. I have raised over $60,000 in non-dilutive funding for WeyeZE, and will be running the first pilot program in North Carolina on 50 people in February of 2024. I will continue to develop my business with creativity and always the motivation to make the world a better place with my business.

I am engaged not only in my home community, but also my high school and university community. I participate in intramural sports such as soccer and ultimate frisbee, as well as various cultural clubs such as Chinese Language and Cultures Club (which I am the Events Coordinator for the 2020-2021 school year) and am on the Bhangra dance team, and am the Executive Chair for the TEDx Youth@NCSSM team. Being involved with the people and initiatives in my community helps me improve long-standing homes and feel rooted in new environments. I have been a Girl Scout for 13 years and it has been one of the defining experiences in how I view my responsibilities as a member of my community. As a girl in today’s society, I try to take advantage of every opportunity I have, and even those I have to hunt down. I’ve also discovered that working with other girls not only improves ourselves but also our community. I earned my Bronze and Silver Award projects, and am currently working on my Gold Award. I’ve discovered that working with other girls not only improves ourselves but also our community. My Bronze Award project involved learning how to use power tools and build something for my community. My troop acquired materials and tools to build 40 dog beds, which we donated to our humane society. Taking the leadership skills I learned in my Bronze Award project, I started my Silver Award project. Through this I was able to learn how to use the internet safely and smartly. I learned that the internet can be a wonderful resource in our lives - so long as we use it intelligently. I decided to create brochures for cyberbullying, the hazards of sending inappropriate information and talking to strangers online. I then invited a SBI (State Bureau of Investigation) agent to speak to my troop about internet safety. I distribute my brochures to local schools and speak at youth groups about using the internet smartly. Rather than ignoring the subject or thinking that it won’t affect us, it is more important to learn how to deal smartly with the internet. The troops in my area are all offered my internet safety program and many are interested in it for both the girl scouts and the troop leaders. My Silver Award project developed into a sustainable and relevant educational program that I believe should become part of the core class curriculum for all schools. In the future, I hope to run my startup WeyeZE, and ensure its product gets into the hands of those who need it. I invented a self-correcting glasses kit to create accessible vision care. I will lead this company to profitable success and add tremendous value to those in the world who need glasses but do not have access to them.

For a long time, I had no idea what I wanted to study. As I grew, I realized that the love of inventing and collaboration and communication was not something that everyone possessed. Once I recognized that not everyone read the Sunday New York times, listened to entrepreneurship podcasts, or was constantly thinking of a next business idea, I came to the conclusion that what I used to think was common is in fact very unique. A woman in my life who helped me become confident in myself and my dreams was my high school counselor, Janice Webster. I attended the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, a boarding school for 11th and 12th graders. She was a large part of my acclimation to boarding school life and finding a balance between my academics and life outside the classroom. We met every other week, sometimes once a month, and I found the hour I spent speaking with her opened my eyes to my potential and how I can change the world. When I told her about my desire to enter a $50k pitch competition for my startup, but went into reasons why I may not win or advance, she said, "Sasha, your fire and passion for what you're doing will not lead you astray. You can't lose, because even if you don't win, you will still learn something and keep going." This changed my life, realizing my potential is limitless and I mustn't be afraid of going out of my comfort zone for fear of failure. I ended up winning the $50k in the pitch competition for my startup, and have raised over $60,000 for my company to date. As a current junior at UNC Chapel Hill, I plan to run my startup, WeyeZE, a self-correcting glasses kit, after I graduate and continue working on growing it to have a global impact and successful initiatives to better the populations internationally. I am a doer and a self-starter, and Mrs. Webster is the woman who helped me realize I can do anything I set my mind to. I am fueled by the energy and enticement of a challenge, and am not dissuaded because of a road bump that may arise in a journey/process to solve a problem.Mrs. Webster taught me that road bumps are simply unusually shaped bridges that will take you to new heights. I believe that I can always improve, and recognize that I will never stop learning. I still keep in ocntact with Mrs. Webster, and while we don't meet nearly as often as in the past, her words and inspiration stay with me, the wind pushing me forward, whispering, "keep going."

I have a mismatched pair of lucky socks. One is blue with monkeys, whilst the other is bright yellow and covered in flowers. How did they get to be lucky? Well, one day, after a big, stressful test, I realized my socks didn’t match. I aced it anyway, and from then on, whenever I was feeling pressure, I put them on. My lucky socks became like a magic wand that would make stress fade while, at the same time, opening exciting new paths for me. As someone with a deep background in science, it wasn’t that I necessarily believed they made a difference, but I did feel that a good, long testing period was needed, particularly on days of major exams, or when I was presenting my research on the economics of vision care to the Stanford University Online High School Student Research Colloquium. I wore them when I applied for a microgrant from the Bowman-Brockman-Endowment-for-Advanced-Research-and-Entrepreneurship in order to develop a prototype for ClearCare. And, I wore them when I was recording my video as a finalist for the Archangel Dreamer Competition. Yes, yes, correlation is not causation, but who wants to mess with a good thing? It was a surprise therefore that, when I found out I’d been awarded a $50,000 grant to develop my self-prescribing lenses, I was barefoot. My vision for ClearCare, if you’ll forgive the pun, started with a March 2018 article in the New York Times about the lack of affordable vision care worldwide. Being near-sighted myself, I knew how difficult it would be to try to accomplish anything in a world without corrective lenses, and was amazed at how prevalent the problem is in underdeveloped countries. Where others focus, nobly, on clean water or disease prevention, I was captivated by the idea that there had to be some method by which people without easy access to Western ophthalmological equipment could have their vision corrected anyway. After all, without good vision, people cannot read, and without the ability to read, long-term development is practically impossible. I started WeyeZE (previously called ClearCare) with the goal of helping others in my community. I experienced how a lacking of access to glasses impacted my education and daily life, and wanted to make sure no one else experienced that because they are too far away from an optometrist's office or cannot afford glasses. The lack of access to vision care worldwide causes a loss of $250 billion in global productivity. In my community, my invention, WeyeZE, will help people get jobs, improve education rates, and enable people to see the world clearly. I am currently in the development phase of the product, getting the testing completed with manufacturers. It was with the Archangel Dreamer Competition that I found the resources I would need to make a true start on the project. I competed against people worldwide for a $50,000 grant to fund my idea and begin production. Among the finalists, I was the only teenager, and in fact just about the only person under 40. I didn’t think I had a chance, but knew that I'd put in the time and effort to make a compelling case. When the call came to tell me I’d won, I was flabbergasted...and barefooted. Now, apart from the challenge of actually starting to manufacture and distribute my product, I have another dilemma: from now on, for luck, do I need to be barefoot? I’m not sure how that will work out in the winter, but one has to suffer for science.