LoginJoin Bold.org
user profile avatar

Janie Sasha Surkin

5x

Finalist

2x

Winner

General information

Hobbies & Interests

  • Business And Entrepreneurship
  • Tennis
  • Chess
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Biking And Cycling

Reading

  • Academic
  • Art
  • Biography
  • Economics
  • Business
  • Novels
  • Social Issues
  • Adventure

I read books daily.

Bio

I am a dreamer, a thinker, and a doer. I've never believed that having your head in the clouds is a flaw; it's vision paired with relentless follow-through that has carried me this far, and I don't plan to stop inventing ways to make the world better for everyone. In 2018 I founded Theo Vision, a self-prescribing glasses kit that makes vision care accessible to all, and have raised $135,000 to develop and distribute it to people in need. Along the way I've helped raise over $18,000 for the Eastern NC Food Bank as an SAT tutor, planted 1,000+ trees at Eno River State Park, served 13 years as a Girl Scout, and directed the TEDxNCSSM conference. I completed my undergrad at UNC-Chapel Hill as the Wayland H. Cato Scholar, and I'm now pursuing a Master of Engineering in AI and Materials Science at Duke. Bold.org helped fund my undergraduate career, and I am again met with high costs of attendance to pursue my dreams at Duke University, which I am grateful for bold.org to apply for scholarships to help fund my education. Outside of work, I teach cycling at CycleBar Chapel Hill and I'm endlessly curious about moonshot ideas that become reality, such as spaceflight and the Artemis missions, the impossible aerodynamics of a bumblebee's flight, and the quiet mystery of prime numbers.

Education

Duke University

Master's degree program

2026 – 2027

Majors:
  • Mechatronics, Robotics, and Automation Engineering
  • Materials Engineering

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Master's degree program

2025 – 2026

Majors:
  • Accounting and Related Services

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Bachelor's degree program

2021 – 2025

Majors:
  • Business Administration, Management and Operations

Stanford University Online High School

High School

2019 – 2021

North Carolina Sci/math Dstnc

High School

2019 – 2021

Miscellaneous

Desired degree level:
Master's degree program
Graduate schools of interest:
Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Majors of interest:
Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations, Materials Sciences

Career

  • Founder and CEO

    Mechanical or Industrial Engineering · Theo Vision

    Jan 2021 – Present

  • Development Officer and Operations Analyst Intern

    Investment Banking · Impact Investing Club at UNC Chapel Hill

    Jan 2021 – Jan 2022

  • Girl Scout Ambassador

    Non-Profit Organization Management · Girl Scouts NC Coastal Pines

    Jan 2008 – Jan 2022

  • Lead Zumba Instructor

    Health, Wellness, and Fitness · Campus Recreation

    Jan 2022 – Jan 2024

  • Chairman Officer

    Robotics · FIRST Robotics (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)

    Jan 2017 – Jan 2019

  • Finance Lead

    Events Services · TEDxUNC

    Jan 2021 – Jan 2024

  • Lead SAT Reading & Writing Tutor. Helped raise over $18,000 for the Food Bank of Eastern North Carolina.

    SAT Reading & Writing Tutor · SMath Tutors

    Jan 2020 – Jan 2020

  • Institutional Advancement Attache

    Accounting · NCSSM Foundation

    Jan 2020 – Present

Miscellaneous

Dream career field:
Executive Office
Dream career goals:
Company Founder and Leader
Has nursing license:
No

Future Interests

  • Entrepreneurship
Learner Calculus Scholarship
In my experience, numbers are the universal language. Not emotion, sign language, english, braille, or other. It's numbers. From the Fibonacci Sequence to the notorious first 3 digits of pi, it's something that can unite people from all different backgrounds. Calculus is pivotal to all STEM fields because it unlocks the ability to move with the world as it grows. Like eurhythmy, the world has a pattern of chaos, a constant unpredictability. We see it in black holes, weather patterns, disease trends, and ocean flow. Within my field of study, materials science, calculus has made it possible for me to manipulate different materials to create a new kind of glasses lens that will revolutionize the entire industry, making it more accessible, efficient, and affordable. Specifically, the geometry of glasses make them function, and this geometry can be created by changing how a material is dispersed across a plane. Specifically, the geometry of a lens determines how it bends light, and this geometry can be engineered by controlling how a material is dispersed across a plane. In calculus, this is described by a parabolic function, which is a curve defined by continuously changing rates of curvature. Without differential calculus, there is no way to model how that curvature must vary across the lens surface to correctly focus light onto the retina. Without integral calculus, there is no way to sum those infinitesimal changes into a manufacturable shape. Calculus is not just a tool for me, it's the grammar of the universe's language. And once I learned how to speak it, I changed from simply observing the world and instead, started shaping it to be better. This Fall, I'll be pursuing a Masters of Engineering in AI and Materials Science. During undergrad, I studied business with the purpose of applying my STEM invention from high school at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics to the business world in order to bring it to the people who need it. Calculus has been the through line connecting all of it: the physics of optics, the geometry of fabrication, and the optimization models that will one day make prescription eyewear accessible to the 2.2 billion people who currently go without. When I was in middle school, I attended a summer camp focused on combinatorics and optimization functions. In a world with finite resources, I learned how math can be applied in order to optimize natural resources for the most benefit for humanity. With this scholarship, I'll be able to pursue this at Duke University in the Fall 2026.
Jennifer Kelley Memorial Scholarship
The experience that shaped me most is founding Theo Vision, a startup built around a point-of-care prescription lens fabrication platform I invented. But the moment that made it real was watching a kid at school get his first pair of glasses. Seeing his face change when the world came into focus told me everything I needed to know about why this work matters. I have spent years in optoelectronics research turning that moment into something scalable, and I show up every day knowing the stakes are not abstract. They are that kid's face. Theo Vision's commercial model is only half the mission. The other half is a nonprofit arm I am building to partner with the UN on eliminating the global health crisis of vision care access. Over a billion people worldwide need glasses and cannot get them, and that is not a supply problem, it is an infrastructure problem. My invention addresses exactly that by fabricating prescription lenses at the point of care, slashing the inventory and distribution barriers that keep eyesight out of reach for so many people. Hard work and creative thinking are not just values I admire in Jennifer Kelley's story, they are the tools I use every day to try to solve a problem that most people do not even know exists. Outside of school, I coach indoor cycling classes at CycleBar Chapel Hill, and that work matters to me more than it might sound. Fitness has been central to my own mental health, and being in a position to bring that to other people, to coach them through something hard and watch them come out the other side stronger, is something I take seriously. I am also an incoming student in the Masters of Engineering in AI and Materials Science at Duke University, which is less of a passion and more of an obsession. Building things is how I think. Whether it is a hardware platform, a business model, or a workout playlist, I am always trying to make something that did not exist before. My greatest motivators are the people I know my product will help. Not an abstract population statistic, but the specific person who will sit down at a machine I built, in a pharmacy or a clinic or a remote community, and walk out able to see. That kid with the glasses is not a memory I revisit for inspiration. He is a promise I made to myself about what this company is going to do. Jennifer Kelley is described as someone who put others first and lived fully in service of the people she loved. I think about that a lot, because the version of success I am working toward is not a valuation or an exit. It is a number of people who can see the world clearly because I refused to quit. This scholarship would help make the Duke Masters of Engineering possible, and that program is the next step in building the technical foundation Theo Vision needs to scale. I am not done. I am just getting started. I graduate from UNC Chapel Hill with a Masters of Accounting in June 2026, and will spend the summer work on my social-impact startup.
Marilynn Walker Memorial Scholarship
There is a version of the world where getting a pair of prescription glasses takes two weeks, costs hundreds of dollars, and requires multiple trips to a specialty lab most people have never heard of. That is the world we live in today. I am building the company that will change it. WeyeZE is my startup. Our flagship device, Theo Vision, fabricates prescription lenses at the point of care using plasma bonding technology, assembling them from standardized components in minutes rather than days. The traditional ophthalmic supply chain runs on a model that requires a separate lens for virtually every prescription combination. We reduce that to a fraction of the inventory. The result is faster access, lower cost, and a path toward solving what is genuinely a global public health problem: over a billion people need corrective lenses and cannot get them. I did not arrive at this idea through a business school case study. I spent eight years conducting optoelectronics research at UNC Chapel Hill, watching the gap between scientific capability and real-world application grow wider every year. That experience gave me the technical foundation to build something real. What it did not give me was the business infrastructure to scale it. That is exactly what my education is designed to provide. I am currently completing a Master of Accounting at UNC, which has sharpened the financial discipline every founder eventually needs. Understanding deferred tax strategy, modeling cash flows, and reading a balance sheet with precision are not abstract skills for me. They inform how I structure WeyeZE's financials, communicate with investors, and plan for growth. Accounting taught me that sustainable ambition is built on rigorous numbers, not just compelling narratives. The next step is a Master of Engineering in Artificial Intelligence and Materials Science at Duke University, which this scholarship would make possible. Bridging my scientific background with formal engineering training will allow me to move Theo Vision from a working prototype into a manufacturable, deployable product. The clinical and commercial deployment of a medical device requires systems thinking at a level that neither a research lab nor a startup whiteboard fully prepares you for. Duke's program will close that gap. After that, I plan to pursue an MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business. The business relationships, strategic frameworks, and investor networks accessible through a program like Stanford GSB are not easily replicated elsewhere. At the stage Theo Vision will be by then, that environment is exactly where I need to be. Each degree is not an isolated credential. Together, they form a deliberate architecture for scaling a company that sits at the intersection of optics, manufacturing, and healthcare access. The ambition is real. The plan is specific and the problem is too important to solve halfway. Marilynn Walker built something meaningful in a world that did not always make room for her. I understand what this is like as a woman in business, starting my own company in the STEM world. I intend to do the same as Marilynn and aspire to emulate her bravery in blazing new paths for herself and other women to follow.
Let Your Light Shine Scholarship
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.
Combined Worlds Scholarship
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.
TEAM ROX Scholarship
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.
Jeannine Schroeder Women in Public Service Memorial Scholarship
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.
Colby R. Eggleston and Kyla Lee Entrepreneurship Award
Winner
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.
Scholarship Institute’s Annual Women’s Leadership Scholarship
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.
Girls Ready to Empower Girls
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."
Colby R. Eggleston and Kyla Lee Entrepreneurship Award
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.
Janie Sasha Surkin Student Profile | Bold.org