Saving the world, one volunteer at a time

From the moment of Witty's announcement, I knew that I wanted to be a PULSE volunteer. In my final year of undergraduate studies at NC State, I considered numerous career options, including the very real possibility of joining the Peace Corps.  Those who know me well can understand my motivations, given the bleeding heart that I (figuratively) wear on my sleeve.  Although I strongly felt the urge to do my part to "promote world peace and friendship, per the Peace Corps mission, I felt I needed to have a stronger grounding in the so-called "real world" before undertaking such a challenging role.  I also wanted to use the engineering skills that I had gained in college and didn't see that opportunity in the Peace Corps. On a side note, my story may have followed a different path if Engineers without Borders, a potentially perfect combination of Peace Corps and engineering, had existed at the time.  However it was founded in 2000--by a civil engineering professor at the University of Colorado, where (coincidentally) I was in grad school at the time.

When Witty announced this initiative in 2008, it provided me with an opportunity to contribute to the greater social good, much like the Peace Corps, while remaining a part of the supportive community of colleagues I have at GSK. I'm thrilled that I've been given a meaningful task near and dear to my heart in my Pulse assignment...but we'll save that discussion for another day.

Be the Change

Come October, I’ll be moving to Ghana for 6 months as a volunteer in the GSK PULSE Program. This story begins with an announcement from our CEO at GlaxoSmithKline, Andrew Witty, in the internal end-of-year broadcast in December 2008. Here’s how our corporate PR folks summarize the program that Witty created: “Launched in April 2009, PULSE is GSK’s new initiative that empowers employees to make a significant difference in impoverished communities, at home or abroad. Transformational change can happen when employees use, share and pass on their professional skills and knowledge during a 3 or 6 month immersion experience within a non-profit or non-governmental organisation (NGO). Volunteers address a clear NGO need whilst developing their own leadership capabilities.”

The overview of my assignment:
“The Millennium Cities Initiative is involved in a partnership with Ericsson and Zain, the global communications firms, to connect junior high schools in Kumasi, Ghana, and soon, in Accra, Ghana, to the Internet. The City of Kumasi is donating the computers, and the communications firms are setting up the Internet connections and carrying out basic training with the teachers at the participating schools. MCI, together with Teachers College, is developing and furnishing a curriculum focused on the uses of the Internet to strengthen instruction in science, math, technology, literacy and issues of global interest.”

We're still working out exactly what I'll be doing, but the idea of this assignment is a great fit for my many years of involvement in promoting STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) career paths to middle and high school students, especially underrepresented groups.

If you’d like more details on the PULSE program, there’s information at http://www.gsk.com/community/employee_involvement.htm and http://www.gsk.com/responsibility/our-people/developing-our-people.htm
and a video at http://www.gsk.com/careers/pulse.htm.

I'll keep posting in the months leading up to my assignment, as well as when I'm overseas.