{"id":60392,"date":"2023-06-21T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T13:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/?p=60392"},"modified":"2024-03-04T15:33:59","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T20:33:59","slug":"alumni-michelle-duong-solve-for-tomorrow-lit-in-me-a-fire-for-giving-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/alumni-michelle-duong-solve-for-tomorrow-lit-fire-for-giving-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Michelle Duong: Solve for Tomorrow Lit In Me a Fire for Giving Back"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Name:<\/strong><\/td>Michelle Duong<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Today:<\/strong><\/td>Making a career pivot to pursue a degree as a Physician\u2019s Assistant<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Plans for Tomorrow:<\/strong><\/td>\u201cGet closer to the people I\u2019m helping\u201d \u2013 an aspiration Michelle developed during the course of her Samsung Solve for Tomorrow experience<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Ties to Samsung Solve for Tomorrow:<\/strong><\/td>As a High School sophomore at Eastside San Jose\u2019s Downtown College Preparatory School, Michelle was a 2014\/2015 Solve for Tomorrow National Winner, part of Downtown\u2019s student team that developed a \u201cgrey water\u201d recovery system for residential home use. Four and five years later, during Solve for Tomorrow Years 11and 12 (2019\/2020 and 2020\/2021), Michelle returned as an Alumni mentor \u2013 helping teams prepare for their final pitch presentations. She describes that role as \u201cAwesome \u2013 being on the other side of the table and sharing with students my own experiences with the competition and life after the big day.\u201d<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n
What was your path from Samsung Solve for Tomorrow<\/a> STEM competition winner to where you are today?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

I really started on that path before formally entering Samsung Solve for Tomorrow<\/a>. Our Engineering and Math teacher Mr. Ruelas proposed entering the competition in spite of the doubts our class had about being capable of competing at that national level. As students who didn\u2019t have a lot of resources, we learned to be resourceful with what we had when building our project. And it inspired the confidence that each of us was indeed capable, believing that \u201cI can and I WILL\u201d succeed. Solve for Tomorrow<\/a> opened so many doors for me. It really changed how I thought about things after the competition had ended.<\/p>\n

I know that if not for that chance I took, I wouldn\u2019t be where I am today. I didn\u2019t have a lot of role models in the community growing up and Solve for Tomorrow<\/a> introduced me to so many successful people who were so supportive. After high school and starting college, there was a period when I felt a little lost with school and life. But thanks to the Solve for Tomorrow<\/a> experience and the introduction to the world of STEM<\/a>, I was able to focus my \u201cI can and I WILL\u201d confidence to study cardio science and health tech in college, to graduate and secure a position as a User Experience (UX) researcher and designer for the non-profit UNICEF. There, I was able to live the dream of helping people by taking user input to develop solutions that improved their interactions with health services and products.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Like many of my peers, when COVID came it made me take a hard look at my life, at what I was doing, and at my future. Looking ahead, I knew I wanted to act on the spirit of giving back to the community that Solve for Tomorrow<\/a> had sparked in me. And I wanted to get closer to the people I\u2019m helping than I could in my UX role. So, I decided to take a 180 degree turn in my career and am going back to school to be a Physicians\u2019 Assistant. That will be the next stage of my career.<\/p>\n

Tell us about the origin of the \u201cgrey water\u201d project.<\/strong><\/h5>\n

California may have gotten a reprieve from the most severe drought \u2013 but it\u2019s clear that for California and for all the Southwest, water use and water scarcity is going to remain an issue. That was the origin of Downtown College Preparatory School\u2019s Grey Water project. California was experiencing severe drought at that time. Some of the most impacted communities are those like Eastside San Jose, where many residents had large or multigenerational families living under one roof, who would have difficulty limiting water use. Those disadvantaged communities can least afford the high cost of water or the high fines for exceeding water use mandates.<\/p>\n

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At the same time, a large portion of household water is wasted \u2013 or at least underutilized. \u201cGrey Water\u201d \u2013 water used in the kitchen, doing laundry, taking showers and baths \u2013 can be captured, filtered, and sanitized fairly easily, and used to water gardens, yards, and crops, instead of being run through costly municipal water treatment facilities and\/or dumped into the ocean. Using materials available at local hardware stores, our class designed a system that we built in Mr. Ruelas\u2019s backyard. With a little plumbing work, it processed \u201cgrey water\u201d to use in the garden or for other secondary uses in place of costly \u201ccity water.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the most important thing you learned or took away from Samsung Solve for Tomorrow<\/a>?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Solve for Tomorrow<\/a> really taught me two key lessons. First, that belief that \u201cI can and I WILL\u201d \u2013 which has guided my life since participating in Solve for Tomorrow<\/a> and is guiding me now that I\u2019m making a new career shift. For the second lesson, the STEM competition<\/a> really lit the fire in me to give back. It showed me the importance of helping support my community<\/a> in any way possible.<\/p>\n

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Something else I learned was how important it can be for an under-resourced school like Downtown College Preparatory School to participate in a program like Solve for Tomorrow<\/a>. First, we got to experience the support of our school and community<\/a>, which rallied together with fund raising so we could build our grey water system and demonstrate that it worked. Then, as we moved up through the competition all the way to National Winner, we were really able to give back. With our Solve for Tomorrow<\/a> prize, the school was able to get Chromebooks and other classroom technology<\/a>. It really helped Mr. Ruelas build the engineering department. That was tremendously important for us.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your advice to STEM students<\/a> and teachers<\/a> who might consider entering Samsung Solve for Tomorrow<\/a> next year?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Do it. You have to take advantage of chances when you have them. They may not come around again. Just believe that \u201cI can and I WILL\u201d \u2013 and have the confidence to know that you can indeed do things, that you can succeed. And stay focused on what you can give back to your community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What was your path from Samsung Solve for Tomorrow STEM competition winner to where you are today? I really started on that path before formally entering Samsung Solve for Tomorrow. Our Engineering and Math teacher Mr. Ruelas proposed entering the competition in spite of the doubts our class had about being capable of competing at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29719,17563],"tags":[91,34,16225,832,30034,37,730,35,26197,28420,50],"blue-badge":[],"class_list":["post-60392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corporate","category-corporate-education","tag-citizenship","tag-education","tag-innovation","tag-public-affairs","tag-samsung-solve-where-are-they-now","tag-social-responsibility","tag-solve-for-tomorrow-sft","tag-stem","tag-stem-education","tag-stempathy-in-schools","tag-sustainability"],"acf":{"turn_off_retargeting":false},"fimg_mobile_url":"https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/19094546\/samsung-solve-where-are-they-now-michelle-duong-featured.png","fimg_url":"https:\/\/img.us.news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/19094546\/samsung-solve-where-are-they-now-michelle-duong-featured.png","primary_category":{"term_id":29719,"name":"Corporate","slug":"corporate","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":29719,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":1026,"filter":"raw","term_link":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/category\/corporate\/","term_path":"corporate"},"badge":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60392"},{"taxonomy":"blue-badge","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.samsung.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blue-badge?post=60392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}