Now back among the familiar sights and smells of Tuscaloosa, I am excited to apply all that I have learned from my study abroad experience. An incredible trip, the UA STEM-MBA Study Abroad experience in India has taught me so much about myself and the way the business is practiced in a foreign country.
Blown away by the differences, I am so glad I had the chance to immerse myself in this experience. After my previous post, we finished up our last week living and learning from rural communities in the Himalayas. In addition to the breathtaking views, working in this region proved to be extremely different in comparison to the areas we had been in previously like New Delhi and Jaipur. With it remote location, communities in this region also suffered from many of the common problems we had identified previously like water quality, but the remote location further exacerbated this by limiting access to water itself.
Relying on the glacier systems, this region always had plentiful water, but with global warming, this has become a problem. With melting glaciers reserves, residents no longer can rely on glacial waters to irrigate crops and provide water for their daily needs. Due to this, my team in particular chose to focus on working with water.
Rather than developing methods of getting water, we wanted to work on improving the water people had. We decided to develop a quick water test that would help people know if they needed to boil water. With this, we hoped to encourage people to actively purify their water and question its cleanliness, something that most people in this region had never done previously.
Overall, I had a great time on this trip, and look forwards to continuing our research and work back on campus!