Had you asked me why I was attending college when I first came to Olin, I likely would have answered, “Because I want to be an engineer.” Taken at face value, this would seem a reasonable answer, but my inability to better justify such an important decision just highlights my perspective at the time that college was simply a necessary step in a path to do the kind of work I thought I was interested in. Doing things because I thought it was expected of me fairly well characterized my first few semesters at Olin, be it the classes I took or the activities I engaged in. After having spent 4 years at Olin, my perspective on my education has changed radically. Rather than trying to meet external pressure, I aim to do things because they interest me. This has enabled me to explore a much broader range of topics and draw connections between a variety of fields which I otherwise would not have been exposed to. Ultimately, choosing to tailor my educational experience has led to me being far more engaged in my learning and developing significantly as a learner. Given the impact of this on me while at Olin and how I expect it to impact me after Olin, I chose to focus my GCSP portfolio on Personalized Learning.

People are more likely to improve themselves, their communities and the world if the change is simpler, more desirable, cheaper and easier than the current option, and the activation energy to switch is low. We are creatures of habit. Society has inertia. Changing the world requires changing people’s minds and altering their behaviours. My conscience compels me to try to improve my environment. Over time, I have developed my philosophy for enacting change, and refined my approach. In each of the experiences I will describe below, I identified a behaviour in my peers worth adjusting, created a desirable and simple solution to alter their actions, and gave them the tools to enact change. The scope of these experiences may not be global, but in each, my actions attempted to cause people to improve themselves as individuals, ameliorate their community or have a lesser impact on the environment. Through these, I learned how to lay the foundation for a real behavioural change in my peers, I learned how to lay the foundation for real behavioural change in my peers. This mentality scales up for Grand Challenges. The Grand Challenges cannot be resolved with technology alone, or solely through social pressures, or by simply passing a bill. They cannot be solved by throwing money at them, nor by holding hands and wishing they would go away. Grand Challenges demand all of these things together -- and more: an interconnected ecosystem of scientific innovation, an enlightened social paradigm that welcomes the change, strong political will, ample economic resources and yes, a dash of optimism. With all these elements acting in concert, we can change our behaviours in meaningful ways and be able to achieve great things.

In this document, we will examine the parallel practices of existing microfranchises. We start by introducing the definitions used to discuss these microfranchises and the businesses referenced for this study. Then, we examine the analogous organizational decisions made to achieve economies of scale, reduce necessary man-power, and continuously improve the model. After, we find the strategies on-ground which makes these organizations successful in "selling their products," and finally, discuss the applicability of this model beyond the developing world.