This past weekend, I was presented with the amazing opportunity to participate in the Entrepreneurship and Global Innovation Workshop, hosted in collaboration with Ycenter and its USA genius-grant recipient CEO, Dhairya Pujara. Over the course of a weekend, our group of twenty passionate students worked together in teams, each tasked with developing innovative solutions that would address some of the world’s most prevalent issues. My team focused on tackling inequalities in the healthcare system, especially the issue of people being exploited by pharmaceutical greed and systematic corruption.
As we were taught new and innovative ways of thinking about these issues, we brainstormed creative lines of attack against these tribulations in order to make a positive difference in the world. We came to the conclusion that the specific goal we wanted to address would be the issue of pharmaceutical confusion, a problem that, according to the Milken Institute, affects nine out of every ten Americans.
When continuing to reflect on the incredible aspects of this workshop, I realize that even though our ideas were a great start in making a change in the world, we never would have been able to create these solutions if it were not for Dhairya Pujara teaching us the power of creative thinking. This program highlighted the important questions that often escape us as we are both anxious and perplexed by the chaos of the world. We were taught how to identify specific issues then begin solving problems, rather than just providing quick-fix solutions.
As I begin my life in the working world of Public Relations next year, I am very excited to work with my team in order to identify client needs and think of the problems that consumers need resolved. I am very grateful for the lessons provided to us by both Ycenter and the Ciocca Business Center here at Holy Cross, and very much looking forward to standing out in the workplace because of what I have learned.
Written by Aidan Philbrick ’25