Tackling poverty, one person at a time

MIT senior and Rhodes Scholar Sarah Tress aims to use engineering to reduce hardships in developing countries. When Staten Island-native Sarah Tress first arrived at MIT, she had never been outside of the United States. Now, almost four years later, she's travelled across Asia, spending weeks at a time in India, Vietnam, and Indonesia. But the reason for all this travel hasn't been sightseeing - she's been working to reduce poverty, one person at a time. Tress began her studies at MIT on a premed track. However, a MISTI internship at a hospital in a poor region of India in the summer after her first year made her feel there was a different application for her skills. Seeing homeless people living just outside the hospital's gated entrance, and recognizing her privilege as an MIT student and a U.S. citizen, she shifted her goals. "There are so many people trying to get so few med school spots, a lot of people would happily take my spot if I were to get in. But working to fight poverty is not nearly as popular of a career choice," she says. While those in the medical field may see more of an immediate impact to their work, Tress feels  each individual effort to fight poverty makes a difference. Poverty may be a broad and international problem - but we have to start somewhere, she says. Tress was awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship last November for her work in developing countries. But before that, she was a mechanical engineering major who wanted to make an impact - and she happened to take a class on wheelchairs that would inspire her to do just that. Making a life-saving product more affordable