MIT Solve

Solution Overview & Team Lead Details

Solution name.

A Second Life

Provide a one-line summary of your solution.

A web app created to help underprivileged students to receive used books and school supplies from students who no longer need them, giving those items a second life

What specific problem are you trying to solve?

I plan to tackle the overarching issue of sustainability by promoting the reuse of educational supplies: kids from poor backgrounds lack school supplies as they cannot afford them, restricting their level of education, and reinforcing poverty in an endless cycle.

On one hand, there are underprivileged kids lacking school resources, while on the other hand, these same resources are discarded after a single use, causing major damage to the environment. Donating used books to the library/recycle centers may not be the optimal solution either as books need to be sorted and organized manually before they can be made available to others.

Here are some statistics showing the magnitude of the problem.

Sixty-one percent of low-income families have no books at all in their homes for their children impacting their academic success.

An analysis of a national data set of nearly 100,000 United States school children found that access to printed materials—and not poverty—is the “critical variable affecting reading acquisition” (McQuillan, 1998).

Not having the same supplies such as backpacks or notebooks as everyone else can cause a feeling of outcast. Feeling outcasted and shame for not having the proper work supplies can cause students to lose their sense of belonging and comfort.

It causes deforestation and degradation of the Environment.

1 ton of paper requires 3 tons of trees and 7,000 gals of water.

Paper manufacturing requires a large quantity of water per ton than any other product in papermaking.

Papermaking produces high levels of air and water pollution.

Elevator pitch

What is your solution?

A Second Life (https://asecondlife.online) is a web app dedicated to reusing school textbooks and other school supplies.

I have already developed a working model of this web app (https://asecondlife.online/) which has the features to search, donate, and request textbooks and supplies. When a requestor clicks on an interested item, a private internal email is sent to the donor requesting the item.

I started with WordPress, but for the non-static/intelligent functions, paid plugins were required. Instead, I decided to code my own plugins using PHP/MySQL/HTML/CSS/JavaScript. I self-studying PHP and MySQL and utilized the free student pack offered by Github.

I will be working on the geolocation feature soon to find the closest donor for an item. I plan to create the mobile interface as 80% of users prefer a mobile app.

I will take student volunteers as they know the product best, need volunteer hours as part of their school curriculum requirements, and are likely to have a good network of interested donors and requestors.

We will be divided into departments based on responsibilities: quality checks before accepting items, categorizing and classifying, inventory and booking, finance, marketing, and advertising.

This will truly be a "for the students, by the students, and an of the students" venture.

Who does your solution serve? In what ways will the solution impact their lives?

The target customer is the student. An average student (school-$864 and college-$1199) spends about $1,031 on textbooks and school supplies: This could be an incentive to use our app.

This solution solves two problems by connecting two key groups via a donor and requestor relationship: Underprivileged kids who are in need of textbooks and supplies and students who discard them after just one use, contributing to landfills and pollution. It sufficiently achieves the purpose of our solution while creating opportunities in different areas like programming, organizing, leadership, and volunteering where students are interested in developing their skills.

How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?

I have the technical skills along with organizational skills to create a feasible solution to this problem. We as students tend to dispose of lightly used resources at a whim. I noticed how much waste this could accumulate over time, and realized how simple the solution could be with just a bit of communication. Resume:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x7ZsT8c3pQzOumF4fj8R1bu6pOP6h9mcPCqMh2W4pn4/edit?usp=sharing

I am a high-achieving student who is known as a dependable and responsible person by my peers.

I participate in a multitude of clubs including FBLA, BETA, TSA, Science Olympiad, and many different honor societies, putting work in to maintain my status in all. Also, I am the team leader for a local organization called Meals By Grace (https://mealsbygrace.org/), providing food for the needy. I often instruct large groups of people to package a variety of foods, requiring a level of leadership skills. I am a member of a local government organization called MARC (https://atlantaregional.org/leadership-and-engagement/leadership-programs/model-atlanta-regional-commission-marc/) where I am involved in the planning and development of the Metro Atlanta Region. I was also a member of the Teenage Advisory Board where we helped the library and community implement programs, and promote and advocate for youth services in our district.

The problems I anticipate facing include difficulties in community engagement since a student-led enterprise may not be taken seriously, but we can make this work in our favor. Our team will primarily consist of student volunteers as they know the products best while acquiring volunteer hours for graduation requirements or college applications. In addition, students will most likely have access to a good network of interested donors and requestors.

What steps have you taken to understand the needs of the population you want to serve?

I did a test-launch of the web app version (https://asecondlife.online/) in our neighborhood of 220 houses) and incorporated some user interface suggestions and noted down the lessons learned. The obstacles I have faced after launching the website include finding willing donors as they will have to do the manual work of entering the book/supplies info into the website. Text scanners can help with automating the process. Top donors can be acknowledged by using in-app recognition. The feeling that we are making progress is a powerful motivator but it has to be felt in a tangible fashion. Another problem was that of invalid donations: we can reduce this problem by implementing AI validation to verify valid donations. The proximity of the requestor and donor is also important as they can communicate via the app but they need to meet physically for the transaction to happen. This can be achieved by implementing Google’s Geocode API, which can find the closest donors for a particular item based on the location of the requestor.

I plan to expand this enterprise in a gradual manner after launching in our school by introducing a new club. We can then propose an organization chapter expanding to more schools and States. Technology can help link this app to schools and community library systems to support these institutions organize their supply of resources and simultaneously expand the pool of these resources for users. To further enhance educational inclusion in the community, some features to help accessibility can be implemented. For example, a text scanning feature to scan text pages of a book and convert it into braille (which will need a separate tactile printer) and hyper-legible font can assist those with low vision. A text-to-voice feature will scan pages of a book and convert them to speech.

Which aspects of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Improving learning opportunities and outcomes for learners across their lifetimes, from early childhood on (Learning)

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Pilot: An organization deploying a tested product, service, or business model in at least one community

In what city, town, or region is your solution team located?

Cumming, GA, USA

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

Aishani Bal

More About Your Solution

If your solution has a website or an app, provide the link here:

https://asecondlife.online/

What makes your solution innovative?

This solution solves two problems by just making a connection between two key groups via a donor and requestor relationship: Underprivileged kids who are in need of textbooks and supplies and students who discard them after just one use, contributing to landfills and pollution. Though this solution sounds simple enough, the proper structure must be in place to facilitate these exchanges. Educational supplies have the best chance of being rehomed in the local area, so establishing a network of such local student groups is the optimal solution for this problem.
The problems we anticipate facing include difficulties in community engagement since a student-led enterprise may not be taken seriously, but we can make this work in our favor. Our team will primarily consist of student volunteers as they know the products best while acquiring volunteer hours for graduation requirements or college applications. In addition, students will most likely have access to a good network of interested donors and requestors.

What are your impact goals for the next year, and how will you achieve them?

We plan to expand this enterprise in a gradual manner after launching in our school by introducing a new club. We can then propose an organization chapter expanding to more schools and States. Technology can help link this app to schools and community library systems to support these institutions organize their supply of resources and simultaneously expand the pool of these resources for users. To further enhance educational inclusion in the community, some features to help accessibility can be implemented. For example, a text scanning feature to scan text pages of a book and convert it into braille (which will need a separate tactile printer) and hyper-legible font can assist those with low vision. A text-to-voice feature will scan pages of a book and convert them to speech.

Describe the core technology that powers your solution.

PHP, MySQL, WordPress, JavaScript/CSS/HTML, Github Student Pack.

Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:

Software and Mobile Applications

In which countries do you currently operate?

United States

How many people does your solution currently serve, and how many do you plan to serve in the next year? If you haven’t yet launched your solution, tell us how many people you plan to serve in the next year.

I plan to launch this at my School with 2272 students by this summer. I aim to get at least 50 % interested in the first year.

Next year I plan to expand this to other schools in our district and which would be around 55,634 students, so 50% of this number is around 28000. The plan is to create a network of organizations with each school district as one unit. Books and supplies have the most chance of being rehomed within a school district.

What barriers currently exist for you to accomplish your goals in the next year?

There are no similar apps, but there are other apps used for selling and buying books like Ziffit, Depop, ThriftBooks, etc. The biggest competitor is the trash and recycling centers. It is just easier for them to dump everything in the trash or donate a big lot at the recycling center than manually entering the book/supplies info into the website. Recycling is not the optimal solution from an environmental perspective and most supplies are in very good condition to be used as is. Having text scanners would be great to reduce this manual work.

Your Team

Business Model