I'm an aspiring biologist and artist who loves research, reading, and thought-provoking discussions. I’m a very curious person - I love meeting people and I can always be found going to random events in London. Right now I’m studying biology at Oxford University.
I’ve always wanted to make an impact on the world. When I saw Non-Trivial I was very intrigued and decided to just go for it! I get a lot out of hands-on learning, so I was excited by the idea of starting my own impactful project.
The first few weeks of content were SO much fun. I learnt so many new ideas that completely challenged my thinking about how to have an impact on the world. I loved how free the program is - you guide your own learning, and decide what you want to get out of it. I enjoyed the project although it was quite hectic and a lot of hard work.
Cheryl growing E. coli in a lab
I focused on global catastrophic biological risks because they seem very high stakes to prevent and, despite the COVID pandemic, still surprisingly neglected. I researched the problem extensively and identified the need to accelerate our ability to quickly react to new pandemics. My policy proposal advocated for changing the regulations to encourage the development of platform technologies (such as mRNA technology), which provide a reliable and rapid way to address unknown future (and likely artificial) pathogen threats but are currently held back by stringent regulations that do not regulate by platform. Next, I hope to speak to experts about my policy proposal and push for changes in the area.
I learnt about effective altruism, which is a way of thinking, as well as a community, that offers countless resources and out of the box ideas to have a bigger positive impact on the world. Non-Trivial made me reconsider a lot of things - like what I actually want to do with my career, how am I going to make an impact and what does impact look like? In terms of knowledge I learnt a lot about biosecurity policy and the threat of catastrophic pandemics, which I don’t think I would have thought about if I didn’t do Non-Trivial.
Cheryl drawing ancient Buddhist statues from life
The final project was difficult, because there were so many uncertainties, so much we don’t know and so much I haven’t managed to research. I kept thinking that my project was not good enough, that it will not have real impact or that it will never work, or that I can’t make it perfect. That’d hold me back - I’d lose motivation and I’d stop working. However, I also had a friend working by my side so that every time I wanted to give up, I would complain to him, and it would make me realise it’s not so bad after all which would help me keep going. I finished my project just in time to meet the deadline, pulled everything together and was really happy with the results. It showed me that I didn’t really need to worry about all of that, that all of the self critique was just holding me back.
I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting in the past months - what my values are, what I want to do, what does the life I want look like. I’ve been working on letting go of the mindsets and limiting beliefs that are holding me back. I’ve also recently started working for a start-up called Afinity, which provides free university application resources and advice to students around the UK. It’s a lot of fun - I get to work on whatever seems like the most important and collaborate with a team of very cool people.
Find something important you want to work on and work on that. Just start, don’t be afraid of not doing it right. Surround yourself with people who’ll support you in reaching your goals. Enjoy the process, be willing to change your approach even after you’ve invested a lot of time (beware of the sunk cost fallacy), and don’t get too fixated on making it perfect or winning.
