I met the incredibly passionate and driven Lillian Pierson through my travels and blog about a year ago, and have always been impressed with her tenacity, love and compassion for humanity, the world and charitable causes. So much so, that she was one of my first interviewees in my Be Inspired By series, which you can read here. Again, Lillian is charging ahead to make a difference and help humanity, and this time she needs your help. Read all about her latest mission now:
About
Have you heard about Jauntaroo’s Chief World Explorer position? Maybe so, it really seems like everyone else has. Jauntaroo is currently seeking to hire a “Chief World Explorer”. Whoever wins the Chief World Explorer position will be sent to 50+ destinations around the world in 1 year. The Chief World Explorer will be responsible for blogging, vlogging, engaging, and assisting in environmental volunteer activities in every community that he or she visits. When I saw this call for applications, I was not going to apply because (1) I thought the chance would be so low for me to win and (2) I could carry out my mission without the help of Jauntaroo, so why bother… The more I thought about it though, the less I could deny that Jauntaroo’s position is a perfectly suited platform and vehicle by which I could do volunteer work across the globe.
The Mission
My name is Lillian Pierson and “my mission is to leverage environmental engineering, data technology, and social enterprise practices to develop solutions that alleviate poverty, environmental health, and development problems in less-developed countries.” I am in the last few months of preparing to sit for my Professional Engineering license in Environmental Engineering. I am a crisis mapper and digital humanitarian responder. I am also a solo woman world traveler, a programmer, a spatial data scientist, a journalist, a blogger, and a vlogger. My plan is to combine all of these skills and passions to help me help people in the developing world. My emphasis is on building data-driven and crowd-sourced solutions to problems related to environmental health, resilience, disaster response, and development in 3rd world countries. I will move forward on this plan, with our without Jauntaroo.
Why Chief World Explorer?
Although I am committed to my mission whether I receive the help of Jauntaroo, here are several of the reasons I think Jauntaroo’s position could really help in my mission to make a difference.
Jauntaroo has already built partnerships with hosts and organizations with whom I can collaborate on-the-ground. As many crisis mappers have experienced, establishing connections and systems on-the-ground is a very involved process. Jauntaroo already has people set up in the 50+ destinations that they would be sending me and Jauntaroo is committed to furthering environmental projects around the world. What I am really excited about is that I also have a lot to offer Jauntaroo in fulfilling their commitment; or should I say, we have a lot to offer Jauntaroo.
I am super excited that I would get the chance to use this hard-earned environmental engineering expertise to help improve environmental conditions in places that really need it, but equally so, I am very excited about bringing my crisis mapping skills and the power of the crowd with me as I go. I envision this position as being a vehicle by which I can visit many, many places in the developing world and stay just long enough to help familiarize local organizations with crisis mapping protocol. I would like to get local organizations connected with our communities and show them a bit about how they could start their own digital humanitarian deployments (if need be) by enlisting the support and resources of Ushahidi, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap, and StandBy Volunteer Task Force. This isn’t just 1 or 2 destinations ya’ll, this is over 50 destinations in 1 year!
And that is another benefit of trying to accomplish this work with the help of Jauntaroo through their Chief World Explorer position. On my own, I am certain that I would never have the resources or support to visit and volunteer in over 50 destinations in 1 year. A LOT of good could come of this! Also, and in all honesty, Jauntaroo’s position would free up my time so that I could spend a proportionally greater amount of time on volunteering tasks. This is because Jauntaroo would actually pay me to do this work of traveling and volunteering. As of yet, I have been supporting myself financially with a full-time job, entrepreneurial gigs, and also volunteering and traveling the world in every free second I can make. It’s not an easy thing to balance because earning enough money to pay my bills takes up the majority of my waking hours. Jauntaroo will offer me salary support, and my job will be to blog, vlog, connect, and volunteer all around the world. How perfect is that?
Do I Have Your Support?
Ok, so now that you know the details about the position, what I am doing and why, I am hoping that you might support me in my endeavor here. The candidacy is only open til September 15th and they are considering how effective a candidate is in engaging online audiences. They measure this effectiveness by the number of LIKEs a person has on their candidacy page. You can support me in my mission here by liking this page and sharing it with your friends, please. If you could like the page every day, that would be even better. I have created groups on Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn for daily reminders and status updates. You are welcome to join those.
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Also, if you have any questions for me or would just like to say “Hi!”, please email me at Lillian@LillianPierson.com. I really hope I get the chance to hear from you sometime soon! Thanks!!