For the past 15 years, I’ve introduced you to a boatload of new experiences, inspiring people, cool social causes and fun places. As you prepare for new adventures in college, I’d like you to meet the amazing Paige Balcom, a New Hampshire native and UNH grad who’s changing the world.
I met Paige last November at a UNH Sustainability Advisory Board meeting event, the same day she was honored with UNH’s 2023 Social Innovator of the Year award. I was lucky to have her sitting at my table during dinner and was blown away with her smarts, substance and humilty.
Meet Paige Balcom
Paige grew up in Londonderry, New Hampshire where she also went to high school. Her parents taught her about the importance of hard work, the joy of learning and the thrill of exploring. She played soccer and basketball and enjoyed travel around New England with her Mom and sisters visiting historic sites, museums and state parks.
When she was in middle school, Paige became an “inventioneer”; her LEGO robotics coaches had a big influence. “They taught us about teamwork, community service, helping others and showed us that excellence comes from investing a lot of hard work and practice.” She and her friends invented the “smart wheel” (a safety device to prevent distracted driving) and pitched the idea on Season 4 of the popular ABC TV show “Shark Tank.” While they didn’t get their financing, she never forgot the experience.
High School years
Paige faced her own set of challenges during her high school years. She told me, “It was sometimes difficult to fit in with my peers. I still had lots of great friends and really enjoyed my high school years, but it was sometimes challenging to relate to some groups.“
Her Dad urged her to get involved with an exchange program while at Londonderry High to experience another culture. She took his advice, joining a service trip to Haiti that was
“really eye-opening.”
Paige explained, “That experience in Haiti stands out because it gave me direction. I was starting to think about college and majors. When I was younger My Dad gave me my first tool set and I’d help him with projects around the house. I enjoyed that and liked the idea of engineering. My Haiti experience helped me realize how privileged I was to be born in America to a loving family with opportunities. I returned home determined to use engineering as a way to help others get access to basic life necessities.”
Engineers Without Borders & Uganda
Paige’s motivation and experience from high school landed her a full boat UNH Hamel scholarship in mechanical engineering.
She made the most of her UNH years, actively joining her new community, facing new challenges and literally shaping the career she envisioned. She made it happen by taking risks, saying yes and putting herself out there to increase her knowledge and impact.
New doors opened when she got involved with the UNH Chapter of Engineers Without Borders, a worldwide organization of volunteers helping build a better world. This lead to several life-changing experiences in Uganda, starting with a two-week visit, later for 10 months as a Fulbright Scholar, and then again as a graduate student.
Paige worked to address contaminated wells, and bridged her passions for mechanical engineering and social action by designing and building an aquaponic system at ChildVoice (a vocational school for child mothers traumatized by war).
Once again, she faced a new set of challenges, telling me “Adjusting to living in a village and eating mostly boiled cassava and beans and posho was hard at first, but eventually I came to really love the community and simple life. My biggest challenge was when I got typhoid and was really sick for over a month.”
Just Do It – don’t wait, make it happen for yourself
Paige Balcom isn’t the kind of person who feels sorry for herself and stops pushing forward when times get tough. With persistence, belief and relentless drive, she overcame this latest obstacle. She had a vision for what she wanted to achieve and nothing would stand in her way. UNH played a big role in helping get her there.
“UNH offered me so many opportunities for learning, leadership, and service as well as a fantastic community of friends. Jeanne Sokolowski and the UNH Fellowships Office encouraged me and helped me to apply for lots of fellowships which allowed me to go on multiple international research experiences and receive full scholarship for graduate school.
One of the joys of UNH were the social connections she made. “The friends I made at UNH were amazing—genuine, kind, and encouraging. We learned a lot and had a lot of fun together. To this day, some of my best friends are my roommates and clubmates from UNH.”
UNH & sustainability
“They helped me discover my entrepreneurial spirit. When I was a student, UNH’s Entrepreneurship Center, Social Venture Innovation Center and Holloway competition were starting to take off. My friends and I were looking for money for our project so we decided to enter competitions. I really enjoyed it! I loved solving a problem, coming up with innovations no one had tried before, working in a team, and pitching to the judges.”
Barbaros Celikkol, a Mechanical Engineering professor, had a big influence on Paige. “He kind of took me under his wing as my unofficial and then official advisor. He was the first to make me consider going for a PhD and pushed me to do undergraduate research to prepare me for graduate school.
Paige told me UNH’s position as one of America’s top 10 most sustainable universities in America is an important differentiator. “It’s a huge benefit for the state and its students. To be able to learn from the University that pioneered sustainability 25+ years ago, will continue to inspire students to expect and demand sustainability in their workplaces and homes. It’s also helping UNH attract more funding to continue advancing education and programs for sustainability.
After graduating from UNH in 2016, Paige earned her PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2022.
Becoming an entrepreneur in Uganda
During her time in Uganda, Paige was inspired to find a solution to a challenging local problem there — recycling plastic waste. While polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the most common plastic for single-use food packaging – including water and soda bottles – PET waste is a big problem across the developing world because many countries lack the infrastructure and technology to recycle this plastic, and it’s often impossible to is often ship it elsewhere for recycling.
Paige leveraged her experiences in Uganda later on, co-founding Takataka Plastics with Peter Okwoko in 2020. Okwoko is a Ugandan community organizer and former university lecturer focused on social and environmental efforts. Takataka, which means “waste” in Swahili, provides street-connected Ugandan youth with steady work, two meals a day, and counseling support, enabling vulnerable young people to improve their lives while transforming plastic waste for reuse.
Great optimism for the future
Not surprisingly given her drive and vision, Paige is optimistic about the future of society and planet.
She told me, “I think more people, especially the younger generations, are realizing the negative effects of our individual and societal choices on nature and people’s livelihoods across the world. I think more people are making choices in their personal lives and workplaces to pursue sustainability not just in the near-term and for themselves, but for all people across the world.
“Innovations in technology, green chemistry, and financing schemes are also making sustainability more accessible and affordable. I’m definitely optimistic. I hope we’ll be creating more and more impact for People, Prosperity, and the Planet.”
Focus on the whole, be purposeful
Paige explained how being purposeful feeds us and makes us whole.
“Focus on others. Have a mindset of helping your team/community grow more than focusing on yourself. Today’s culture of individualism often highlights individual accomplishments and exceptionalism. That’s a dangerous mindset. Focusing on advancing and promoting yourself brings pressure to perform, stress, and anxiety that you’re not measuring up.
“When we focus on the whole, rather than our part, it’s freeing and joy-giving. Living with a mindset of giving to and helping others, brings happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction. Teams accomplish so much more than individuals. Empowering others and working together will have much farther reaching impact than striving alone.”
I sent you a text the other day about You Don’t Own Me, an important, epic song from the early 1960’s. You played it as you drove the Jetta home after school.
