The student came to OPUS at a crossroads. Her GPA was strong at 3.9, but in the competitive world of biology admissions, she lacked awards, research, or a compelling hook. She had quiet idea musings about assistive sensors for the blind, but didn’t know how to translate them into a story that mattered.

OPUS saw something deep in her passing comments. We developed identity, positioning, and activities from her field trip to Cambodia.

So, we helped her shape a narrative of purposeful care - one rooted in real impact. Her memories of Cambodia farmers losing their vision under the punishing sun inspired her to take action. With our guidance, she founded MEDesign, a nonprofit combating preventable blindness through affordable, sustainable eyewear. The gasses? 3-D printed using recycled plastic collected from Cambodia’s shores, turning waste into vision.

We helped her build academic credibility too, crafting a bio-engineering and product design identity through the prestigious UChicago RIBS program and launching Ergodesign, a brand focused on assistive tools for aging populations. The student spent two summers on medical missions in Cambodia. At first, she wanted to write about the intensity, the flying, the surgeries, and the heat.

But we helped her focus on what no one else would: the quiet act of washing patient's; feet and sterilizing surgical tools - repeated for hours every day. It seemed trivial, but it wasn’t. In those moments, she found clarity, purpose, and human connection.

That’s where her story lived.

The student didn’t have the profile of a traditional biology standout: no lab placements, and no competitions. But at OPUS, we saw what others missed: emotional precision, lived experience, and design intuition. We helped her build MEDesign, a nonprofit creating 3D-printed eyewear from recycled plastic in Cambodia, and positioned her as a human-centered innovator grounded in sustainable medtech and global health equity.

Through her story, the student didn’t just study biology - she embodied it. That’s what got her into the nations’ top schools: Duke University & Johns Hopkins.