Changemaker of the Week: Eric Bai '15.5

September 15, 2014

Eric Bai '15.5 is a Social Innovation Fellow and co-founder of TextUp, a technology start-up that leverages text messaging to enable dynamic two-way communication between service providers and the homeless population of Rhode Island.

Q: What is your current involvement with social innovation?
A: I'm working on a text messaging platform called TextUp. We're trying to bring the same transparency, convenience and immediacy that so many take for granted when it comes to doing day-to-day things like finding places to eat, managing your money, or getting in touch with loved ones to the experience of accessing and maintaining contact with social service agencies. I got involved in this after a summer interning with FrontlineSMS in Nairobi, where I saw how ingenuity can make even the simplest mobile phone a powerful medium of information exchange.

Q: What is the most important lesson you've learned since starting your work with TextUp?
A: Everything is iterative. Unlike an assignment, you don't "finish" something and file it away forever. I've revised, reworked, rethought so many things that I thought I would do once and leave at that -- and I've learned so much and improved the product so much in the process. The best thing about this is that nothing you do is permanent; that means that no mistake you make is too big to fix.

Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d give to any college student thinking of becoming a "changemaker"? 
A: Don't let self-doubt stifle your ideas. The starting point is always an intention to help out. What comes after is being open to revising and reworking your idea. What remains the same throughout this back-and-forth are your intentions.

Q: What is your personal mission statement?
A: That I am enough. And that no one can make you feel what you don't give them permission to make you feel. Spending too much time worrying about the legitimacy of how you're choosing to pursue your dreams takes away time from just doing it.

Q: What's one interesting fact people might not know about you?
A: I really like coloring human skin. It's really fun hunting down colors and seeing how these colors meld together to form the subtle highlights and shadows on our bodies.

If you know a Brown student or alum who is making a difference on campus, in Providence, or around the world, nominate them here to see them featured as Changemaker of the Week.