Based on the article, the reader can infer that Kelvin Doe believes that young people have the power to transform communities. This inference is supported by his efforts to create a community radio station, engage with local issues, and ultimately found the Kelvin Doe Foundation to empower other young people in Africa to innovate solutions for their communities.
Turning Trash Into Technology
News: Eye On People
Kelvin Doe waited until his family was sound asleep before sneaking out of bed and littering the living room with salvaged garbage. The electricity was out, as usual, so the young boy toiled in the shadows of a flickering candle, silently tinkering with the bits of metal, broken electronics, and other detritus.
Doe was determined to find a solution for the darkness.
It would take time, repeated failures, and many nights of being sent back to bed by his mother, but eventually Doe taught himself how to transmute that trash into technology—lighting up his home, his neighborhood, and the Internet with his indefatigable determination.
Doe was just 10 years old when he began collecting discarded parts from garbage heaps in his hometown of Freetown, Sierra Leone—a city in West Africa. Because of the area's frequent power outages, Doe wanted to find a way to make batteries to light his family's home. Money was scarce, but trash was free, and where others saw discarded junk, Doe saw possibilities. He started by taking apart an old alkaline battery to see how it worked, and then, when he was about 13, he used soda, acid, scrap metal, and tape to assemble his own—and it worked!
But Doe didn't stop there.
He noticed that even though electrical service was sporadic, most people in his community had radios. So Doe set out to build his own community radio station, again using parts rescued from trash to build a receiver, an amplifier, a mixer, and a microphone, and convert some old equipment into a power generator. Then, he installed a makeshift antenna on the roof of his house and delivered his first broadcast as "DJ Focus."
"They call me DJ Focus because I believe if you focus, you can do an invention perfectly," Doe said in a video for Radical Media's THNKR YouTube channel.
Doe's broadcasts featured music and news, and most importantly to Doe, served as a platform for the community to share ideas, discuss problems, and work toward solutions. Doe sold advertisements and used the earnings to invest in the station and pay other young people to host shows.
Despite his lack of formal engineering education, Doe was powering homes with his generator and sparking conversation over the airwaves, and it wasn't long before his talent and tenaciousness caught the attention of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 2012, at age 15, Doe was invited to spend three weeks at the university, where he became the youngest inventor ever to participate in its "Visiting Practitioner's Program."
On that action-packed trip—his first visit to the United States—Doe presented his inventions, worked with researchers at the MIT Media Lab, and taught engineering students as a guest lecturer at nearby Harvard College. A camera crew captured the entire experience, from Doe's first impressions of the U.S. to his enthusiasm, wisdom, and even some homesickness.
And when the video was posted on YouTube, the world took notice.
Doe quickly became an Internet sensation as the video racked up millions of hits in just a few weeks. Since then, it's been viewed more than 16 million times.
The following year, Doe lit up the Internet again when he shared the next chapter of his story as a featured speaker at a TEDx Teen event, reflecting on his experiences, discussing his plans for the future, and sharing his advice for putting ideas into action.
"Creativity is universal and can be found in places where one does not expect to find it," Doe said. "And perseverance and passion are essential to nurturing that creative ability."
Doe went further than simply encouraging others with his words, though. He also founded the Kelvin Doe Foundation, a nonprofit organization that empowers young people in Africa to design innovative solutions to critical issues in their communities. Now a young adult, Doe works with educators, government leaders, and others through his foundation to provide resources for the next generation of changemakers.
QUESTION 7
7 / 8
Based on the Article, the reader can infer that __________.
Kelvin Doe believes that radio shows are more impactful than YouTube videos
making a battery from discarded junk is a relatively quick and easy process
Kelvin Doe believes that young people have the power to transform communities
having a formal engineering education is a key to being a successful inventor
1 answer