Allison File

Year: Sophomore

Interests: Sustainable energy and technology to the biomedical sciences and genetics. Social change, specifically regarding female empowerment and closing the gender gap in STEM.

Hobbies: Spending time outdoors, backpacking, biking, travelling, spending time with good friends, and finding ways to volunteer and give back to the community.

Companies: Girls Who Launch: is a social organization dedicated to transforming young women into the change-makers of tomorrow by equipping them with the skills and confidence necessary to launch their own successful ventures. We want to empower girls to unleash their inner entrepreneurs and realize their unique potentials. Girls Who Launch – https://www.girlswholaunch.org/ SolCooking: is a revolutionary educational and distribution platform that provides collegiate students an avenue to contribute to positive environmental change through the development of solar cookers, a clean and effective cooking method that relies solely on solar energy. These are distributed to at risk populations through our organization’s nonprofit and community partnerships.

Contact: afile@uncc.edu

https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonfile/

Why I joined 49er Foundry: I was inspired to join the 49er Foundry as an avenue to apply my engineering knowledge and interests to create real and lasting change. Through interactions with fellow members and the amazing faculty, I have learned more about entrepreneurship then I ever imagined and am excited to employ this knowledge to create real and lasting change.

Short Term Goals: My primary short term goals involve diving deeper into my interests and exploring the various avenues through the pursuit of renewable energy or environmental – based research. I also am looking to gain hands – on and real world engineering experience as well through a summer internship or Co-op that I can carry with me into my future career.

Goals for my company: For SolCooking, my goals are to pursue EPIC Innovators and to help form connections with several of the Energy companies in the Charlotte Area. I would also like to further the technology component of our company by designing a sustainable solution that could further fulfill at risk populations energy needs as well as help lower their carbon footprints.