The Beginning of Luz Estelar

In my first year of university, I came up with this idea. At my school, engineering students take a class called First-year Engineering Design. This teaches the basics of designing and prototyping for a product. The purpose of this class is for students to come up with a design solution for a problem, come up with a project plan, and think about a way to implement it. At the end, students present the problem they solve and their solution in a showcase with all their peers.  

This is where Luz Estelar started. During this time, I was not doing well medically, mentally or physically but I still needed to attend my classes and do my work. Every time I could make it to class, my bag was the last thing I wanted to deal with. It would flop around everywhere, and everything was hard to open or reach. I realized that I could possibly design something around this if I was not the only person affected by this. I talked to my friends, people with and without disabilities, and I realized a trend. My friends who had disabilities were more likely to mention not liking our bags. So, I talked to my professor/advisor and mentioned that I did not want to bring down another group with my difficulty making it to class and meetings. I asked if I could work on my own and if my design idea would be approved. My professor allowed me to work alone and approved my idea, so the next thing was to get started. 

Over the next few weeks, I researched as much information as possible and asked as many people as possible what they thought would make a difference in their experience with bags. Throughout this process I made sure to turn in the information that was asked of me and then my final board that was going to be in the showcase.  

The time for the showcase came around, every class was put in different sections so that all the students in the same class were next to each other. Professors, other students, and special quest were invited to see what all the first years came up with. At my table, I explained what I designed, how it would solve the problem presented, and how I would go forward if I could. This event taught me so much from the questions that were asked and that people were excited about this type of product.  

That gave me the want to continue.