While at RISD, I took a studio called Design for Social Entrepreneurship, which aimed to develop new products/construction materials from agricultural waste. The studio visited Costa Rica to learn more about sustainable agriculture and the local community. While I was there, I noticed a lack of areas for shade in both fields and water-collecting stations in poorer neighborhoods. I wanted to address this problem by up-cycling rice straw, which is often burned after rice is collected, by turning it into usable textile material. The end result was a durable, no/low-cost, sustainable textile that can be mass-manufactured or handmade to provide shade and a variety of other uses.