A Trip in Two Parts

May 17, 2014 - Fly to Guatemala with professor and three other Ohio State engineering students to assess several organizations to partner with for an OSU engineering service trip for Summer 2015.

June 24, 2014 - Fly to Guatemala for two month internship with Mayan Families Organization in Panajachel.

As you can imagine, a lot happened between those two dates.

Originally, my summer consisted of the usual: classes, research, and skydiving. (Ok, skydiving is not the usual, but for one credit hour I said why not!) But working extensively with Engineers for Community Service (ECOS) during Spring Semester introduced me to Professor Kevin Passino, who first suggested to me the idea of a Guatemala trip in May. He had several groups who were interested in starting service trips catering to their specific skills, and Guatemala had come up as the ideal location. The next step was to send a group to Guatemala to assess some organizations and locations there to make the potential trip(s) a success.

I jumped at the chance! My volunteer work with ECOS, WiE, and countless other groups had started me thinking on how I, as an engineer, could apply my knowledge to solve real world problems in areas that would not otherwise encounter people with engineering experience. This Guatemala trip seemed like a great opportunity to see firsthand the technological needs people living in poverty in a third world country. As my father used to tell me, "If you want to save a life, become a doctor. If you want to save the world, become an engineer."

So we, along with three other engineering students from the university, headed south for eight days to find where in Guatemala engineers could be the most useful.

The trip was quite a success. On our third day there, after struggling to find a fit with the other organizations that we had met with, we entered the Mayan Families Organization. They are a growing, well-run organization with numerous programs to help some of the poorest communities in the Lake Atitlan region. We discussed a number of programs that could strengthen and grow with the help of engineers from their education to construction departments. Though they have a strong organization, they are in constant need of more volunteers, and it was on this day that they first told us of their internship opportunities for volunteers willing to spend two or three months in Panajachel working on programs that matched their skills and interests.

When I got home - after an extensive discussion with my mother of course - I submitted an application for the internship with a strange feeling that nothing would come of this wild dream. Just a few days later, I received my acceptance email!

And that is why instead of sitting in a classroom in Columbus on Tuesday, June 24 as expected, I will be boarding a plane to Guatemala City, Guatemala. During my time in Guatemala this summer I hope to pilot a STEM Education program in Mayan Families preschools and middle schools using experiments from the STEM Education Outreach Program run by Prof Betty Lise Anderson so successfully in Columbus area schools.

I am excited to see what the future holds! For now, skydiving will just have to wait.