| | Courtesy of Danielle Meadows | | A group of OSU students will travel to Honduras during spring break to help orphans with HIV and AIDS. |
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Katie Kinstedt will soon travel to Honduras to help provide clean drinking water for orphans with HIV and AIDS.
"I'm so excited to meet the kids, just know them and speak Spanish with them," said Kinstedt, a sophomore in chemical engineering.
Kinstedt is one of 11 Ohio State engineering students who will travel to Honduras with Engineers for Community Service during spring break. Students will travel to Montaña de Luz, an orphanage in Honduras. While there, they will use their skills to improve the everyday life of children living with HIV and AIDS.
"I am extremely excited, especially since I do not know what to expect," said Elvin Beach, a material engineering graduate student and teaching assistant for the program. Beach is also the co-director for the trip and has never been to Honduras.
"I have done other projects outside of OSU and they had a huge impact on me," he said. "I hope they impact the group also."
The students went through a selection process that began with the Office of International Affairs and then was put through to ECOS.
"This provides more assurance that the students who are selected are right for the program," said John Merrill, director of the First-Year Engineering program and resident director for the trip.
"I use the input from ECOS to make my decision on who is selected for the program," Merrill said.
Although Spanish is not a requirement for the program, Merrill said "that students with Spanish-speaking skills are usually attracted to the program. In fact, there are about three fluent speakers in the class who can also translate for everyone else."
In addition to this, Montaña de Luz has some bilingual staff.
The project is split into three major parts: water quality, building structures and computers. The group focused on water quality will try to remove arsenic from the water and also create and maintain a chlorine system to make sure the children get clean water.
"I really hope to test new membranes for arsenic removal and find a sustainable solution for the community that can also be applied to the surrounding area," Kinstedt said.
The second group will assess current building structures and try to implement green building techniques. They will also be making plans to build a playground for the children.
The last group will be focused on providing Internet service to the children's existing computer lab.
In order to prepare students for the trip, each group has an adviser who assists them with their design plans and ideas. The students are also exposed to a sequence of readings and guest speakers, such as David Muñoz.
Muñoz is the director of humanitarian engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. Muñoz and his students have done projects in Colinas de Suiza, Honduras, Senegal, Africa and various locations around the world. On Jan. 23 he presented information about both projects in Honduras and Africa.
"I am just showing this idea to schools and maybe they can think about bringing the program here," Muñoz said.
"The orphanage is a home for dozens of HIV-positive children," Merrill said.
Montaña de Luz is located on a mountain top in South Central Honduras and is the first location of ECOS' international trips. With various on-site staff, an orchard and a man-made fish pond, Montaña de Luz is working on becoming self-reliant.
This will be ECOS' fourth time to Honduras, which has created an ongoing relationship with the community and orphanage.
"The program is really a partnership between the people and the students, and one of the most important parts are the children," Merrill said.
For this reason, students stop working every day at 2:30 p.m. and try to play with the children for about two hours.
"I think it's a great program that encourages engineers and students to do something great during spring break," Kinstedt said.
Danielle Meadows can be reached at meadows.107@osu.edu.
2008 Woodie Awards
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