Carroll College Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Guatemala team traveled to Santa Thomás La Unión in January 2024 to assess the earthquake resilience of several school buildings. EWB projects bring together student volunteers and community members to find appropriate and long-lasting solutions for infrastructure needs. After a pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this trip was our first step at reestablishing our 15year collaboration with the Centro Educativo Santiago de la Asuncón to address structural concerns of campus buildings.
To learn more about supporting EWB opportunities, you can utilize one of these options:
- Give Now Here
- Please select “Other - Area of Y our Choice” and specify EWB (Engineers Without Borders
- Through the March 21-22, 2024 Saints Giving Day 24-hour campaign (link released soon)
- Or contact the Office of Institutional Advancement, at advancement@carroll.edu or 406-447-4491
Going into this trip I was really worried about the possibility of it being voluntourism that was meant more to be an experience for the volunteers rather than effectively serving the community we were traveling to. However, through meeting many community members it was made very clear that the people at La Asunción school wanted us to be there. We were told that the building we finished seismic retrofitting in our last trip had been holding up very well in the recent earthquakes and that they were quite happy with it. In our meetings, community members expressed their gratitude for our presence. I was happy to learn that our future work on the school will be both beneficial and welcome. - Olivia St. Marie, Engineering ‘26
I would recommend EWB to other students because it is a real authentic experience. You get to engage with a real community that has vastly different experiences from what you are probably used to, and experiencing these things as in depth as we did is far more valuable than the outside view of tourism. - Tristan Gallagher, Engineering ’24
I think EWB is a great organization to join because it gives students experiences, lessons, and memories that they will take with them throughout the rest of their college career and careers after college. - Chloe Gallagher, Engineering ‘24
