LAFAYETTE TODAY
Helping in Honduras
 | | Matt Verbyla ’06 (left) was awarded a Fulbright grant to continue his engagement with water and sanitation issues in Honduras. David Brandes, co-adviser of Engineers Without Borders, is at right. |
A grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will help the College’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders continue advancing its ambitious service-learning project, an effort to provide Honduran villages with clean drinking water (see “Without Borders,” Lafayette Magazine, Fall 2005).
EWB was one of six teams from schools across the nation to win a $75,000 award in phase two of EPA’s inaugural P3 (People, Prosperity and the Planet) Student Design Competition for Sustainability, held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The funding comes in addition to a $10,000 award last summer in the competition’s first phase.
EWB is dedicated to applying sustainable and practical engineering solutions to meet the basic health needs of developing communities in the world. Its advisers are Sharon Jones and David Brandes, associate professors of civil and environmental engineering.
“More important than the recognition, this grant allows us to implement a sustainable water and sanitation system for 141 people in Honduras who do not have access to clean water,” Jones says. “Travel is a large cost. The award will also go toward materials and supplies. The students have had to raise funds
while trying to develop the solutions.
For the next year, we can devote ourselves to what we do best: using our academic skills to develop solutions for people.”
Led by president Margaret
Garcia ’07, EWB also plans to
host a conference for student groups across the country in the spring.
A Fulbright grant will enable the chapter’s cofounder, civil engineering graduate Matt Verbyla ’06, to continue his engagement with water and sanitation issues in Honduras.
He plans to study the efficiency of rural water board associations in improving conditions. Responsible
for local water systems, the associations, made up of elected officials from small villages, confer with national government agencies and nongovernmental entities, including aid groups.
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