Jairo Amarillo

Lafayette has been a great place for me to realize many of my ambitions and desires. For me, studying abroad was a necessity while in college. Lafayette has definitely helped me realize this desire. In fall of my junior year I studied art, architecture, and the Italian language in Florence, Italy. The experience was unforgettable, and only made me more eager to travel and live abroad. The chance arrived again this past summer. After doing an independent study with Professor Sharon Jones, I gained the skills necessary to aid in an NSF-funded study of the effects of land use on wetland degradation in Uganda, Africa. I lived and worked for seven weeks there with faculty and students from the civil engineering department.

My double major in A.B. engineering and art has made much of this travel possible. The flexible A.B. engineering curriculum and the art major allowed me to easily study abroad in the place of my choice. In addition, the A.B. engineering program has introduced me to various new interests. The independent study I conducted with Professor Jones involved evaluating software that modeled water infrastructure, something with which I was not familiar. However, I worked hard and learned the material, in the end winning a scholarship for the paper I wrote for the independent study. This work ultimately paved the way for me to go to Africa to aid in the NSF-research.

Aside from study abroad, there is much I’ve been able to do here on campus as well. I came in with a strong interest in architecture which my adviser recognized and which led to the double major. Consequently, I helped research the development of an architectural studies minor here at Lafayette, which is expected to be approved for fall 2005.

I’ve also had the opportunity to practice my abilities in studio art, building a sculpture for the front of the Williams Center with the Intermediate Sculpture class last semester. I’ve also pursued other interests such as completing my fourth semester studying classical piano at the Williams Center.