{"id":149055,"date":"2024-04-05T09:18:39","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T13:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=149055"},"modified":"2024-04-05T09:18:39","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T13:18:39","slug":"dayton-com-students-complete-ugandan-school-sanitation-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2024\/04\/05\/dayton-com-students-complete-ugandan-school-sanitation-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Dayton.com: Students complete Ugandan school sanitation project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excerpt<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Students in Wright State\u2019s Engineers without Borders chapter Taylor Jacobs, left, Riley Croghan and Diana Johnson completed a sanitation project at St. Bakhita\u2019s Secondary School in Uganda.<\/p><\/div>\n

A pair of Wright State University engineering majors spent winter break completing the finishing touches on a humanitarian project to provide better sanitation for a rural school for girls in a Ugandan village.<\/p>\n

Diana Johnson and Taylor Jacobs are members of Wright State\u2019s chapter of Engineers Without Borders, a national organization that helps meet basic human needs in other countries.<\/p>\n

Johnson is a junior from Troy\u00a0majoring in industrial and systems engineering<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0minoring in computer science<\/a>. She recently completed a term as chapter president.<\/p>\n

Jacobs is a senior from Columbus\u00a0majoring in mechanical engineering<\/a>\u00a0and is the chapter\u2019s international project lead.<\/p>\n

They left on Dec. 29 for a 30-plus-hour flight to the village of Kabingo in Uganda. They helped complete work started by previous Wright State students to build a clean water, restroom and hand-washing station at St. Bakhita\u2019s Secondary School. Wright State joined the project in 2018.<\/p>\n

The two students were at the school for seven days of their 10-day trip. They arose at 7 a.m. each workday for a roughly 90-minute drive to the remote school, where they worked a six-hour shift before returning to a guest house in Kabingo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we got there, we assessed what had changed between the trip two years ago and now,\u201d Jacobs said, adding that changes needed to be made for the overarching sanitation project.<\/p>\n

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Wright State students built handwashing stations and improved latrine conditions at the rural school in Uganda.<\/p><\/div>\n

The sanitation project included adding handwashing stations, improving latrine conditions, reducing standing water left in washrooms and improving gray water discharge.<\/p>\n

Johnson said the project made a positive difference in the life of the school and its students.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing this sanitation project helped keep down the amount of disease,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Jacobs said improving the school\u2019s sanitation facilities allows more female students to stay in the residence halls.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt provides a safe space there where they can receive clean drinking water and basic necessities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Jacobs said that aspect was the biggest takeaway for her about the trip. Participating in volunteer work from an engineering perspective was also a first.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually it\u2019s been missionary work or manual labor,\u201d she said<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s lasting impression was that, and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a new experience, to see a different way of life in person, not just on television,\u201d she said. \u201cI learned so much about the construction process \u2014 mixing concrete and mortar. Also, I had never before flown on an airplane.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe handled it so well,\u201d Jacobs said of her classmate\u2019s first flight.<\/p>\n

Now that they are back at Wright State, Johnson and Jacobs are continuing their education. Johnson is finding an affinity for her computer science studies and will continue participating in the Engineers Without Borders chapter.<\/p>\n

Taylor will help train the chapter\u2019s next international project leader and help the chapter find a new mission. After graduation, she hopes to land a job in the materials or HVAC industries and continue working with Engineers Without Borders.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince starting at Wright State, my life has come full circle,\u201d Jacobs said.<\/p>\n

Originally, she studied engineering at another school, but, as she put it, \u201clife happened\u201d and she returned to Columbus. She worked as a hairstylist for a while until the pandemic, which stifled her business.<\/p>\n

Later, she enrolled at Wright State in mechanical engineering and is now on track to graduate in December.<\/p>\n

Jacobs finds Wright State\u2019s engineering community to be tight-knit and supportive.<\/p>\n

Johnson shares Jacobs\u2019 affinity for Wright State.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite thing is that there are so many opportunities. Getting involved is so much easier here than I expected,\u201d she said. \u201cThe faculty are clearly invested in your future.\u201d<\/p>\n

View the original story at Dayton.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A pair of Wright State University engineering majors spent winter break completing the finishing touches on a humanitarian project to provide better sanitation for a rural school for girls in a Ugandan village. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":148622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[730],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wright-state-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149055"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149063,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149055\/revisions\/149063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}