Service Opportunities
Valparaiso University’s engineering students have a history of rising up to meet various calls to action.
University’s College of Engineering by constructing a building that would accommodate a four-year engineering program. More recently, students helped to build and design the concentrator and heliostat in the James S. Markiewicz Solar Energy Research Facility, adjacent to Gellersen Center. Students also collaborated to return a piece of Valparaiso University history, the Student Bridge, back to campus. At Valpo, the opportunities to demonstrate ingenuity are limitless.
The campus and College affirm the value of serving others and recognize that service projects further the knowledge students gain in the classroom. A variety of service opportunities are available on campus such a developing a Braille press for Lutheran Braille Workers to produce freely distributed Christian Braille print material or producing equipment to assist adults with disabilities in their job functions.
Service trips abroad inspire students seeking an adventure farther away, such as Tanzania or Nicaragua. With Mount Kilimanjaro in the distance, students completed a canal rehabilitation project in the village of Maesera, Moshi Rural District, Tanzania. The canal was approximately 80 years old and in need of major repair to improve the agricultural and the domestic water supplies of the village.
EWB-Valpo’s current project is in the village of rural community in Nicaragua. The students seek to rehabilitate the water distribution system by improving the leaking pipes and the distribution tank that carries spring water to La Palma’s residents, including extending water access to the homes that do not have piped water.