Organization:Engineers Without Borders

Overview

Engineers Without Borders (EWB) started in 2002 with 8 students and 1 faculty member that shared the same vision of supplying sustainable basic human needs to underveloped communities worldwide. Since the their vision has grown to over 13,000 members across 180 campuses with 250 chapters. EWB-USA strives to create transformative experiences and responsible leaders by empowering members to find community solutions for water supply, sanitation, energy, agriculture, civil works, structures and information systems.

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From gathering information, designing a thorough solution and implementing that design, members of Engineers Without Borders have impacted more than 2.5 million lives.

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Purpose

• To provide community-driven development
  
• To supply clean drinking water, adequate sanitation and reliable passage to local markets to communities in need of basic necessities
• To assess, design, implement, monitor and evaluate appropriate engineering solutions for these needs
• To create transformative experiences that enrich global perspectives while creating responsible leaders

Distinct Differences From Other Offerings

Through Engineers Without Borders, students will learn to:

• Manage international engineering projects
• Understand a different culture and how to respect it
• Escape from behind the desk and apply what was learned through this experience to real world problems
  
• Lead or follow a project and watch the design become reality
• Develop a 5-year commitment where members must continue their work through incoming students
• Manage an organization - finances, fundraising, and relationships with faculty and donors

Impact Achieved For Students and Campus

With over 180 Universities involved in EWB-USA, the impact students have made is far reaching.

Texas A&M

Texas A&M's EWB-TAMU chapter won the EWB-USAs "Premier Chapter" recognition for going above and beyond the mission of Engineers Without Borders. Texas A&M students visited Costa Rica multiple times to gather information about the communities needs in which they would be working. While back at Texas A&M, they spent a year assessing and designing solutions for those needs with other students and professional engineers. After that year, they went back to Costa Rica to implement and fulfill their design solutions. When construction was finsihed they had built a computer education center for children and made the communities water supply drinkable, while simultaneously providing 100 households with access to water. Read more about there experience here. You can also check out EWB-TAMU's chapter on their webiste.

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University of Maine

The University of Maine (EWB-UMaine) is also well known for their professional work. Not only do they have strong student involvement, EWB-UMaine also has many professional engineers within the state working closely with students. EWB-UMaine is working on a portable water project for the village of Dorgobom, Ghana, to make water more accessible and safer to drink. EWB-UMaine has been quite creative in funding this project. They hold many raffles, bi-annual yard sales, bowling events and even a beer and wine tasting. Perhaps their most innovative fundraiser, making jewelry from Ghanaian beads, provided students with the ability to get a closer look of where their time and effort was going. You can read more about EWB-UMaine's projects and reach out to the student team on their website.

Steps Required To Bring Resource to Campus

Chances are there is already a chapter at your campus. If you want to get connected then check out chapters near you <a href="<a href="http://www.ewb-usa.org/get-involved/become-a-member">http://www.ewb-usa.org/get-involved/become-a-member</a>">here</a>.

Otherwise, you can start your own chapter through a 4 step application. Download the application at the bottom of the page from <a href="<a href="http://www.ewb-usa.org/get-involved/become-a-member">http://www.ewb-usa.org/get-involved/become-a-member</a>">here</a>.

Step 1)

-  Recruit passionate members from various backgrounds
-  Commit to a 5 year partnership
-  Recruit a qualified professional lead mentor (generally a professor)

Step 2)

Complete a new program application. Applications are reviewed biannually with deadlines on January 1st and June 1st of each year.

Step 3)

Upon approval, a Chapter Agreement will be sent to your chapter.  For your chapter to become official, you must sign and return the agreement to EWB-USA.

Step 4)

Provide EWB-USA with your chapter's officers and contact information and pay the annual fee.

Contact Information

The best way to contact EWB-USA is through their website <a href="<a href="http://www.ewb-usa.org/our-story/contact-us">http://www.ewb-usa.org/our-story/contact-us</a>">here</a>.