Duke Engineers for International Development (DEID) is a club that combines community-driven ideas with student design. Through this club, I have helped lead high-impact, cost-efficient, sustainable engineering projects to improve the living standards for underserved communities globally. 

DEID has collaborated with the non-profit organization, Engineers in Action (EIA), on bridge projects in Bolivia and Eswatini, but also performed solo projects in Uganda and West Virginia. Our partnership with EIA has led to the creation of multiple 100+ meter footbridges that help connect remote communities to necessary resources like healthcare, markets, and schools.

In my freshman year, I joined the Uganda subteam. The mission was to build a secondary school in western Uganda for orphans in a community that had been severely impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Throughout the school year, I iterated on the design of the school in CAD, fundraised money, applied for grants, participated in concrete/surveying workshops, learned construction terminology, and prepared to travel in the summer. Through Duke Engage, I got to actually spend eight weeks in Kaihura, Uganda transforming my project from an idea into a reality.

Since we did not finish building the school in my time there, we began to prepare a second travel team to finish the project. I took on the role of Project Manager where I led a team of 11 students through weekly meetings about design, construction, and cultural relations. The team traveled to Uganda this past summer and completed the school.

This year, DEID will be undertaking the construction of a health center in Kenya along with both a pedestrian footbridge and a water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) project in Eswatini. I will still be on the executive board of DEID, but I will not be taking on a Project Manager role this year, so that I have more time to pursue a new experience with Duke's high-power rocketry club, Duke AERO.