When I first stepped foot on Duke's campus, I never would have imagined that within a year, I was going to be halfway across the world, building a secondary school in western Uganda over the course of two months. 

Duke Engage is an eight-week, immersive summer experience involving full-time volunteer work, community engagement, and daily reflection. Having just finished my freshman year, I traveled with a team of seven other Duke undergraduates of varying ages, majors, and backgrounds. 

Through collaboration between Duke Engineers for International Development, Duke Engage, and a local faith-based non-profit organization in Uganda, the team constructed a secondary school with the ability to house approximately 300 students.

In the spring semester prior to travel, the team iterated on the design of the school under the supervision of Duke faculty and the licensed engineers in Uganda through an elective engineering course. Travel team members were briefed on the design, taught construction terminology, prepped through concrete and surveying workshops, and discussed cultural relations at length. 

In Uganda, I did not just shadow the engineers on site, but actually performed manual labor six days a week. The school was practically built without the use of any heavy machinery, including all excavation which was done using mining picks and shovels. All concrete was hand-mixed, and all rebar was hand-tied.

As the Construction and Safety Manager, I created a health and safety plan, filled out daily site inspection forms, journaled daily construction logs, documented incident reports and near hit reports, and created a finalized construction schedule for the post implementation report. Unfortunately, we did not finish constructing the school in my time there, but it allowed me to step up and take on a Project Manager role for the next year's travel team.

In sum, this experience not only helped me attain technical skills in the world of engineering, but majorly enhanced my global perspective. I am honored to have been part of this project, a truly unforgettable experience.