The Birth of a Blog

Well isn't this exciting, the birth of a baby blog! And how fitting for our organization in its infancy. 
But what IS Engineers Without Borders you may ask, and what do we do?
Well, as EWB USA's mission statement says,
"EWB-USA supports community-driven development programs worldwide by collaborating with local partners to design and implement sustainable engineering projects, while creating transformative experiences and responsible leaders."
And how do we do that? 
We, as an EWB student chapter, have committed 5 years at minimum to the community we have partnered with in Chiwirapi, Bolivia, and the local Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Engineers In Action. Our project will proceed in the general outline as follows:
   1. Assessment Trip the Chiwirapi to have take water samples, survey the land, and most importantly have a conversation with the community members about what they would like to see, and what resources are available
   2. Design team prepares a solution given these facts back at the University of Idaho
   3. An Implementation Trip to implement the design
   4. Consequent trips to educate the community as to how to repair what we implemented on either own, and to do other projects as requested by the community


Now, as is generally appropriate for a first blog, let us review a quick history of our organization!
EWB-UI was started by in January 2011 by Aaron Lewis, a former University of Idaho graduate student in Civil Engineering. A statue is of Aaron is pending (in our minds) due to his patience when dealing with the prolonged struggle with U of I's legal department over establishing the club. Shortly after becoming an official U of I club, the first Officers were elected as follows:
     President- Nate Suhr
     Vice President- Mary O'Brien
     Treasurer- Am Grewal
     Secretary- Hailey Woodruff
     Idaho State Representative- Donald Lewis


Moving at a pace previously known only to the famed Speedy Gonzales, EWB- UI quickly chose a water treatment and delivery project in Chiwirapi, Bolivia, and was approved by EWB national in September 2011! 
Now the challenges of the club include choosing essential personnel for our first Assessment Trip in late August 2012, fundraising for the trip, and raising community awareness through outreach and involvement.