McCormick Student Volunteers in Honduras

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Anne Mikelonis, daughter of David and Gretchen Mikelonis of Jackson, Mich., and junior at Northwestern University, is volunteering in rural Honduras this summer with Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW).

The civil engineering major in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science has joined ESW’s Summer Engineering Experience Development (SEED) program to work on a water treatment and distribution facility for the La 34 district in northern Honduras. After evaluating the current system, Mikelonis and her peers from Cornell and Cranfield (UK) universities have worked to get a new, sustainable water system up and running for the small farming community.

During the school year, Mikelonis was involved with the Northwestern chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World, organizing speakers and Energy Day on campus and working on plans to set up a class that will design an ESW project for Panama.

SEED, an Ithaca, New York-based initiative, connects technically skilled volunteers with international non-governmental organizations, academic institutions and local entrepreneurs to work on community development projects during the summer. Its parent organization, Engineers for a Sustainable World, mobilizes scientists and engineers around the world to combat poverty.

The need for kidney transplantation doesn't match our capacity.

Lorenzo Gallon of Feinberg is among those to say doctors should consider trying to reuse more organs to ease a shortage