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UTSAV GANDHI

campus@technewsiit.com

TechNews | Tuesday,Apri123,2013

EWB-IIT visits San Claudio, Nicaragua

Cara Cummings
TECHN EWS WRITER

Conference calls, planning meetings, and
endless amounts of paperwork; Lisa Stump,
Tristan Larson, Sara Glade, and myself had been
preparing for our trip to Nicaragua for months:
Although we had amazingprofessional mentors
helping us, IIT alumna Christina Freisinger
along with James Lewan and IIT staff member
Megan Mozina, it was a lot to accomplish I
was exhausted from all the work that had to
somehow get done before we were able to depart
during spring break:

EWBAIIT’s assessment trip to the small
community of San Claudio in Nicaragua would
be our team’s first opportunity to meet the
people we are committed to for the next five
years: During one short week, we would need
to determine if their expressed need for a bridge
is truly the best project for the community,
gather technical data for design, and work on
community engagement:

The day had finally arrived on March
16 2013: I packed all my clothes into my tiny
suitcase, kissed my boyfriend goodbye, and
departed with the EWBAIIT travel team to
Nicaragua: Little did I know that I would return
a short week later having fallen completely in
love with the people and culture:

The night we arrived in Chacraseca, the
small village where the FriendsNE (the Boston
based local NGO which has been working on
the community’s development for many years)
local compound is located, we slept in the
warm night air on cots underneath the stars:
When we awoke, pungent aromas were wafting
toward our cots from the kitchen in the adjacent
building That breakfast was the first of many
delicious, unforgettable meals enjoyed during

the trip: Ever since our return I have longed for
the savory rice and beans, sweet watermelon,
plantains, and corn tortillas of Nicaragua

Throughout the week, the warmth of the
Nicaraguan people surrounded the travel team:
The very first time we visited the community in
San Claudio, we were surprised as we stepped
into a house and were greeted by representatives
from every family in the community There was
never a shortage of laughter, smiles, and kisses
among these people: They were family, and we
were treated no differently:

During our time in the community, we
were able to visit several elementary schools
and meet the cute children who soon will need
and use our bridge in order to cross the river
and attend secondary school: We also met with
the mayor of the municipality of Malpaisillo
and discussed plans and funding for the bridge
with him and the municipal engineer, Romulo
Rodriguez: Later, we were able to relay that
information and hold the same important
discussion regarding expectations for the
project with the people of San Claudio:

As we traveled during the week, I was
in awe of the beauty of Nicaragua The View
from the peak of the Cerro Negro volcano was
breathtaking, and as we ran down the side of
the black ash mountain I felt both scared and
emp owered: Later, at the beach, I was refreshed
as the powerful, salty waves crashed into me:

Our team got a lot of work done during
the week, but the data collection and planning
is not what I am going to remember years from
now It is the memories ofthe beautiful country
of Nicaragua, and mylove for the people there,
that I will cherish forever:

If you are interested in being part of
the Engineers Without Borders’ San Claudio
Project? Contact EWBAIIT at ewb:iit@gmail:

com: Pho ms by Cara Cummings

 

TEDxIIT celebrates another successful event

Shreeyeh Rajan
TECHNEWS WRITER

The TEDxIIT team hosted its event for
the third time in the IIT Tower from 9:30 am:
to 6:00 pm, Last Saturday Providing free
admission, food, and drinks, we invited the
whole IIT communityto attend but limited it to
one hundred attendees: After getting checked,
in and receiving their na.metags, the attendees
were allowed to interact with everyone until
9:45 am: At 9:45 am, the doors opened and
they were entertained with our founder and
coeorganizer Amy Lee Segami and emcee
Bob Roitblat:

To start off the event with some
enthusiasm, we pulled up a 37minute TED
video by Chris Anderson: Then we called
upon speakers Sara Beardsley & Dr: Chris
Drew, Cheryl Jefferson and James Howard
Stone who took on the stage to talk about

Aprilshowers, bring May

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topics that affected the society; reducing
pollution in cities, breaking criminal traditions
and achieving full employment: To energize
ourselves, we announced a 307minute break
before we continued the event:

After break, 8x(tet), a band consisting of
students from Chicago universities, performed
jazz music pepping us up for the next two
speakers: But before the speakers spoke, we
pulled up another TED video, Abundance is
our future’ by Peter Diamandis: Then, speaker
Nik Rokop took the stage to talk about the
importance of starting a business after school:
4th7year psychology IIT student and speaker
Jacqueline Roche spoke about how education
saved her life: We were halfway through the
event when we announced another break, but
this time for lunch!

We proceeded with the event calling
up speakers Avelo Roy, Neil Milsted and Dr:
Nina ElliseHervey, whose talks were named

‘Currency of Relationships’, As We May Do’ and
‘Psychological Wellebeing: The Path to Holistic
Health: Thenwe announced our last 307minute
break but before that we had a surprise for the
audience! Because of their patience, we called
upon Daniel Guidara, tai chi instructor who
taught us a few tai chi moves to refresh us!
Then we had our last three speakers Ann
E Clark, Dr Manu K: Vora and Retired Colonel
Jill Morgenthaler: Ann E Clark explained how
future architects can contribute to rebuilding
the community in a third world country by
bringing in her experience in working in
Haiti Dr: Manu K: Vora explained how he
founded the Blind Foundation of India to
harness exponential power of gift of sight:
And our last speaker, Retired Colonel Jill
Morgenthaler shared one major leadership
secret that showed us how to exponentially
increase one’s performance as a leader After
that we had a reception where people were

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encouraged to network

The response and feedback we got
from the Chicago and IIT community was
AMAZING! Some of the compliments
included being ‘blown away’, welleorganized
studenterun event, inspiring speakers and
worth the full days’ time!

We had 1242 views on live streaming
and 1974 views on our live stream page from
Canada, India, China and a total of 13,587
page views!

The best part, our Webmaster Ethan
received a call from a student in India who
had seen TEDxlIT 2013 online: He said that
he got admitted to IIT to pursue his graduate
education but wasn’t sure if IIT was the right
choice: But after watching TEDxIIT 2013 all
the way from India, he felt that IIT would be
his perfect college!

Inspiration really does take you far!

flowers to campus

 

Photos by Nick Caldwell