Solar Panel Engineer Novices

Another batch of students are training to be novice engineers.  We are sending teams to Rwanda and Tanzania to install solar panels, hundreds of them, in July-August 2024. This batch of students have already gone through lectures and workshops on the basics of service-learning, leadership, cross-cultural competency, etc., to prepare for the project.  They are now learning the technology: basic electricity, solar panels, batteries, installing lights and wires inside a house, etc.  Part of the challenge is that there are not necessarily engineering students - they come from all disciplines: social science, business, humanities, …  Many have not even studied Physics before.  Now they have to learn to sue hand tools such as pliers, wire cutters, screw drivers, …, to make workable electrical circuits.

Most are curious and take to the task enthusiastically. Initially many are hesitant and anxious.  Most learn quickly.  Naturally, there are slackers., and we cajole them into getting their hands dirty, literally.  We don’t worry about them.  Once they get to the site, when they start experiencing first hand the primitive environment in the village and the terrible situation of not having electricity, when they start seeing the impact of having just a little electricity, when they see the joy in the face of the people they are face to fact with from their own work, nobody with a heart can continue to sit on their hands.  All will become enthusiastic and work hard willingly to bring electricity to as many households as they can.  They may regret not working harder to prepare.  But that is part of the learning and difficult to avoid.  

This year the project “Habitat Green in East Africa” is getting even bigger, with a wider range of teams participating, and more parties to come and learn, or just to observe.  These students who are now training are the core of the bigger team.  They will take on the bulk of the work, teach others to do the same, and essentially carry the whole team forward.  They have to work harder than in other academic subjects that they take.  The teaching team has to work extra hard, and innovate continuously, to facilitate it. The students work long hours.  But the teaching team start before the students, and finish only after the students are done. But it is so worth it.  

It is exciting to see people working together for a good cause, learning and growing in the process, and enjoying the experience.  This is service-learning at its best. Hard but rewarding work.