Five students complete the WaTER Minor in May 2020

In May 2020, five undergraduate students completed the Minor in "Water and Sanitation for Health and Sustainable Development", aka "the WaTER Minor". In addition to their degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering, these students are now qualified and well-trained to be of great service in the field of humanitarian engineering. Though the pandemic has added some constraints to their possible career moves, these students are not sitting around!

From left: Adella Kuster, Christina Gildea, Duncan Wright, Courtney Vanman, and Diana Phan

Both Adella and Christina have begun work towards an MS degree in Environmental Engineering at OU. Both students worked on water projects in northern Uganda for their intercultural immersion experience.

For her Masters research, Adella Kuster (Env Eng, '20) is evaluating the effectiveness of in-stream structures on reducing streambank erosion and stream migration near transportation infrastructure. She is studying various bank stabilization and river training techniques to prevent these occurrences.

Christina Gildea (Env Eng, '20) has begun her Masters research by studying the water quality effects of compost filter socks (CFS), which are sometimes high in nitrogen and phosphorus. These socks are a commonly-used stormwater best management practice often utilized on construction sites for sediment and erosion control. 

Adella and another student are learning the mechanics of manual well drilling in their Technical Field Methods course.

Duncan Wright (Env Eng, '20) has been accepted into the Peace Corps and will be moving to the Philippines in summer of 2021, once the pandemic is over.  He worked last summer in Uganda on repairing a broken hand pump water well at a clinic and orphanage. Duncan's passion is to serve others across the globe through his engineering knowledge. 

Courtney Vanman (Civ Eng, '20) has plans to return to Burundi where she has worked with an NGO that brings clean water to villagers in need. Courtney learned many of her development skills in the Technical Field Methods course that is offered every May on campus at OU, a course which includes two forms of water well drilling, biosand filter construction, water quality sampling and analysis, household water treatment systems, and field surveying with simple instruments. 

Courtney is mixing concrete in order to build a concrete slab in her Technical Field Methods course, one of the required courses for earning the WaTER Minor.

Diana Phan (Civ Eng, '20) has taken a position as a design engineer at IDS Engineering Group in Houston, Texas. She plans to work towards her P.E. license, while hoping to volunteer with service trips abroad as the opportunities arise. Diana has worked in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where she helped assess hygiene and sanitation systems in schools across the capital city. 

Diana is working with local personnel to conduct hygiene and sanitation surveys across all the public schools in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

We are proud of these five students,

and look forward to hearing about their continued adventures in places near and far!