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Geology Students Prepare For Trip To The Philippines by Roycelyn Bastian, Houston Community Newspapers Related Links: Original article with photos Lone Star College-Kingwood Receives EPA Grant EPA Grant Recipients Lone Star College-Kingwood is giving community colleges a good reputation as its environmental geology honors students prepare for a trip to the Philippines. The students are not going on vacation, but rather to help residents in that country build and develop a more sustainable community for themselves.
“This project started two years ago in 2007 with Dr. Brian Shmaefsky and by obtaining a grant from the Lone Star College System. We went to the Philippines to develop partnerships with the University of the Philippines and the Gawad Kalinga Organization,” said Dr. Cherith Letargo, the lead instructor and professor of geology at Lone Star College-Kingwood. The six students and two professors will be in the Philippines during spring break from March 7-14 helping to meet the needs of Gawad Kalinga villages as well as presenting their integrated waste and water management model. “This project is important because people in those villages spend their money on bottled water. Hopefully this system will allow them to have potable water and they can spend their money on other important things,” Ryan Woods, a resident in Summerwood and student at Lone Star College-Kingwood, said. Once their designs are complete, they will take them to the Philippines and present them to the Gawad Kalinga Organization and the University of the Philippines faculty to determine if they can be implemented in the GK villages. “They are looking at ways by which developing nations can preserve water, use wastewater and sewage,” Letargo said. “This model will involve greywater use, biodigesters and rainwater catchment systems.” This project is funded in part by the Environmental Protection Agency-sponsored P3 Award, which is People, Prosperity and the Planet Student Design Competition for Sustainability. Prior to the model, the students held a book drive for supplies for the Gawad Kalinga schools. “This program is a service learning component for the students to use what they have learned in the classroom and apply it in the community. We (Lone Star College-Kingwood) are the first community college to do this,” Shmaefsky said. “In addition to the water catchment model, we were also asked to look into a design for mosquito control.” The Faculty International Exploration Grant Letargo and Shmaefsky applied for and received in 2007 was used to develop science-teaching strategies that integrated studying abroad and service learning to engage the students in global development projects. “I think this is a wonderful opportunity to work with an organization like Gawad Kalinga, that builds complete villages,” said Kingwood resident Lesa Montague, who is also an environmental geology honors student. “We will present a water catchment system that will help clean greywater for people who once lived in slums to give them an opportunity to live in a self-sustainable community.” In 2008, four environmental geology honors students visited the Gawad Kalinga villages and saw a holistic approach in rebuilding a community that was impacted by a natural disaster or other issues. “When the communities are devastated by a disaster or something else, many try to move out to other cities. There, they are not able to find jobs and that kind of poverty turns into generational poverty,” Letargo said. “GK’s goal is to try and get people out of the slum communities and get them into sustainable communities.” To aid in the building of villages in Batangas, Philippines, a local nonprofit organization, Humble Kingwood Filan Foundation, raised money to build 30 homes. When the students visited the villages in 2008, they also helped to paint the homes that were under construction as well as assist in meeting other needs. “This is a great project because it will help people who live in the villages to live in a new eco-community. I hope that our project will help them accomplish that and if not, we will be there to find out how we can help them,” said student Loi Hilarides, a Kingwood resident. While helping, the students saw that the local school needed supplies and that future villages needed money to help them become energy efficient. “Being able to combine the essence of study abroad with service learning in a science curriculum is a dream that has come true for me. Students love the challenge of being able to do research and at the same time provide solutions to real world problems,” Letargo said. “As they volunteer their time to help and interact with other cultures, they learn a lot, not just about other people but about themselves as well.” In order to help the students travel to the Philippines, the group will be selling T-shirts for $13 apiece. Any business or organization that would like to be a sponsor can donate $100 by Feb. 15 and have the name of the business or organization put on the back of the shirts. The shirts will be printed on Feb. 18 and will go on sale. The group has raised $8,000 but still needs $4,000 more for the rest of the students. More Info To purchase a T-shirt, be a sponsor or for more information on the trip, call Dr. Cherith Letargo at 281-312-1405. GK Heroes: Sam and Nora Elia by GKOM Missouri (Bourbon) |
