Engaging Undergraduate Students into Hydrophilanthropy in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

摘要

Over the last four years, working in Mexico on a hydrophilanthropy been a great success but there were many challenges that had to be overcome. Many of our students do not speak Spanish, or if they have conversational understanding they do not know specific terms. We have overcome this in two ways. First, partnership with CATIS-Mexico provides excellent translators for the students. Second, by having a diverse student population the students can translate business, science, and engineering for each other. Additionally, camaraderie and safe travel practices were developed. Safety while travelling aboard is always a concern in Mexico. Discussions with students and their parents that San Miguel de Allende has a large American retirement community and has been voted the best city in world by CNN (2013) mitigates some of the worries. All students are required to register with US Department of State and attend a safety lecture provided by NIU's International Office. The entire group of students shared one house in Mexico to build camaraderie and community. The accommodations were large but shared living, dining, and sleeping spacing required everyone to work as a group to maintain the house (dishes, cleaning, etc.) and manage personal conflicts while working towards a collaborative goal. One recommendation for the future is to limit the number of students to 4-7 per team so that all students get to be involved in all aspects of the projects.