All seven of us interns in Blantyre had the good fortune of visiting Jacaranda this past Thursday. Jacaranda is a primary and secondary school, attended by around 400 students; their school is doing incredible things, and I encourage you to read more on their website (linked below). Here are a few of the roles we took on during our trip to Jacaranda.

• Visitors. When we first arrived on the grounds, we were treated to a tour of the campus by two sweet, young teenagers. Everywhere we went, we were welcomed with wide smiles and a synchronized greeting call (a tradition at the school); we even enjoyed a short concert by the two acapella groups on campus.

• Audience members. We first watched a presentation by some Jacaranda students on what engineering projects they had been working on. One team of students had taken used water bottles and reconstructed them into sturdy and versatile furniture pieces; some of the water bottle furniture had even been decorated at the school in the arts program. Another project was the creation of solar powered lanterns. They were very cheap devices, fashioned from clear food containers, a few solar panels, and various reflective materials. What had initially begun as a small project with only a few prototypes expanded, so that every student at the school had created their own lamp to use to walk home, study, and read at night. These simple technologies made a huge difference for the children, and we were all impressed by them; the students were rightly very proud of their lanterns.

• Presenters. For our presentation, we talked to the primary and secondary school students about what tertiary school is like, what engineering is, what technologies we were working on, and how the devices help those in the hospital. I have to take a moment to brag on Christina and Francis, two of the Poly interns from Malawi, who had inspiring and beautiful advice for the students during our presentation. Christina connected with the students—especially the young girls in the audience—so genuinely, encouraging them to keep up with their studies and stay focused on what is important while being aware of what is not. The rate of girls who pursue higher education isn’t high in Malawi, and the number who pursue science and engineering is even fewer; it was nice to have so many female engineering interns up on stage for the presentation, and to see Christina become a role model for many of the students in the audience. Francis began his speech by reminding everyone that, “everything in science started out as something small.” He spoke to the importance of pursuing ideas that have the potential to improve problems, even if the ideas seem impossible. His advice to continue creating, despite limited resources and the nagging feeling that your efforts will not result in huge change, I think hit home with a lot of people in the auditorium.

Before we left for the day, we hung around to talk to some of the students. One boy in particular came up to me to ask for some electrical engineering advice. Despite having no electrical training, he had deconstructed some of the extra lanterns and mounted the solar cells on top of his roof. From there, he wired the panels through the ceiling and along the walls of his room, powering light bulbs and brightening his nights; his natural ability to innovate and understand technology was impressive. Many of the students had question after question about how the medical devices we brought with us worked, and what materials were required to construct them. A large number of girls conglomerated, asking about what us female interns did in tertiary school. When they heard Karen was pre-med, they were very excited—they too want to be doctors. So many of the students were curious about the prospect of engineering, and wanted ideas for projects to pursue. The interns all decided to come back to Jacaranda on Friday afternoons for the remainder of our time here, to hold engineering workshops and information sessions. I’m excited to go back—the students were so kind, curious, and eager. Hopefully this will be an experience that starts small, but as Francis indicated, grows into something much more important.

 http://www.jacarandafoundation.org/About.html