Circuit Check’s, Kevin Halagan participated in a service project with Engineers Without Borders.  Kevin was a part of a team of six that helped a community in Guatemala begin to build a school. Read Kevin’s story here.

After a year of fundraising over $30,000, organizing every needed logistic, and designing a structurally sound school we were finally able to break ground on a new building the kids of Aldea Patzac, a small remote community in the highlands of Guatemala. During this week long adventure I was lucky to be accompanied by six other talented engineers from the Twin Cities area. Once we arrived at the project site we took out our design plans and got to excavating the foundation for the school using pick axes and shovels. After that was done we bent rebar and ended the trip by pouring the concrete to complete the footings. We couldn’t of done this without the help of over 30 community members. This was a great start to the project! The local masons we hired and the community will continue with our design plans, pouring the foundation and constructing brick walls over the next couple months. In January our second implementation team will head down there to oversee the installation of the roof and completion of the school. As a continuation of this venture we took measurements and talked over some design ideas with the community for a new latrine system as a second phase of the project.

Thank you to everyone who has volunteered tirelessly over the past year to make this project happen. Also, I am very grateful to have shared this experience with the six talented and passionate engineers on the travel team! Jordyn Meskan, Rômulo de Carvalho Silva, Matt Wessale, Mustafa Bulent Igdelioglu, Benjamin Tanko, and Tyler Myers.