Nate Reents has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with an Environmental Engineering minor from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He is working on his M.S. in Environmental Engineering at Michigan Tech and should complete his degree requirements in spring semester, 2003. Nate is assigned as a water/sanitation engineer in Santa Barbara, Honduras.
Ever since my undergraduate days in Boulder Colorado I have dreamed about living and working in a foreign country. After getting my degree in mechanical engineering I finished my Peace Corps application and took off on a trip with some friends to Africa, India, Nepal and Thailand. While traveling I found out that my Peace Corps assignment would be in Ghana, Africa and that I would be leaving 2 weeks after my arrival to the U.S. Due to a crazy twist of fate I came down with a rare strain of typhoid fever on the plan ride home and Peace Corps postponed my service for 6 months. To fill in this time I got a job with Americorps to improve the computer system of a non-profit organization that provides pro-bono representation of immigrants detained by the border patrol. There I met many immigrants from Central America and became fascinated with Latin American culture. It was in El Paso that a friend told me about the Master’s International Program at Michigan Tech and I decided to study environmental engineering for a year and then try to get sent to somewhere in Latin America.
So here I am two and a half years later in Honduras working with rural villages on potable water projects. Because I live in a very mountainous area, most all the projects I have worked on involve capturing the water from a spring and transporting it to the village using the force of gravity. These projects require doing a topographic study, design, list of materials, quote of prices, solicitation of funds and finally supervision of the construction. This work involves a lot of hiking and has taken me to some amazing places and introduced me to some incredible people. Outside of my work I have also had lots of time for traveling. During my time here I have climbed volcanoes in Guatemala, gone scuba diving at the Bay Islands of Honduras and tried surfing on the pacific coast of Nicaragua. Although I had traveled to many places before coming here, I had never stayed in one place and really gotten to know the people. Doing Peace Corps has given me the time to learn how to cuss like crazy in Spanish, play a bunch of Bob Dylan songs on the guitar and keep up with "las chavas" on the dance floor. Along with these valuable skills I have also learned what it is like to put engineering into practice while taking into consideration the social, economic and environmental limitations of the developing world.