Luke John Paul Barrett
BS Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University
MS Planned in Environmental Engineering

Luke was born in Nairobi, Kenya to an ex-aeronautical engineer turned missionary / statistician and a teacher. He lived in Nairobi for 8 years before moving to the United States and Richmond, Virginia.

Over the years he nurtured a healthy world view by traveling to various interesting places; He was silent as he walked through the ruins of Mostar, Tusla, and Sarajevo in 1996 after the Balkan wars. He was encouraged when he witnessed the rehabilitation of street children in western Turkey the same year. Later, in 2002 he traveled to Germany to participate in an engineering, culture & language program at Technische Universität München.

He also spent a lot of time with international students at his university. He believes that one need not always travel far to explore the world - it is sometimes closer than is seems. As he met more and more students who had left home to try at life in a foreign land, he realized that it was time to turn the tables and set about on his own adventure.

At Michigan Tech, Luke found the opportunity he was looking for in the MI program. In February, 2006, he will travel to Madagascar to begin his Peace Corps work. His primary duties will include the design and implementation
of gravity-fed water systems and small dams for rice paddy irrigation. He will be located in the eastern rainforest zone in the village of Ambatofotsy. While he is eager to begin his service, he will not forget the time he spent in the Upper Peninsula and the Keweenaw.