Award for Innovative International Initiatives

In 2012–13, Professor Strykowski co-created Design for Life: Water in Tanzania, a faculty-led study abroad program that blended aspects of the student organization Engineers Without Borders with the academic rigor of an engineering design course. From the beginning, the program partnered with St. Paul Partners, a key Minnesota nonprofit organization located both in Minnesota and Tanzania. Since then, the program has deeply impacted hundreds of students, improved the lives of thousands of residents in Tanzania who receive access to clean water, and raised the profile of the College of Science and Engineering (CSE) and the Mechanical Engineering department.

During a delegation visit to Tanzania led by medical doctors, Professor Strykowski met Ken Smith, a 3M engineer. Smith explained St. Paul Partners’ work in Tanzania related to clean water access, and the two engineers discussed how CSE students could get involved to expand the work. They envisioned a new engineering course related to localized engineering solutions that also offered credit. Design for Life was born.

In a truly innovative, impactful partnership, CSE students design water systems while St. Paul Partners raises funds for the systems to be built. Then local contractors in Tanzania implement the water systems, in partnership with those who will benefit from the system, thereby supporting the local economy.

While the University is a massive organization, St. Paul Partners is a small nonprofit organization, making it challenging for the two entities to “understand” each other in terms of contracting, insurance expectations, payments, and more. There were also challenges related to receiving academic approval for the course, with some resistance about perceived risk of studying abroad in East Africa. But the experience has been nothing but positive.

Although the time abroad is brief and intense (winter break), the impact on the students is lifelong: Ten groups of students have participated in the class since 2014, for a total of 136 students. Several of these alumni have returned to Tanzania as volunteers, either through St. Paul Partners or the Peace Corps. Others have joined the board of St. Paul Partners in Minnesota. Some alumni have created their own fundraising group. So far, sixteen of the water systems designed by the students have been completed in Tanzania, representing $395,000 in raised funding and serving more than 25,500 people.