When she traveled to Malawi last summer to take part in an Engineers Without Borders project, University of Minnesota student Abigail Johnson made her first trip outside of the United States.
During this “once-in-a-lifetime experience,” the mechanical engineering major worked to design and implement a water distribution and sanitation system at a primary school in Malawi. Before the project launched, the school’s staff and young students had to walk half a kilometer several times a day to get water.
“The community emphasized how excited they were for these projects,” says Johnson. “They’ve said that it has made a huge difference by keeping the students in school, hydrated, and hygienic.”
Back home, Johnson expressed gratitude for the chance to learn real-world engineering, develop her communication skills, and see the effects of her efforts. She named a class covering fundamentals of design and manufacturing in the mechanical engineering field as perhaps her favorite.
“It was a lot of fun for me because we got to do all the math and engineering behind designing a structure or product, but then we also got to go into a lab and actually manufacture things,” she says. “I think that’s so important as an engineer—to see what you’re designing and how it’s implemented in the long run.”
Johnson has also been admitted to the University’s integrated master’s degree program for mechanical engineering. Thanks to the program’s integrated track and the college credits she earned in high school, she’s on track to receive her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in four years total.
