This grant will involve multi-partner, global collaborations to design and develop an integrated waste and water management project for a newly built rural community in Batangas, Philippines.
“This is Phase 2 of the Philippines Project we started last year when Dr. Brian Shmaefsky and Dr. Cherith Letargo took students on our first ever international service learning project,” said Janis Fowler, Director of Resource Development at Lone Star College-Kingwood.
“This EPA grant totally aligns with the new administration priorities set forth by our new college president Katherine Persson. Service learning, diversity, student success and sustainable development are all elements of this project and are all part of her vision for the college,” says Fowler.
The college is partnered with the Houston Galveston Area Council-Natural Resources Advisory Committee, the Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services Agency, Gawad Kalinga, Kingwood Fil-Am Foundation, Waste Management, Texas A & M University at Kingsville and the University of the Philippines.
The partners provide guidance and expertise to the study. “Waste Management has been a great partner with the college, letting us tour their facilities,” said Fowler. The Houston and Galveston Area Council is an agency that collaborates with other agencies and they have access to a lot of specialists from around the country who will provide expertise to our students, she adds.
In developing this waste water model, students will study ways that developing nations can contain and preserve water and use waste water and sewage. “A couple of things that we are looking at to do with sewage is to turn it into bio solids which can be used for fertilizer or forest restoration or make it into fuel, usually methane,” says Dr. Shmaefsky.
He explains that this will be a general model that can be taken anywhere. “We are looking for inexpensive way for people with little education to make a difference in their communities.”
This will be a project that many LSC-Kingwood students will have the opportunity to work on and learn from. The students who will be working on this project are non majors who will need to research and use best practices. They will have the opportunity to learn from visitors, guest speakers and experts who will be advising and providing guidance and recommendations along the way.
Students currently in Dr. Letargo’s honors geology class and Dr. Shmaefsky’s biology class are using the information provided by the students who traveled to the Philippines last year. Dr. Letargo says the goal for this semester’s students is to build a virtual model of the system and to make sure the science is tight. In the spring, a new group of students will build a scale model. When the project is complete a video conference will be held with the University of the Philippines. It is then that the students will present their model for review. Dr. Shmaefsky will close the grant out by making a final presentation to the EPA in Washington D.C.
Both professors are excited about the opportunities this grant provides, as well the opportunities to compete with four year colleges.
“For me it’s what can I do to increase opportunities for students? This grant provides a wonderful opportunity to explore applications with my students,” says Dr. Letargo.
“For a community college to get this kind of grant is just incredible,” says Dr. Shmaefsky. “This is something that community colleges don’t usually do. Our students are doing the same caliber work as students at MIT.”
“As well as promoting service learning, global learning and environmental awareness, this grant gives LSC-Kingwood some international flavor,” adds Fowler.
For more information on this project, contact Dr. Cherith Letargo at 281-312-1485.
