Two 2025 spring break trips will immerse engineering students in learning, cultural experiences and service, and they will see their classrooms come to life. Both teams will travel over spring break, March 8-16, 2025.
A civil engineering group heads to Paris for a customized tour—History, Innovation, and Artistry of Structural Engineering—while another team lands in Guatemala City for a weeklong trip filled with service and learning opportunities. Both teams and faculty advisers will visit historical and cultural sites.
Two engineering professors and 11 undergraduates will spend their spring break repairing medical equipment at hospitals in Guatemala as part of a biomedical engineering service-learning course. They will be supported by another student stateside who will also be volunteering at Project C.U.R.E. The team – students in BME 3890 – will meet and work with engineering students and professors at Universidad del Valle in Guatemala City, and then travel to Antigua during their week’s stay. In all, they will work at three hospitals, as well as visit a historic museum and an artisan market, take a cooking class, learn about coffee farming and processing from a small producer, and enjoy a ziplining experience. To follow along, go here: Guatemala blog.
“I am excited to work side-by-side with Guatemalan students and to learn more about how health care functions in a different country,” said Jonathan Jesalva, an electrical and computer engineering senior. “I am also excited about incredible Guatemalan culture that I will experience and the adventures along the way.”
For Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education and Biomedical Engineering Associate Professor Cynthia Paschal, this is a repeat of a longstanding course in service learning and visits to Guatemala. Paschal began leading a service trips to Guatemala in 2009. This is her ninth trip with students. “New this year, Professor Romina Del Bosque, will be participating, which is great since she has closely related experience working in hospitals in resource limited settings,” Paschal said.
“I am most excited about bringing the teaching and learning outside of the classroom,” said Del Bosque, assistant professor of the practice of biomedical engineering. “The students will have the opportunity to do lots of hands-on learning in the chosen hospitals, learn a bit about Guatemala, and give back to the community, too.”
In Paris, 20 students and two engineering professors will attend classroom lectures and guided tours focused on structural engineering of the city’s most iconic sites—the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the newly reopened Notre Dame Cathedral, and a Seine river excursion with discussions about bridges before and after the tour. A City Planning Walking Tour and a Paris Sewer Tour are scheduled, as well as a day trip to Versailles and a visit to the Louis Vuitton Foundation. To follow along, go here: Paris blog.
Civil engineering sophomore Jorge Mendoza will be on his first trip abroad. “I am excited to visit Notre Dame because it has beautiful gothic architecture, and it’s impressive by the engineering and construction it took to rebuild Notre Dame after the fire [five years ago].”
The trip advisers are Lori Troxel, professor of the practice of civil and environmental engineering and director of undergraduate studies in civil engineering, and Ghina Absi, assistant professor of the practice of civil and environmental engineering, both of whom took the first cohort of this class last year to Italy and witnessed the thestudents’ growth and learning
“I’m very excited for this version of this class in Paris. We will be studying arches, locks, and how big cities maintain their historical structures as they plan huge events like the Olympic games, among other topics,” Absi said. “This immersion experience in the intersection of civil engineering and architecture is truly a once in a lifetime experience for our students.”
Troxel said the time spent with peers in another country deepens learning and this level of learning could not be achieved in the classroom.
Divine Irakiza, a civil engineering sophomore, hasn’t left the United States since she immigrated here as a child; she call this the biggest trip of her life so far. “I’ve really loved learning about the history and structural meaning behind the iconic landmarks we will see,” Irakiza said. “Participating in this class has made my other classes seem more meaningful and exciting.”
Guatemala blog: https://vubmeguatemala25.wordpress.com/
Paris blog: