Jonathan Buyer has learned a lot from consecutive summer internships with Tipmont’s engineering department. However, a March 2024 spring break service project trip deepened his connection to the co-op’s core values and his professional engineering aspirations.

Buyer is a junior in electrical engineering and humanitarian engineering at Anderson University. Through an Engineering Design for Service course (which explores how engineering can assist global communities), Buyer traveled to Misahuallí, Ecuador. On the banks of the Amazon River, it’s the closest town to the Antioch Christian Academy, a K-12 school where the project took place.

In dry seasons, Misahuallí’s water conservation efforts sometimes shut off the academy’s water access — prompting the academy to close for up to several weeks. Meanwhile, weather and terrain complicate consistent electric service. During a power outage, Antioch has no backup to filter any water it may have. After consulting with campus leaders and maintenance workers, Buyer and his fellow students generated possible solutions for reliable water and electricity backups.

“You get humbled very quickly working on elements we would take for granted in the United States,” Buyer said. “But the idea is not to simply build something and then leave. You have to engage and empower the people while considering costs and cultures. That way, they are invested and informed enough to feel capable and comfortable.”

The class created several solutions from which Antioch could choose. For a water backup, it chose to divert rainwater from rooftop drainage systems into large, underground storage cisterns. For electric backup, it decided to build a contained control room for a diesel generator. Antioch will now work to raise the $30,000 required for upgrades.

Buyer also visited a century-old Roman Catholic cathedral, a rescue and rehabilitation center for wild animals that have been inappropriately domesticated, the Amazon rainforest, a ceremony for cacao creation, and a street market in Ecuador’s capital city, Quito.

“The trip helped grow my heart for service, which is one of our core values here at Tipmont,” Buyer says. “It showed me how to serve a community in the best way and provide safe, reliable service.”