Tawni Paradise Participates in Service Mission to Dominican Republic

2015 Feb 12

Tawni Paradise of El Cajon, a senior in industrial & systems engineering at the University of San Diego, participated in a service project in January to improve the lives of rural villagers in the Dominican Republic.

Villagers were cooking their food over an open flame which required a great deal of firewood and produced a lot of smoke, causing respiratory problems, especially for the women cooking the food. The villages have also had several cholera outbreaks from drinking untreated water in recent years.

In less than a week, Paradise and 17 other students built 16 low-cost concrete and ceramic "rocket" stoves that will use less firewood, reduce deforestation and also produce less smoke. The students also installed two chlorinators to disinfect the drinking water in the mountainous villages around El Cercado in the southwestern Dominican Republic.

"Paradise and all the students in the group can be very proud of the amazing work they did," said Truc Ngo, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering in the University of San Diego's Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering. "They completed their work under difficult circumstances. They had to build the stoves within a limited time window due to weather conditions and a limited amount of electricity. The physical layout of the reservoirs and terrain also made it difficult to install the chlorinators."

Members of the community saw immediate benefits from the work. As one woman reported, "my eyes didn't cry" when she began cooking with her new stove.

As part of the University of San Diego, a Catholic institution, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering is committed to preparing leaders dedicated to innovative solutions, ethical conduct and compassionate service. Professor Ngo is also leading the school's efforts to advance humanitarian and sustainable engineering.

The University of San Diego's Shiley-Marco School of Engineering is ranked 14th in the country by U.S. News & World Report for schools whose highest degree is a bachelor's or master's.