{"id":13,"date":"2019-03-25T18:42:06","date_gmt":"2019-03-25T18:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/degoedek\/?page_id=13"},"modified":"2026-03-02T18:41:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T18:41:50","slug":"etown-utg-collaboration-overview","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/degoedek\/the-gambia\/etown-utg-collaboration-overview\/","title":{"rendered":"2015 Etown – UTG Collaboration Overview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elizabethtown College – University of The Gambia Research Collaborations<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/strong>We are building a student based collaborative partnership between Elizabethtown College (EC) and the University of The Gambia (UTG) with the goal of tackling challenging problems in West Africa and training students from both institutions to pivot this student work toward establishing and maintaining sustainable businesses in The\u00a0Gambia. This effort is being sponsored by and mentored through the EC Social Enterprise Institute.\u00a0Our work is built on the social business model designed to alleviate the effects of poverty through affordable technologies, education, and social enterprise initiatives.<\/p>\n

Elizabethtown Professor Dr. Kurt DeGoede (Engineering) has been collaborating with \"\"<\/strong>Dr. Momodou Jain\u00a0(Physics and Engineering) at the University of The Gambia (UTG)\u00a0since Dr. DeGoede spent a year as a visiting professor at UTG in 2010-11. Yusupha Touray the Director of Planning and Research at the Ministry of Education also works closely with the team.\u00a0 Through Dr. Jain and Mr.\u00a0Touray,\u00a0the team has strong connections throughout the ministries of education, energy, and\u00a0justice. We are also working closely with Saikou Njai\u00a0a US\u00a0and New Zealand trained Gambian engineer and project manager who is the field placement\u00a0coordinator for over 20 US Peace Corps volunteers positioned throughout the rural areas of the country.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/strong>As with other international service learning experiences the professional perspective of the EC student participants was shaped by participation in this project.\u00a0 The students identify increased interest in seeking employment or graduate school programs focused on improving\u00a0the quality\u00a0of life for others, and scrutinizing the social ethics of potential employers.\u00a0 The process of acting across cultures changed how they approach problems and understand the world, helping them understand how to define the real problem in a difficult situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis project really solidified my decision\/want to work in international based companies that will better the\u00a0life\u00a0of someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strength of this program lies in connecting cultures and experiences to work towards a common goal.\u201d \u201cIt has changed how I approach problems and how I view the world as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking directly with a customer is an\u00a0eye opening\u00a0experience. It gives context to problems and helps to establish what is truly needed in a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cParticipating in the solar phone charger project\u00a0reinforced the idea of\u00a0working in a field where I may be able to have a larger impact on communities and\u00a0people’s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am hoping to go to graduate school to continue research in methods to help improve quality of life for individuals all over the world. Also, I look into companies business practices, and a major quality I look for in a company is its business ethics. I see the much bigger role that engineering has on individual people, families, and entire communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike most other projects, we have also been able to observe the impact of this collaboration on the professional development of peer students in the developing nation.\u00a0 The UTG students speak of improved career opportunities, praising the practical training in the\u00a0community based\u00a0projects.\u00a0 Alumni of the program identified specific skill development that led to their employment: PV system design, determining the root cause of a problem and systematically formulating a solution to that problem. Through the\u00a0program\u00a0they came to understand the connection between engineering and business to develop an economically successful enterprise.\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI have had the opportunity to choose a career that is related to renewable energy and Physics in general. I was able to make such a decision through my participation in the projects which subsequently enhanced my capacity in career decision making.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was able to decide without ambiguity or doubt that I want a career in Renewable Energy technology after completing the courses experimental physics I & II (which involved mainly the design and or sizing for solar PV systems)\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0better understood\u00a0engineering as an area which deals with solving\u00a0real life\u00a0problems and a tool that can be used to turn businesses into success.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has enabled me\u00a0view\u00a0engineering and Physics as a fruitful and problem solving oriented career than just an academic discipline. It helped greatly in rendering service to the community, particularly those of pressing concern to the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0for example\u00a0used the skills and knowledge acquired from this program to get a job at a private solar firm as my first job after graduation.\u201d<\/p>\n

These students also paralleled the EC students in experiencing an awakening of a humanitarian spirit: \u201c[\u2026] having been a part of the\u00a0community-based\u00a0projects that emerged from the Photovoltaic course at UTG (the pioneering badge) had helped me harness my zeal to serve others. I had always perceived Physics to be self-involved field [\u2026] Those few months of my Photovoltaic project was an\u00a0eye-opener\u00a0for me as it was what helped me aware that I had always had a dormant quality in me that was never awakened, a quality of being a humanitarian and using my love for science for the greater good. It was a moment that I wouldn’t change for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Portions excerpted from EESD15 (https:\/\/open.library.ubc.ca\/cIRcle\/collections\/52657\/items\/1.0064749<\/a>)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elizabethtown College – University of The Gambia Research Collaborations We are building a student based collaborative partnership between Elizabethtown College (EC) and the University of The Gambia (UTG) with the goal of tackling challenging problems in West Africa and training students from both institutions to pivot this student work toward establishing and maintaining sustainable businesses … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"parent":75,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-13","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/degoedek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/degoedek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/degoedek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/degoedek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/degoedek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/degoedek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":997,"href":"https:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/degoedek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13\/revisions\/997"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/degoedek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/75"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/degoedek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}