With the logistical, financial, and planning support of Baylor Missions, three faculty members took a unique team of engineering and social work students to Laredo, Texas during Spring Break. Professors Jill Klentzman and Brian Thomas from the School of Engineering and Computer Science as well as Professor Jennifer Dickey from the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work traveled to the small colonia community of Las Lomas outside of Laredo to support a church with its needs. Social work students collaborated with the community members, assessing for community strengths and priorities for change. They drafted an asset-based assessment for the Holding Institute, an agency that serves the needs of immigrants and Cubano refugees on the border. Building on their work in Las Lomas from July 2016, the engineering students worked towards developing two water wells to assist the church and community with its water access problems.

While their service activities during the day were discipline-specific, the evenings included cross-disciplinary discussions and activities to foster understanding and mutual respect between the diverse student groups. The plights, stories, and needs of forced migrants were explored from the dual lenses of social services and infrastructure. Professor Thomas reported, “The opportunity to work together on a real project that benefits real people has helped some students confirm in their own minds that engineering is what they want to do with their lives. For others, the main benefit was experiencing close community with our engineering team and the social work team, as well as developing relationships with the community members and the faculty. When faculty members get to be practitioners alongside students, a whole new type of learning occurs.” A Baylor freshman, Ben Phillips, was enthusiastic about his experience in Las Lomas: “I think this week was one of the best weeks of my life. I felt like I was able to contribute to the project and actually impact people’s lives through the work done. I would love to do this kind of work for the rest of my life. There are ways God has blessed me (time, finance, knowledge, skills) that I can use to improve other people’s lives, and I feel so blessed through giving.”