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Anikwenze Ogbue has made a lot of his time at Ohio State.

A senior, he's been active in the university chapters of both the National Society of Black Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers. He's also helped tutor African American high school students as they prepare for their ACT and SAT tests.

But the highlight of his college career came in March, when he joined a group of Ohio State engineering students on a service trip to Montaña de Luz, a Honduran orphanage for HIV-positive children. The orphanage was established in 1998, basically as a place for children with AIDS to go to die. But medical care has improved over the past decade and the center's goals have shifted. A morgue has been turned into a computer room; the orphanage now works to prepare the children for adulthood.

"I knew I'd have a greater impact by doing something like this," Ogbue says. "It's a remarkable trip, and it's something that I've never done before."

Ogbue learned about the trip from Dr. John Merrill, director of Ohio State's first-year engineering program. Merrill and other engineering faculty and staff members have taken groups of student volunteers to Montaña de Luz since 2005. The initial idea for the trip originated with Engineers for Community Service, an Ohio State student organization which promotes life-long professionalism through service.

“This experience is going to make me a better engineer.”
—Anikwenze Ogbue, Ohio State senior

"Part of the commitment going in was that we wanted this to be a long-standing relationship, primarily for the benefit of the orphanage in that it wasn't going to help them that much if somebody who had technical skills such as these students had to offer just came once and then never showed up again," Merrill says.

Over the years, students have performed myriad tasks: installing a computer lab, teaching kids about computers, establishing a library, fixing electrical problems, improving water quality, and a variety of manual labor projects.

They've also developed relationships with the orphanage's children.

"I'm the youngest in my family. I didn't have a chance to be an older brother to somebody," Ogbue says. "I was really happy to make connections with the kids. I was excited to be a role model."

(text: University Marketing Communications)

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