VN_SPR SUM_06 covers FINAL.indd - Villanova University

each in a differentway, educated me on the transformationtaking place in engineering education and inthe engineering profession. Creative, intelligent engineers willbe crucial in addressing the challenges facing us, all of whichhave major technological dimensions to them. They will needa broad mindset with not only technical and scientific expertiseto bring to bear, but a good deal of comfort with the social andhumanistic issues involved. Each of these dean candidates citedas the primary reason for being interested inthis position the fact that Villanova’s culturewas so conducive to such an outcome. Asa matter of fact, Dr. Gary A. Gabriele,who has been selected as our next deanof Engineering, has for the past two yearsbeen a division head at the NationalScience Foundation, dealingdirectly with the transformationof engineering education.I have used engineering simplyas an example. We have manyother potential transformation agentssitting before us. We have future teachers,professors, economists, historians, philosophers,theologians, ethicians, students of literature,nurses, other health-care professionals, scientists,social scientists, business leaders, public service leaders, lawyers,military leaders, etc., etc. Just think of the collective potential wehave here. Obviously you will not all be working together as a singleteam, but you will be bringing that collaborative, cross-functionalsense and expertise to the teams that you will work with.Let me take a couple of examples, which I select simplybecause they are recent. A few weeks ago, Justin Knabb [’05 VSB]dropped into my office to say hello. He was on campus to promoteand raise money for a project called Water for Waslala. You mayrecall Justin, who was last year’s student Commencement speaker.He gave an inspiring address to his class, as Michelle [Cifone ’06A&S] did here today. In fact, Justin received as many accoladesas our guest speaker, the president of Ireland, did [Her ExcellencyMary McAleese]. They both were fabulous.After the graduation, I asked Justin what he planned to do,and he responded that he intended to spend the summer inSouth America for some unfinished business that he had comeacross on a previous service trip. As it turns out, he joinedanother Villanovan, MattNespoli, Class of 2004, who had been engaged withother Villanova students in several service trips to Waslala,an extremely poor region of some 40,000 people in Nicaragua.A major crisis facing the people was a complete lack of cleandrinking water. The students joined with the Catholic parishesthere and worked for the installation throughout the region ofnew water systems, primarily by raising money back home.After Matt’s graduation two years ago, he initiated Waterfor Waslala, a full-time project dedicated solely for thispurpose. The project was integrated into the AugustinianVolunteers network, thus extending its outreach and assuringstability. A connection to the Villanova College ofEngineering was also made in the fall of 2003, to begin thedesign and implementation of a new, purified water systemfor each community inWaslala.“...no matter what your field of studies at Villanova,you are always prepared, as the expression goes, ‘to do welland to do good’ with your life.”—The Rev. Edmund J. Dobbin, O.S.A., ’58 A&SWhatI like particularlyabout that story, in addition to the obvious unselfish dedication ofthe people involved, was the ingenuity and, if you will, the collaborativecross-functional aspect of what they did. Not only did theycollaborate with the engineers on the technical side of things, butJustin was a Commerce and Finance [now Villanova School ofBusiness] student majoring in economics and Matt was a LiberalArts and Sciences grad whose transcript was heavy with computerscience courses and economics courses, including topics like theeconomic development of Central America and perspectives onpoverty. Obviously their growing sense of service was already guidingtheir intellectual interests as they studied here.Then there is the beautiful story of the Amigos de Jesus (theFriends of Jesus), which some of you have participated in. For fiveyears now, at the behest of a couple of Villanova grads who werealready in Honduras establishing an orphanage for street children,aptly named the Amigos de Jesus, some of our civil engineeringstudents have been making regular service trips to Honduras withtheir faculty mentors, designing and facilitating construction offacilities for the orphanage. This year’s project is the beginning ofconstruction for a school on the Amigos de Jesus site. The service38 Villanova Magazine