Recently, my two sisters, Terrisa Duenas (CEO and Founder of ESTE Leverage) and Cecilia Duenas (Advisor to ESTE Leverage) had the privilege and opportunity to travel to the Maasai village of Elerai in Africa as participants in an ongoing project through Engineers Without Borders (EWB-USA). If you are not familiar with EWB, you would be inspired by their mission – to partner with communities and develop leaders to build a better world; their vision – a world where every leader is equipped to build and every community is built to thrive; and the sentiment from their founder – “improving the lives of the 5 billion people whose main concern is to stay alive by the end of each day on our planet is no longer an option for engineers; it is an obligation”.

You may or may not know that Terrisa is also an engineer and President of the local EWB chapter in southern California. Cecilia is a longstanding educator who continues to develop and mentor our future educators. My sisters, along with several members of EWB, embarked on their recent trip to Africa to design and implement a sustainable water supply in the sub village of Erangau within Elerai. During their visit, they had the opportunity to meet with the two village teachers and see their schoolhouse/classroom. The two most important elements to this Maasai village are water and education.

Their ‘schoolhouse’ was a basic wood structure in which 150 students gathered and sat atop wood-slatted seats. The dirt beneath their feet served as their ‘chalkboard’ and their fingers as their ‘pencils’. Wood structures are not durable over time and the large open gap in the ceiling was undeniable proof. However, robust structures cannot be built without cement and water. The connection between the need for water to build a proper schoolhouse was not apparent until they visited.

I enjoyed talking to Terrisa and Cecilia and imagining their various experiences and encounters during their trip. Cecilia reflected “after seeing over a hundred children in the small schoolhouse, I realized I had a narrow view of what it means to educate children in rural settings. I was viewing the education of these children through my own lens of what it means to teach."

What I found truly inspiring was how grateful these children were to have what they had, and eager and excited to learn what they could. And what an amazing accomplishment for the two teachers whose responsibility it is to teach these children. What I learned from talking to Terrisa and Cecilia is that education and learning have no borders. If you have those who are dedicated to teach, then you will always have those who are committed to learn – regardless of the situation. Cecilia noted that one of the things she learned from this experience was to understand the context. A sobering example of context - the group had packed and brought a suitcase filled with classroom supplies; however, none of it could be used because there really wasn’t a classroom in existence.

After seeing the schoolhouse, Cecilia devised a short-term solution. And fortunately, she happened to be travelling with a group of engineers to help deploy her plan. Although the village’s water system will take time to develop and implement, Cecilia figured they could at least provide a solution that could be useful immediately – a chalkboard and chalk – materials that would be easy to replace. The story behind how Cecilia’s idea took hold across the EWB team, their escapades to secure the materials to build the chalkboard, and their ultimate delivery and installation in the schoolhouse was truly remarkable!

ESTE Leverage is fundamentally grounded in the science of education and learning with the mission to empower individuals to realize their full potential. At ESTE, we aspire to live our mission and realize our vision without borders. I loved sharing this story as an inspiring example of ESTE’s ongoing success and how ESTE remains dedicated to our mission and vision regardless of where we are in the world and with whom we engage.

How can you promote the context of education and learning without borders in your daily role?

• As a parent, teacher, mentor, or coach, find ways to integrate teaching into your daily activities and communications. A ‘teaching moment’ often takes form in ways outside of the traditional classroom setting.

• Be a lifelong learner. Find the learnings in your daily activities and communications. Even in what may seem mundane and routine, find that hidden gem of something you learned (maybe about yourself?) that you didn’t know before.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe0frl3kMic&t=6s&ab_channel=EngineersWithoutBordersUSA]

ESTE® Leverage - founded in the belief that Entrepreneurship, Science, Technology, and Engineering are innate in each of us - grounded in the science of learning & assessment - dedicated to the realized potential in every individual.