Global Brigades at UMCP

[Alex Bansleben]

To whomever it may concern,

My name is Alex Bansleben and I am a sophomore mechanical engineer at the University of Maryland. I recently came across the Global Brigades website and I got excited and wanted to start it at the university. I specifically wanted to start a Business Brigades program here because I am involved in the QUEST program run through RHSmith Business school, and I think it would be a great opportunity. I talked about it with a lot of professors and students and project leaders at other universities for advice. I have also been in contact with Michelle at Global Brigades, as well as the program director for the Business brigade.

So this is an idea that I have got very excited about, and I have motivated many other people in my program as well. So I have a potential leadership team of 4-5 people already set, as well as at least these 2 trips to begin with. I found that GB already existed at UMD on the STARS website, but I was wondering if it is currently active, and if there are any plans to move forward next year. My friends and I are very excited about the program, and we would love to kick it off to the point where we could get at least 100 people to travel next academic year (as it happened at Indiana University).

Please let me know if you would like to meet up with me or set up a phone call so we could talk about this. I would greatly appreciate any input! Thanks a lot,

--
Alex Bansleben

Mechanical Engineering undergraduate student

A. James Clark School of Engineering

University of Maryland

(443)-878-8105