ESW Chagres 2010-2011 Wrap Up!

[Ankur Asthana]

Hey everyone!

I hope you're recuperating  okay from Dillo Day craziness. 

We've definitely accomplished a lot this year, and I thought it would be good to just briefly recap. At the beginning of the academic year we had just two people on this team and didn't really have regular meetings, much direction, or specific goals. Since that time, though, our team was able to make pretty strong progress this year:

• Team/Community Building
• Grew from 2 regular team members to 9 core team members
• Rebuilt relationships in Chagres via 2 trips (returned to Panama for first time since March 2009)
• Solar PV Project
• Held first ever formal solar training of community leaders
• Installed systems into 5 new homes in Santa Librada
• Rice Huller
• Extensively researched various approaches
• Built designs/eliminated bad ones
• Conducted user testing in Panama
• Networking/publicity
• Presented at 2011 Summit On Sustainability at Northwestern
• Presented at 2011 EPA Design Expo in Washington D.C.
• Invited to present at 2011 Solar World Congress in Germany

None of this would have been possible with the work you each put in - you should definitely feel proud of all these accomplishments!

As some of you know, I'm going to be graduating in a few weeks, which means we are going to need new leadership on this team. Fortunately, we have a group of guys that is going to serve as the Leadership Team for the Chagres Partnership. This team will consist of Adam, Alan, Glenn, Sheng, and Vivek. Starting from this week onward, they will be responsible for coordinating everything from meetings to trips to working with you guys to define project goals and vision. They have each put a great amount of effort into this project and definitely have gained the skills and experience needed to continue leading this project in the coming years.

I'll let them take it from here to let you know what the plans are for the summer and any upcoming meetings. Thanks again for a great year, and it's been wonderful working with each of you!

Best,

Ankur

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Ankur Asthana

Northwestern University, 2011

phone: 715-505-1664
skype: ankur.asthana 

[Matthew Whitehill]

We <3 you Ankur!  I know I speak for everyone when I say that you did an amazing job and are the reason we were able to accomplish so much.   Best of luck in the future and you will be missed!

-Matt

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Matthew Whitehill
Northwestern University
B.S. Mechanical Engineering 2012
Cell: (408) 691-5630