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A.B. engineering major Emmanuel Kirunda ’04 (Iganga, Uganda) discussed his learning experiences in Brazil and Chile this summer at two brown bag events last week. A Thursday talk was sponsored by the engineering department and another the following day by Hispanic Society of Lafayette and the CHANCE and El Mundo floors.
Kirunda’s trip was funded by Lafayette’s Jeffrey B. Havens Memorial Fund Award, which provides nontraditional summer learning experiences that give students opportunities for education, growth, and personal development not encountered in classes.
From May 24-Aug. 13, Kirunda visited Santiago, Valparaiso, Vine del mar, and Valdivia in Chile and Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and Port Seguro in Brazil. He learned about the political structures of the two countries, analyzing what he considers to be Chile’s overly centralized government planning and Brazil’s federal-municipal structure. In Valdivia, a city about 12 hours south of Santiago famous for hosting scientists and artists from around the world, he saw “artificial” islands and other continuing effects of flooding that occurred in 1960 when an earthquake tore away the banks of the Pacific.
On the engineering side, Kirunda interviewed workers and a supervisor for a $400 million underground two-lane highway project in Santiago, which requires diverting the Mapocho River; spoke with an engineer working on a mega-railway line system to be built from Sao Paulo to the sea for transport of soybeans (since cancelled due to bankruptcy); compared state-of-the-art metro systems in Santiago, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Salvador; and spoke with many engineering university students in Chile.
“I learned a lot about the cultures and peoples of Latin America because both countries attract people from all countries of Latin America,” he says. “I talked to some politicians in Chile and I toured the presidential palace and the National Congress. I visited the home of Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda. I interacted with students at Chile’s numerous universities and learned first-hand about student culture. I got to learn about the political setup of the countries and their legislative codes. In Brazil I quickly learned to speak Portuguese and got to explore the music and dances of the countries.”
Kirunda is coordinator of the Mau Project, a student group drafting a model for an African Union. The insights about Latin American sociopolitical realities provided by the trip influenced his preparation, in conjunction with peers, of a new model. The students are seeking to present it at a conference.
Kirunda says he chose the A.B engineering major to obtain the technical background and problem-solving skills needed for public policy analysis. His summer experiences have changed his worldview and made him a more well rounded engineer, he says.
He is a member of the Rugby Club and Delta Upsilon fraternity. He participated in last week’s dramatic readings of Wole Soyinka’s play, The Swamp Dwellers, and has served as a resident adviser.