October 22, 2024
By Chloe Arrington

Shreya Terala, a fourth-year mechanical engineering major in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has been selected for the 2024 Class of the Millennium Fellowship. Terala is one of twenty-six Georgia Tech students chosen for the global leadership program jointly organized by the Millennium Campus Network (MCN) and the United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI).

The fellowship is a semester-long leadership development program on campus. Students come together to work on sustainable development projects. They participate in leadership training designed to enhance their skills in organizing, building partnerships, and driving meaningful community impact.

Terala will be working as project lead for the Engineers without Borders Georgia Tech Malawi project. "Our project is focused on creating latrines for a primary school in a rural community in Salima, Malawi," said Terala.

The community's previous sanitation infrastructure was insufficient, and with over 100 students per latrine, the community faced challenges with water-borne diseases, student absences, and low enrollment.

The team partnered with local NGOs, contractors, and Engineers Without Border's in-country office to assist the community with these challenges.

"Working together, we came up with a new design that is more sustainable for the local community to maintain," explained Terala. The new latrines were designed to last for more than 20 years, work around the lack of running water and electricity in the community, and be something the community can easily upkeep.

"Receiving the Millennium Fellowship allows me to bring more attention to not only the project we are working on in Malawi and the Engineers Without Borders organization but also to connect with like-minded people just as passionate about global engineering," said Terala.

This semester, it will be crucial for Terala and her team to monitor the transition of the latrines' maintenance to the local community and school. Their goal is to complete the staff restrooms, using the same model as the student facilities, during these four months and focus on evaluating the impact on the community.

"We want to monitor the enrollment rate and student and staff satisfaction with the latrines through surveys and ensure that there are no significant operational issues with the facilities. So far, we have seen school enrollment double and a 30% increase in female student enrollment," said Terala.

With the resources from this fellowship, Terala is glad to have wider community support to raise awareness of the nuances of global engineering and the opportunities that lie within the field.

"Being a part of the Millennium Fellowship network will also allow me to discover other opportunities to combine my passion for engineering with educational access," she said.