Joel's Initiatives

Current Personal Initiatives

Study Abroad and Language Training:
Encouraging students to study abroad - especially engineers. I used to be a lot more active in this during my undergraduate studies. However, since returning to graduate school (both of them), I have steadily become more involved. In order to gain a broader perspective, I believe that it is important for college students to experience different cultures. Not everyone has to have years and years of foreign language experience. Studying abroad in Australia or England can be just as different from the United States as say Germany or Japan are. It is my sincere belief that a student's period abroad will teach them independence and resourcefulness and it will help them learn more about their own culture. Furthermore, it is a global economy and engineers need to realize this fact too! Learning a foreign language doesn't just mean reading volumes of old literature. It can also mean learning a culture and language, worthwhile to excel in a business, technical, or scientific environment. Go here to get more information on working, volunteering, and traveling abroad.

I first went abroad in the summer of 1993, following completion of second year German at Rochester Adams High School. Through Janie Barner's direction, a group of us went over to Bad Neustadt an der Saale, a small town in northern Bavaria for 4 weeks. Since that first year of the program, it has grown immensely and Frau Barner has done an amazing job continuing the German program and encouraging study abroad (click here is you're an Adams German alum). Since that time, I spent the 1996-1997 academic year in Munich through the Junior Year in Munich Program through Wayne State University and also the summer of 1998 in Bad Neustadt to work as an intern with Siemens AG. Immediately when I graduated college, I had many offers from companies specifically seeking an engineer with language skills.

Leave No Trace:
I received my certification as a NOLS Leave No Trace trainer while working for the National Park Service in Zion National Park. Leave No Trace is the principle of leaving the backcountry in as good of shape (if not better) as when you first arrived. If you pack it in, then PACK IT OUT! Remember, each ecosystem is different, so please inform yourself of what you should and shouldn't do on your next camping trip. For more info, click here.
Books Open the World
Gosia Arlet and Freerk Molleman began a grassroots movement in 2004 in western Uganda to bring education to rural communities. Books Open the World is a non-profit, non-religious, apolitical organization committed to promoting and encouraging education and opportunity in rural communities to children and women through community libraries, literacy classes, vocational training, support groups, and by supporting all levels of education. For more information, please see www.booksopentheworld.org

Student Conservation Association
The greatest summer of my life was spent in Zion National Park as a resource conservation intern. I spent 3 months hiking in God's country. For more information, click here.