Gathering strength from the entire student body, SF State’s newest club - an on-campus chapter of Engineers Without Borders, USA - has just entered the beginning stages of bridging the gap between socially active students and impoverished people throughout the world.

In an effort to combine student forces from as many disciplines as possible, the club, which has just gained recognition from administration last week, is taking serious measures to implement “big money” fundraising and the production of major projects throughout the world. The construction of wells and the implementation of sustainable structures and resources for the purposes of sanitation and solar power are a few of their immediate goals.

“Students should not feel that the club is only for engineers,” said Guy Halperin, 31, the determined president of the new SF State chapter, who is trying to help people get past their initial reaction to what the word “engineer” represents.

“An engineer is anyone who designs a solution, we are looking for creators, not calculators,” he said.

After only a five-year life span, Engineers Without Borders, USA has quickly gained massive support from a far-reaching group of participants, including 81 university chapters and 31 professional chapters.

Although Halperin’s group gained recognition last week as an operational club on campus, officers are still awaiting a final signature from the national organization to recognize SF State as a member.

But with over 100 student e-mails already placed on Halperin’s list as potential members and growing interest from faculty in the departments of engineering, environmental science and geography, he said there is little doubt of the project not taking root.

“People talk a lot and I want to see action,” said the vice president of the on-campus chapter, James Shahamiri, 22, a civil engineering major who joined forces with Halperin while in class with him at City College last semester. “I want to see people benefiting from students, putting ideas into real life.”

Shahamiri said he has no prior experience working within actual large-scale engineering projects, but is looking forward to changing that by traveling with Halperin to Seattle on Saturday, Oct. 8 to take part in an Engineers Without Borders conference.

According to Shahamiri, the goal of the event is to network with other chapters around the nation, share ideas and establish themselves as an integral part of the organization.

“It’s like a blank slate,” said Halperin, who discovered the worldwide organization after discussing his own version of the same idea with his civil engineering professor at City College.

“We can do whatever we want, and once there are new ideas coming from students, it’s really going to take off,” he said.

One of the clubs current projects, according to Halperin, includes an electronic recycling program that will properly dispose of hazardous waste from unwanted batteries, computers and all other electronics.

The project is part of a city-wide effort to take outdated computers from business and schools and redistribute them to places like the John Muir School (which currently doesn’t have any
operating computers on its campus.)

The club also wants to teach students how to do practical activities such as performing a water assessment in a village, a health assessment of a village and most importantly, how to effectively fundraise and gain experience in grant writing.

Halperin said he hopes students will be able to take the skills they acquire in the club and use them to serve the world for the rest of their lives.

“We are supplying an opportunity for action,” said Halperin.