Meghan Rose Furton

I am currently studying Environmental Engineering at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The Environmental Engineering program at Cornell is a partnership between the College of Communication, Agriculture and Life Sciences as well as the College of Engineering which combines a solid background in problem solving with hands on laboratory classes. Since my second year, I have participated in the project team AguaClara which combines lab-based research and AutoCad design to create water treatment options for communities in Honduras and India. As leader of the design team, I teach new members about the Automated Design Tool and help other members update our tool based on feedback from research teams and partners in the field. This engineering experience involving international problem solving motivated me to go join a group of students from different majors in a Study Abroad program in Spring 2015. From January to May, we lived in the Nilgiris District in Southern India, exploring the relationship between culture, nature, and governance. In he last 8 weeks, I worked on a field-based research project with a local student studying water, waste, and recycling. I hope to continue to problem solve with communities to make people's lives better.