Great Protégé News: GoettingRowe Engineering

Written on March 18, 2013.

Brenda Kelly Rowe of GoettingRowe Engineering shared a great story with us. GoettingRowe is a protégé participant in the Be San Antonio program. Brenda is a graduate of the Penn State University School of Engineering and her daughter is attending the Penn State University School of Engineering. Each year Penn State School of Engineering sends a team to Honduras to assist a small community. Last year they did a solar panel project for water supply or treatment.

This year on March 2nd Brenda and her daughter traveled together with the Penn State team to do a solar panel project for the purpose of powering a child care facility on a small island off the shores of Honduras.

Here’s Brenda’s recap of the great work they did in Honduras:

Engineering students from Penn State’s Renewable Energy for Central America program and one local alumnus spend spring break designing, building and installing a solar photovoltaic system on the roof of a day care center in Roatan, Honduras.

The trip was part of Penn State’s Renewable Energy for Central America program which is committed to bringing students and certified electrical contractors together to foster and advance the adoption of renewable energy solutions and energy saving plans for Roatan Island communities.

Developing countries face significant challenges to affordable, reliable, clean energy. Electricity is expensive in Honduras, roughly 4 times what it costs in the United States. Additionally, the grid is supplied by burning diesel fuel, an unsustainable, non-renewable resource. Roatán, the largest of Honduras bay islands, has on average, seven hours of sunshine a day—enough solar energy to supply most of the island’s electrical needs.

This year, for the first time, Penn State Alumni were invited to work side-by-side with the student team. Founder of GRE Engineering, Brenda Kelly Rowe jumped on the opportunity especially since her niece was one of the team members. Her niece Gretchen is a second year aerospace engineering student. Brenda is proud that her niece chose her alma mater as a place to study engineering and making a second generation of female engineers from Penn State.

The best way to prepare engineering students to become world-class engineers, capable of changing the world for the better, is to give them opportunities to go out into the world, get their hands dirty, and tackle real projects. “I jumped on the opportunity to offer my time and expertise to the students. This project was a great ‘lessons learned’ for me. I was amazed to see the team work and commitment from these students and I am certain the future of the engineering industry is in good hands.”

Brenda was very surprised to learn that the Director of the daycare was from San Antonio. Although Judith and Bill Allred spend most of their time on the island they still maintain a home in San Antonio and call it ‘home’.

The work Judith has done not just at the daycare but throughout the island via a non-profit she heads up is great for the communities of Roatan. Judith was very appreciative of the Spurs t-shirts donated to the daycare by Spurs Sports & Entertainment.

For more information on the trip visit the student blog at http://sites.psu.edu/therenewcrew

For more information on GRE Engineering visit www.goettingrowe.com

For more information on the island non-profit visit www.islandfriendsroatan.com

Congrats to Brenda and her daughter for their great work in Honduras, we’re glad to see even our protégé participants are giving back to the community – in a big, global way!