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April 3, 2006 Vol. 77, no.
11S
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| HELPING
HAND:
Volunteer Kyle Delwiche attaches house paper to a wall during the
building of a local Habitat for Humanity home. “It’s
really about helping families, building strong neighborhoods
and developing communities,” says Peter Do, ME senior
and past president of the organization’s Cal chapter. (Photo
provided by Cal Habitat)
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Building
homes, communities and character
In Cal Habitat for Humanity, engineers create strong foundation for club
On one of his first days volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, ME
senior Peter Do helped frame a roof. He’d never framed a roof
before. “When I got there, there was no roof,” he says. “When
we left at the end of the day, we’d built the roof truss. It
was very satisfying.”
CEE junior Kyle Delwiche shares similar moments of satisfaction. “I’ve
built a closet. Someone’s closet! I worked side by side with
the family, and we built it. At a different work site, our job was
to help put up second-story walls. The mom was there and she said, ‘That’s
my son’s bedroom! That’s my son’s bedroom and it
has walls.’ And she started to cry.”
Delwiche and Do are senior members of Cal Berkeley Habitat for Humanity. “Habitat
is an organization where volunteers build houses for low-income families,
but the families also participate,” Delwiche explains. “They
have to pay about one-third of the market value of the house, plus
work about 500 hours on its construction.”
Cal’s chapter, like most student Habitat chapters, provides an
army of energetic, college volunteers to build homes. For Delwiche,
Do and other members, the club has become integral to their lives.
More than just helping others, it’s become a place to make good
friends, leave behind the worries and rigor of school and grow as leaders.
Do is the club’s past president, and Delwiche is its current
vice president. Each has learned to run effective meetings (attended
by peers filling an entire lecture room), make important decisions
and manage projects and people. Both have set big goals. Delwiche executed
a fundraising event that raised $4,500, and Do rallied the club to
partially sponsor a Habitat house. (It’s raised about half the
$25,000 in required funding so far.)
They first joined as sophomores. “At Cal Day, I stopped by the
Habitat table, and it sounded fun, so I signed up, went to my first
work day, and I’ve been involved ever since,” says Delwiche.
“For me, I joined for the hands-on aspect,” says Do. “I
really liked working with my hands and building stuff in high school.
That’s why I became an engineer. I was frustrated my freshman
year because there wasn’t anything hands-on. Now, I study hard,
play hard, and ‘Habitat’ hard. I do everything more intensely.”
Under Do’s leadership, the club grew from 41 to 141 members.
About one-fifth are engineering students, including five of its officers. “I
think a lot of engineers join because it is hands-on and it’s
about results,” he explains. “It’s relevant to civil
engineering, and in some cases, mechanical. Engineers are also exposed
to stages of project management.”
For Do and Delwiche, Habitat has become a gratifying habit. Both engineers
say they’ll stay with the organization beyond graduation. “I
love doing it,” says Delwiche. “It’s where I belong.”
Go to www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~habitat/ for
more information.
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