CEE 2026 graduate Rory Presto received the John W. Price Award for Volunteer Service to International Understanding Award from the University YMCA Sat. April 18. Engineers Without Borders is Y-affiliated. They served as lead for EWB's Ecuador Project, then as co-project lead on the Rwanda Water Project. In these roles, Presto facilitated the transformation of the two projects from closure to selection and implementation. Using engineering design as a framework, they reemphasized significant cultural and socioeconomic factors of those the project served.
Written by Bruce Adams
CEE 2026 graduate Rory Presto received the John W. Price Award for Volunteer Service to International Understanding Award from the University YMCA Sat. April 18, 2026. Engineers Without Borders (EWB) is Y-affiliated.
They served as lead for EWB's Ecuador Project, then as co-project lead on the Rwanda Water Project. In these roles, Presto facilitated the transformation of the two projects from closure to selection and implementation. Using engineering design as a framework, they reemphasized significant cultural and socioeconomic factors of those the project served.
As Presto explains, “EWB champions the concept of Contextual Engineering, as defined by Ann-Perry Witmer: a teaching associate professor at Illinois Grainger Engineering and long-time advisor of our chapter. To quickly sum it up, it's a design approach from a position of assimilation and humility. We need to recognize that a truly successful design needs community buy-in, which is best achieved through their input and approval.”
It is hard to beat first-hand experience of being welcomed into somebody’s home to have a conversation when learning about someone’s culture. — Rory Presto
The Ecuador project predated Presto’s arrival on campus. Undertaking the Rwanda project, Presto says the project team did some preliminary research about the country as a whole before deciding on the project. “We then learned more in meetings with our NGO (non-governmental organization) and with community representatives. When we traveled, nearly half of our time there was dedicated to surveying members of the community, both to see common issues they face with water access and how their everyday lives are.”
Rwanda is called the country of a hundred hills for a reason. Our team’s daily walk to the spring included jumping over ravines, lots of elevation climb, and slick mud. – Rory Presto
The Rwanda project involved a gravity-fed water distribution system from a naturally occurring spring to a Kamonyi district community of 3000 people, using reinforced concrete catchment tanks to store water. The district lacks access to potable, running water. The use of untreated water leads to high rates of disease, especially among children. The spring is at a considerable distance from the community, over rough terrain.
While talking with community members, one reoccurring theme was that residents didn’t like the taste of the government water that some people had access to. EWB safety standards require the team to chlorinate spring water in the catchment basin.
“After talking to the community, we now know they always boil their water before use and value the taste of the spring water highly,” Presto says. “We are now lowering the amount of chlorine that will be dosed into the system for these reasons, so that we can meet in the middle. The taste of the water will not be as affected, but it will be safer to drink with the level of chlorine added. We learned that elderly and disabled members of the community have difficulty walking to the spring. To make clean water as accessible as possible, our taps will be located along a road that skirts the community's perimeter. This takes the distance to where water is accessible down from nearly a 5k to a ten-minute walk.”
Presto joined EWB as a first-year student after learning about the RSO during Quad Day. “I wanted to join a couple Engineering RSOs,” Presto says, “to both build my resume and gain practical engineering experience. While EWB serves both of these things —I’ve gotten to learn a lot about the project process and interdisciplinary work which is a huge leg up when entering the workplace— I stuck around because the work that we do is impactful and truly important.”
Just as importantly, “We are not all work and no play. Our organization attracts amazing people who have built a welcoming community to be a part of. I have built many friendships that will last long after I graduate. We have many different social events where you can meet new people and spend time with friends in the organization. I was able to go to Rwanda for two weeks to do an assessment for the project, and it was truly incredible. Besides collecting data for the project, I was able to immerse myself in a new culture: trying new foods, visiting national parks, and connecting with the people there. I will treasure the memories I made there for the rest of my life.”
Grainger Engineering Affiliations
Ann Perry-Witmer is an Illinois Grainger Engineering teaching associate professor and is affiliated with the department of agricultural and biological engineering and Carle Illinois College of Medicine.