This is the second recent trip from SU delegations to Haiti. This one involves strong participation from our students. This trip is turning out to be a great opportunity for me to get to know an SU group of students at a very personal level. I am truly proud of them. They are smart, kind-hearted, self-directed, and innovative; they improvise on the fly and create solutions. They are connecting very naturally with the people of Haiti; with all the tremendous similarities and differences. In the first rip, we laid the ground work for future involvement. It involved faculty and staff.

In this trip, we are doing science and engineering; and we are helping Haiti. Interestingly, this is a pretty good example of “Scholarship in Action”. Chief Information Officer Chris Sedore is leading the SU internet infrastructure development initiative for several campuses of the State University of Haiti. This is in addition to another initiative where Haitian students come to SU for their MS degrees in technical areas that will advance the development of Haiti. Chancellor Nancy Cantor is strongly supportive of this initiative.

Our visit coincided with the first 100 Day celebration of President Martelly’s presidency. I had the opportunity to discuss with him our SU initiative. He was strongly supportive and appreciative of our work. I also discussed our initiatives with his Prime Minister Designate and some of his top aides who were also very supportive and looked forward to further interactions.

I was born in Haiti, where I also grew up. I found it particularly gratifying to share some meaningful moments with our group of SU students and staff. Their probing and insightful questions and their camaraderie helped put the trip in a purely human context.

Achille Messac, PhD
Distinguished Professor and Chair
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering