Melissa Landman

As an engineering student at the University of Delaware, Melissa Landman’s goal was to make real change in the world. The well-salaried jobs offered by Microsoft were of no interest. Instead, her sophomore year, Melissa joined Engineers Without Borders, and became project manager of a water sanitation project in Bohol, Philippines, working on this full-time for 3 years;  she realized this was the kind of work she wanted to pursue. 

“What I really  liked was finding an affordable way to provide something that’s so basic, such as water.  How can I use engineering to make a tangible change in the world? What I learned in classes didn’t really interest me; gears and nuts and bolts. But when I worked with Engineers without Borders it all became very real to me that you can take what you’re learning in school and that can really make an impact in a community, ” says Landman.

This led the young graduate to Caminos de Agua, the non-profit group in San Miguel de Allende, committed to water issues, designing and developing filters for both organic and inorganic contaminants and now especially active in constructing rainwater catchment systems for rural communities in the catchment basin of San Miguel’s aquifer. 

Landman started off on the tech team 3 years ago, and worked on developing the ceramic filter that cleans out organic organisms from water. She later switched to fundraising, development, design, marketing and education.

“I’m in transition from more technical things to more social, and communications. My interest is more in policy and how communities are organizing. I have had opportunity to go to government meetings, urban planning meetings; the work we do with the coalition Agua Vida really interests me a lot.”

Since Caminos de Agua is a small team, it gives volunteers exposure to many different areas within an NGO. “I’m slowly starting to realize all the possibilities of making change and becoming a leader which aren’t necessarily technical but fall in the  realm of international development or working with issues of water,” says Landman.