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Home > Featured Stories > International Connections > September 2007 > Global Service Changes PerspectiveGlobal Service Changes Perspective
Seeing the world will influence the way you feel about your life and what you want to do with it.
NC State junior Anna Godwin
NC State junior Anna Godwin traveled to Tanzania this summer.
By Dave Pond, Web Communication
As the six-month-old Tanzanian orphan reached up from his rocker to grab her finger, NC State University junior Anna Godwin's ambitions were changed in an instant. The child's eyes defied his HIV-positive status, locking with Godwin's in a desperate search for care and affection.
"I almost cried," she said. "Knowing that this child is going to grow up like that was just really touching and eye-opening. It put not only life but the whole world in a completely new perspective for me."
Within that moment, Godwin, a University Scholar double-majoring in textile and biomedical engineering, realized that her education from NC State would allow her the opportunity to affect change on a global level.
Thanks in part to financial support from the Sullivan Hall Activities Council, the West Campus Administrative Coordinator Committee and the Inter-Residence Council, Godwin was able to travel to Tanzania for two months this summer to take part in Engineering World Health's Summer Institute.
"It was the perfect mix of things I'm interested in - engineering, health, volunteerism and travel," Godwin said. "It was an amazing experience - we not only had to assess the hospital's needs and repair and install equipment, but we had to teach them how to use and maintain it as well."
"The experience definitely opened my eyes about public health," she said. "My focus is beginning to shift from developing equipment and engineering solutions that only a select group of people can benefit from to working in an more global field that can really benefit groups of people around the world."
Although she had previously traveled to Curacao for a week-long missions trip and taken part in University Scholars events on foreign cultures, nothing prepared Godwin for the realities in Tanzania - the world's eighth-poorest country.
"It was a stark contrast to our way of life here in the United States, the fifth-richest nation in the world," she said. "There were not many paved roads, and much of the medical equipment was severely broken or outdated."
After a month of in-country cultural, language and technical training, Godwin and 16 other students from around the globe were dispatched to hospitals across Tanzania.
"During the first month, we received quite a bit of Swahili training," she said, "We were on our own the second month and really able to co-exist with the Tanzanian people."
Godwin spent her days at a pair of hospitals - one funded by the government and the other privately funded - helping to rebuild wheelchairs, defibrillators and other essential, yet archaic hospital equipment. With limited resources, the students could only go so far in their repairs, but the limitations dampened neither their spirits nor their efforts.
"It was priceless," she said. "A lot of it is just knowing you've made a difference and affected someone else's life for the better."
A Wilson, N.C. native, Godwin has volunteered for several organizations on campus during her time at NC State, but her African experience led to a desire to work with organizations that serve on a more global scale.
"I've really just been re-thinking what I want to do and whom I want to affect in the long run," she said. "I'm not quite sure where it's all going to wind up, but seeing the world will influence the way you feel about your life and what you want to do with it."