Mike Sanders Receives Accomplished Mentor 2020 Annual Award

January 15, 20210

Congratulations to Mike Sanders, a water engineer in the Boston office, for being recognized by Engineers Without Borders (EWB)-USA with the 2020 Accomplished Mentor Award!

From Student to Mentor

Mike’s involvement with EWB-USA began as a student at Northeastern University (NEU) and continued beyond graduation, serving as a professional mentor to the EWB-NEU chapter. Transitioning from student to mentor allowed Mike to continue his efforts to bring clean water to remote communities in Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, and Uganda, while providing technical oversight for students’ work.

Bringing Water to the Community of Las Delicias

In his role as Professional Mentor, Mike oversaw EWB-NEU’s assessment and design as well as the community’s installation of 30,000 linear feet of water main and four water storage tanks in the community of Las Delicias in Panama. This program has been ongoing since 2015, with a recent trip (Spring 2020) that kicked-off construction of a new water source capture up in the mountains, including a basic filter and a new 2-mile water transmission main bringing the water to an existing storage tank. The new supply helps meet water demand even as the town’s existing water supplies become less productive due to the changing climate and longer dry seasons. The community completed construction of the new water supply in November 2020 with only phone communication with the EWB-NEU team. The water board enforced special health precautions during construction due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bringing Fresh Talent to Kleinfelder

Mike’s role as Professional Mentor has given him access to some of the best and brightest from the Northeastern University Engineering program. Several of the Southern New England Water Team members were recruited to work for Kleinfelder by Mike, starting as co-ops and later being hired full time. One such engineer, Reed Allen had the following to say to Mike:

“You’ve played an integral role in developing my interest in water resources engineering and I know countless students at Northeastern can say the same. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and passion with so many others!”