Examples of D-Lab Student Fieldwork

2018 January Independent Activities Period Student Trips

D-Lab: Development - Team Botswana

MIT D-Lab student fieldwork, Botswana, January 2018

Worked with community partner These Hands for the third time, advancing work on six projects ranging from an ostrich egg driller (for making jewelry) to a pedal-powered washing machine. Five students traveled with trip leaders MIT alumna Brittany Bautista and MIT graduate student Justin Carrus. Read blog post.

D-Lab: Development - Team Colombia

D-Lab: Development Colombia IAP 2018

Worked with community partner C-Innova to advance projects from IDDS Climate Change Adaptation and work with coffee growers. Six students traveled with trip leaders Johanna Greenspan-Johnston (MIT graduate student) and Juan David Reina Rozo (Fulbright Fellow, Colombia native). Read blog post.

PSI WASH Summit - Ethiopia

MIT D-Lab student field egagement, Ethiopia, January 2018

Six current and former D-Lab students traveled to Ethiopia with D-Lab staff members Sher Vogel and Libby Hsu to participate in the Transform WASH Co-Design Summit, and worked alongside local Ethiopians in six teams seeking to identify behavioral and cultural solutions that help eliminate open defecation, in partnership with Population Services International. Read blog post.

D-Lab: Gender - Team Ghana

MIT D-Lab student fieldwork, Ghana, January 2018

Four D-Lab: Gender & Development students, with instructor Libby McDonald, ran a workshop to identify wastepickers’ financial needs and aspirations to identify financial inclusion tools for the informal sector with Environment360, Fan Milk, and WIEGO. In conjunction with D-Lab Inclusive Market project Resilient Economies Action Lab (REAL). Read blog post.

D-Lab: Gender - Nicaragua

D-Lab: Gender Nicaragua IAP 2018

"Not only were our eyes opened to new perspectives on a feminist economy, small business transitory periods, and the strengths and difficulties associated with operating within a co-op, but our hearts were also opened to the individual stories of the women making Fundacion Entre Mujeres possible." Read blog post.

D-Lab: Development - Nepal

D-Lab: Development Nepal IAP 2018

D-Lab: Development students traveled to Nepal to work with staff from Kathmandu University on building capacity to conduct an energy needs assessment in rural Nepal. This work is part of the D-Lab Energy Research Group's mission to support the development of energy access programs driven by local institutes across rural areas in the developing world. Read blog post.