By Daniel Deza

Ethan LaRochelle is a number cruncher.

Every night he sits down with a calculator, not to practice calculus or electromagnetics, but to do something more hands on. As president of Engineers Without Boarders (EWB), LaRochelle maps out plans nightly to give a faraway community a luxury that many of his peers at Northeastern take for granted: clean water.

In a major known for its high wages and secure jobs, many might picture a stereotypical engineer at a computer with a calculator in hand, stuck in a cubical for hours, said LaRochelle, a junior electrical engineering major. But in an age where the role of the common engineer is evolving, more are crunching numbers in unconventional ways.

“There is a big shift right now – engineers have been known to go and work for tons of money and now there is a big shift to go over and help people, and that is what we are supposed to be doing,” he said. “There is a demand for help out in the world and I think it’s great that so many people are getting involved.”

In Fall 2004, two engineering students with hopes of making an impact brought EWB to Northeastern. After months of fundraising and data collection, LaRochelle, who has since assumed the role of president, traveled with fellow group members to Los Planes, Honduras, for the third time in four years to finish what they started: an outreach program to create tangible change in underdeveloped communities.

Next week, EWB will be working hand-in-hand with villagers on a design to implement a water distribution system that would give the villages of Los Planes and La Reinada the opportunity to grow in terms of infrastructure, ultimately helping them in their struggle to raise crops and livestock.

“I really like helping all these people and there is a lot of people in need,” LaRochelle said. “I think that there is a lot of potential in that area. We are hoping to make this into a course and perhaps give students class credit for participating.”

During their two-week stay, the group of eight plan to construct a pipeline system that will bring clean water to the village from a nearby spring.

Currently, the group’s only project is in Honduras, but LaRochelle said he hopes to expand, creating more service opportunities in other parts of the world.

“The organization is growing. There are about 200 to 300 student chapters in the US,” he said. “We try to work with the other chapters in the city and work on as many projects as possible.”

After being in Honduras twice before, LaRochelle has seen what clean water can prevent. In a village where people die from the common cold and are affected by diseases like polio, the average person isn’t expected to live beyond his or her mid-forties.

“This past April, there was a funeral for a two-year-old girl who died because she was malnourished,” he said. “All this can be so easily prevented, and clean water is something that shouldn’t be denied to anyone.”

After his life-changing experience orchestrating an effort to help the world, LaRochelle said he hopes to attract Northeastern students from all different disciplines and departments, not just engineers.

“There are a lot of student groups that I thought about joining, but I joined EWB because we are actually doing something that makes lives easier for other people in other countries,” he said. “You design something, you go there and implement it into society, truly giving back what we have learned here at Northeastern.”