Kick Off Week!

My name is Jorge Alvidrez I am a biochemistry major at The University of Texas at El Paso. While I was very excited to begin my first summer research internship, I also felt nervous. This week was full of learning, on the first day I was fortunate to meet everyone in the NEWT REU Program for this summer, after introductions the social work students presented their work with us. Even though I had some idea about this socioeconomic issue in the Colonias, I never imagined how much people were affected. Additionally, we visited the Colonia of Hueco Tanks, where the social work students had based their research, to say the least, I was astonished by the situation. We also ate lunch, at McAlister’s Deli which I have never tried. Went back to UTEP and had a discussion about what research is.

The second day of the Kickoff started with Dr. Loyo teaching us about current global water issues, and why they haven’t been solved, and what it would take to face issues like these. To say the least, this lecture had me impressed about the scale of water issues all over the world. We met with Caminos De Agua to discuss their situation while working in Guanajuato, Mexico. During this call I learned about the issues that Caminos was trying to address, and why these issues are coming up more often. After this we went to visit the Kay Bailey Hutchinson desalinatinon plant, where we took and tour and learned about local treatment solutions El Paso uses. During the tour we also learned about different water treatment methods commonly used in the industry and water quality. We head back to UTEP had a discussion about what we had seen at the Hueco Tanks Colonia. Finally, as the day was coming to an end we went to Taconeta and finished off the night with a good taco dinner.

The following day we visited the water testing laboratory at UTEP with Dr. Deemer, she gave us a tour of the lab, showed us different equipment they had, and talked to us about some of the work they do.

That concludes my journal entry for this eventful week. It was a whirlwind of learning experiences, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer holds in store for us.