My relationship with Advancement for Rural Kids began in October 2011. As a senior and the president of TCNJ Barkada, the Filipino-American organization at The College of New Jersey, it was my mission to elevate the club to new heights and make this its strongest year yet. In honor of October’s Filipino-American Heritage Month, we decided to invite UniPro to a general body meeting to facilitate an Usapan Discussion about Filipino-American identity. As UniPro’s mission is to create a network amongst Filipino-American organizations, they introduced us to the work of ARK and suggested we partner up with the non-profit because they recognized that our pro-active energy would be a good fit with the spirit of ARK and its members. In the past, Barkada had not dedicated itself to one specific cause or philanthropic organization. However, we felt that the prospect of devoting our time and energy into an organization like ARK would bring focus to our group and provide the opportunity to shed light on a worthy cause. As a club, our mission is to raise awareness about Filipino and Filipino-American culture amongst our members and the rest of the student body. In that same spirit, our philanthropic initiative this year and every year is to raise awareness about situations in the Filipino and Filipino-American communities that need our help. Thus, the collaboration between TCNJ Barkada and ARK began.

Chemical Engineering is a field that brings to mind oil companies and pharmaceuticals more than images of social responsibility and non-profit but chemical engineers are what ARK founder Ayesha and my (summer design and engineering intern) meeting last week was all about. After discovering an article in Manhattan College’s alumni magazine about Dr. Gennaro Maffia and his research team’s work to bring clean water to people around the world we were intrigued by their innovative system that uses collagen nanofibrils and a simple, gravity-powered sand filter to remove 99.999% of dirt and germs from water. A few emails and a skype call later Ayesha and I made our way up to the engineering labs of Manhattan College in the Bronx to check it out.

Meet Some of Our High School Scholars

Thanks to you, ARK is able to send 39 students to high school this year. This year's class is an exceptional group of kids, hardworking and determined to achieve their dreams to become teachers, engineers... Meet some of our scholars and learn more about their career explorations by clicking an icon below.
Eduardo wants to teach algebra to elementary school students.	Mary Jo Anne wants to mend hearts.	Anthony wants to crack down on hold-ups.	Mevejean wants to help make long walks to school more bearable.	Joan wants to capture rain and turn it into safe drinking water.