Faith Dunn

Class of 2007
Rochester, Minnesota

This summer, Valparaiso University senior Faith Dunn of Rochester, Minn., put her engineering know-how to work while serving her faith as a part of a team designing a Christian wilderness camp and conference center in Albania.

Dunn, a civil engineering major, was one of two student interns working on the project for Engineering Ministries International (eMi), a non-profit Christian development organization that designs facilities to help children and families in developing countries step out of poverty.

“I wanted to do some sort of ministry missionary work during the summer, but I also needed to do an engineering internship,” Dunn said. That’s when she heard about eMi from Dr. Kraig Olejniczak, dean of Valparaiso’s College of Engineering, and found the internship would allow her to serve God and develop her engineering skills at the same time.

“It seemed like the perfect match for me and it turned out to be more than I ever expected,” she said. “I learned a lot about how God can use engineering to minister to people with the love of Christ.”

In June, Dunn traveled to Albania for two weeks with the rest of her project team to work on conceptual and construction drawings for the camp, including cabins, a dining facility and the water and wastewater systems.

“Helping design the first Christian wilderness camp in Albania and working with the Torchbearers-Albania ministry to capture their vision and put it on paper was an exciting experience,” Dunn said.

She said visiting Albania, one of the poorest counties in Europe, was like taking a step back in time, as many of the country’s farmers still use mules and horses. Despite the country’s poverty, she was impressed by its people.

“The people we met in Albania were so hospitable and seem to be peacefully content with their lives,” Dunn said.

After completing nearly all of the design work in Albania, Dunn and the rest of the team returned to eMi’s headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., to convert their drawings into computer files and compile a final report.

Her work on the project has given Dunn an opportunity to enhance technical skills including computer-aided drafting and project management, as well as her ‘soft’ skills.

“I learned a lot during my internship about how to work effectively with people of different personalities and how to efficiently delegate responsibilities,” she said.

Construction on the Albanian camp will continue in phases over the next five years as money is available.

Though her internship is over, Dunn said her time at eMi emphasized the importance of maintaining a balance between work and spiritual needs.

“Our project leader in Albania made sure that we had enough time for a team devotional time in the morning before heading off to work on our individual parts of the project,” Dunn said. “ In Colorado Springs, the same thing happened. The staff there gathered for daily prayer time, the interns were able to meet with a spiritual mentor during the day, have Bible studies and help out at a soup kitchen.”

Dunn, who is a leader in Campus Crusade for Christ at VU and has been a residential hall minister, said she intends to continue her involvement in Christian ministry in the future and hopefully put her engineering education to work while doing so.

“If the Lord leads, I would love to be involved in something like my experience this summer in the future and continue using by engineering abilities to serve God and help others,” she said.

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