West Bank / The Diabetes Micro-Clinic Project: On a mission to stop a relentless killer

"My diabetic grandmother died trying to get from Bethlehem to the hospital; there were no ambulances, and she had developed fatal complications due to poor diabetes education, restrictions on movement, and the stressful political situation. Diabetes is one of the leading contributors to disability and death in Palestine. I am intent on doing something about this ..." More >

Bay Area / Boy or girl? Choosing the sex of a child prior to conception

"It was really difficult to listen to the experiences of the Mirpuri woman who sat before me, trying not to cry as she explained her slow emergence from her 10-year-long marriage. We sat together in a women's shelter in the Midlands of England, holding cups of cold chai that we didn't sip, the injustice of her experiences weighing heavily ..." More >

Cairo / Packing two suitcases enroute to Egypt and a plunge into Arabic language and culture

"I have never traveled to the Middle East before, and I don't know whether I will be able to acquire the little things that I find essential there or not. The one thing that everyone agrees on: sunscreen is prohibitively expensive and difficult to come by. I guess this is one item that only the tourists use. Because of the cultural modesty standards, I also bought a few long linen skirts and modest tops …" More >

U.S. to Canada / Building a solar car: Bunny suits, low-tech hacking and dialing for dollars

"It was time. After a semester of meetings, action was needed if the CalSol team was going to have a car to race. I was handed a gas mask and goggles to guard against the unfriendly chemical mold primer. Plastic drapes enclosed the boxy 'gas chamber' around us as Greg, the team lead, sprayed the two molds for the body of our new car ..." More >