{"id":57311,"date":"2015-06-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-graduate-on-her-way-to-panama-to-volunteer-for-peace-corps\/"},"modified":"2015-06-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-11T00:00:00","slug":"uri-graduate-on-her-way-to-panama-to-volunteer-for-peace-corps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2015\/06\/uri-graduate-on-her-way-to-panama-to-volunteer-for-peace-corps\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 graduate on her way to Panama to volunteer for Peace Corps"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tMaria Briones to get master\u2019s degree in civil engineering<\/b><\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 June 11, 2015 \u2013 This time next week, Maria Briones will be living in a small town in Panama, brainstorming about ways to bring clean water to rural villages.<\/p>\n


\nDon\u2019t expect her back any time soon. The 溏心vlog免费B站 graduate will spend more than two years in the Central American country as a volunteer in the Peace Corps\u2019 Master\u2019s International Program.<\/p>\n


\nThe program is a unique way for students to combine their interest in engineering or another field and public service. Participants spend one year in a graduate program at an American college, then travel abroad in the Peace Corps.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI\u2019m really excited,\u201d says Briones, 24, who grew up in Cranston and Johnston. \u201cI feel like I would be missing out in my life if I didn\u2019t get a chance to do something like this. It will be really hard sometimes, but the good will outweigh the difficult moments.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nAfter graduating from 溏心vlog免费B站 in 2014 with a degree in civil engineering and Spanish, Briones headed to the University of South Florida in Tampa to pursue her master\u2019s degree in civil engineering, with a focus on water resources. She just finished her first year, taking classes in everything from public health to hydrology. <\/p>\n


\nShe leaves for Panama June 16. For the first three months, she\u2019ll live in Panama City with a host family to learn more about the country\u2019s culture. Then she\u2019ll settle in a small village, working on various projects, which might include building outdoor toilets, upgrading water lines and preserving waterways.<\/p>\n


\nBriones is passionate about bringing clean water to rural communities worldwide. In the summer of 2011, she traveled to Guatemala with Engineers for a Sustainable World to help a village develop a sanitation system. The trip convinced her that clean water and proper sanitation are human rights. <\/p>\n


\nAt 溏心vlog免费B站, the Pell Grant recipient excelled academically and received many scholarships: the Beatrice S. Demers Foreign Language Fellows Program; the Shawn P. McBride Memorial Scholarship; the Beatrice & Tom Garrick, Sr. Scholarship; the George & Virginia Geisser Civil Engineering Scholarship; the Jerry M. and Evelyn L. Rhoads Memorial Endowed Scholarship; and the Thomas J. Kim Endowed Engineering Scholarship, as well as other scholarships from the College of Engineering. <\/p>\n


\n“There were times when I thought I wouldn\u2019t come back, then a scholarship came through,\u201d says Briones. \u201cScholarships made a huge difference.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nBriones also received a federally-funded science scholarship from the University of South Florida and will get a monthly stipend from the Peace Corps to cover her living expenses. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cI\u2019m so excited about this next opportunity in my life,\u201d Briones says. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m advancing the professional side of my career, but also fulfilling the personal things I want to do. It\u2019s a life-changing experience.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nTo prepare for her journey, she\u2019s reading up on the country and talking to other Peace Corps volunteers who worked in Panama. Her Spanish, she says, is excellent, thanks to 溏心vlog免费B站. (She studied and interned for a year in the Spanish cities of Santander and San Sebastian.)<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI think it\u2019s important to appreciate what we have in this country and know how other people live in the world,\u201d she says. \u201cI believe in self-development, and one way to do that is to put myself outside of my comfort zone.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nAfter the Peace Corps, she\u2019ll return to the University of South Florida for a semester to write her thesis \u2013 and, if all goes as planned, walk across the stage in 2017 with a master\u2019s degree in hand.<\/p>\n


\nPictured above: Maria Briones, a 2014 graduate of the 溏心vlog免费B站 who will leave for Panama on June 16 as part of the Peace Corps\u2019 Master\u2019s International Program. Photo courtesy of Maria Briones.\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maria Briones to get master\u2019s degree in civil engineering KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 June 11, 2015 \u2013 This time next week, Maria Briones will be living in a small town in Panama, brainstorming about ways to bring clean water to rural villages. Don\u2019t expect her back any time soon. The 溏心vlog免费B站 graduate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}