Charlton School

Personal Interests

At the time of writing Sam is a third year Chemical Engineering student involved with the Cambridge Development Initiative (CDI), a registered charity with the Charity Commission of England and Wales (no. 1159244), which is run by University of Cambridge students. Sam is part of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) team and will be volunteering in summer 2018 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, as a Biogas Engineer.

For over a year Sam had been seeking summer work experience in chemical engineering, a member of staff at University in the chemical engineering department recommended a placement with a charity called CDI that a former student from the department had completed at an earlier time two years ago

CDI is a non-profit organization that improves the wellbeing of community members in the schools, informal settlements, and wider communities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. CDI empowers student leaders to catalyse change in their societies through innovative projects in the areas of healthcare, education, entrepreneurship, and WaSH. CDI partners closely with KITE Dar es Salaam (KITE), a Tanzanian community-based organization, to design, implement, and evaluate these projects. Since 2013, CDI has mobilized over 100 Tanzanian and Cambridge student volunteers to launch community-oriented development solutions.

The CDI WaSH project provides a sustainable, community-centred solution to the sanitation crisis in Tanzania. Operating in Dar es Salaamís informal settlements where residents lack access to proper sanitation, the WaSH project prevents water-borne illnesses by building safe simplified sewerage systems. CDI and KITE collaborate with the Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority to manage and execute this initiative. To promote this initiativeís economic and environment sustainability, the WaSH team aims to offer biogas as a renewable alternative to charcoal. Since 2015, CDI has been testing biodigestor technology, which turns waste collected by our sewerage networks into biogas.

CDI intends to ensure the continued benefits of our project by transitioning from their current biodigestor model to one that is locally sourced through a Tanzanian supplier. This shift will enable community members to efficiently undertake repairs while creating a social enterprise through which biogas sales will fund the construction of new sewerage networks. To accomplish this goal, they need to raise about £2,500 for this local model.

If you are interested in supporting the project outlined above, the Fundraising link is https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sam-watson9

For more information about our project, including videos and pictures, please visit www.cambridgedevelopment.org.  

Educational profile

GCSE grades: 7A*s, 4As, 1B

Other achievements whilst at Charlton:

Runner-up in the Dr McClure Memorial Fund Music Competition (twice; in 2011 and 2013).

Outstanding achievement in Chemistry and Music

Attended New College, Telford to study Maths, Chemistry, Physics and Further Maths (AS and A2).

A-Level grades: Maths A*, Chemistry A*, Physics A, Further Maths A

Other achievements whilst at New College:

Grade 8 guitar (distinction)

Grade 6 drums (distinction)

Outstanding achievement (highest grades in college)

Attended University of Cambridge, Jesus College: Studying Chemical Engineering (with first year in Natural Sciences).

Completed third year achieving a BA in Chemical Engineering (2:2) (It's a Cambridge tradition to give everyone a BA..)

Will study a Masters (MEng) in Chemical Engineering in 2018/19