Prabodh Serves his Community Using an Engineering Skillset

by enFocus

Meet Our Fellows Blog Series: Prabodh Sonalkar

From an early age, I was fascinated by how things worked. I remember unscrewing all the electronics and appliances at home just to see what was inside of them. I couldn’t always put them back together, but the curious engineer in me loved learning how things worked. So, when it came time for me to choose a field of study, pursuing something other than engineering never crossed my mind.

Fast forward to last year. I was in West Lafayette pursuing a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University and working part-time to support myself. As I was thinking about all the ways I could use my degree, COVID shut everything down, and I lost my only source of income. For someone who was living from paycheck to paycheck, this made my financial situation very difficult.

As a volunteer and the Inventory Director at Purdue's ACE Food Pantry, I helped with tasks such as the ordering process (left) and food sorting (right). 

Fortunately, I was introduced to Purdue’s ACE Campus Food Pantry, an organization that fights food insecurity by providing free food and supplies to the community. I had never considered myself “food insecure,” but knowing there was a place I could go to when I needed help shifted my perspective about who I was and what I wanted to do with my life.

I started volunteering at the pantry the very next week, and I worked as an Inventory Director until my graduation. The satisfaction that I gained from working there and supporting my community was greater than I could get from any “A” in a class. As I started looking for a job, the ability to have a positive impact became a requirement.

Naturally, when I came across enFocus, I knew there would be no better organization to fulfill my desire for community impact. Being an engineer, I have implemented problem-solving skills on many occasions, but this time, I get to use those skills to design solutions that help local businesses grow. This keeps me motivated when I come to work every day.

Learn more about the 2021 enFocus Fellows weekly in our Meet Our Fellows Blog Series.