On the Texas A&M University campus in the heart of College Station, Texas, one group of students is acting on a shared passion for service and desire to create a brighter, safer world by providing communities around the globe with much-needed health care resources. BUILD, a student-run organization and 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2013, gathers student volunteers to transform empty shipping containers into fully functioning Texas Aggie Medical Clinics, which are then transported to communities that lack health care services.
Lauryn Kastenschmidt ’25, former student and a past CEO of BUILD, explains the motivation behind the project. “It’s really eye opening because living in College Station, I can think of at least three urgent cares that I could go to if something is wrong, and knowing that that isn’t available in other countries, and that we’re being a solution and helping that, it’s just something that I didn’t think was going to be possible from a student organization.”
But at Texas A&M, it is possible. So far, BUILD has produced 60 Texas Aggie Medical Clinics with the help of more than 20,000 students over the years, and the organization continues to grow in both involvement and impact. These clinics are working to provide access to health care in rural Texas, across the nation and beyond.
“It’s really encouraging as a faculty member to see that there’s so many students that want to get involved in these kinds of projects,” said Dr. Gordon Carstens, faculty advisor for BUILD and professor of animal nutrition in the Department of Animal Science. “They’ve learned how to do all the components of constructing the clinics, how to get all the materials, how to get the volunteers lined up, operations, construction. And so, they build their knowledge from year to year, and then they pass it on to the next team.”
As experience and a heart for selfless service continue to be passed down from one team to the next, the mission of BUILD remains consistent: to unite the Texas A&M student body through a large-scale, physically demanding service project.
“We’re looking for students with a passion for service,” Kastenschmidt said. “And we want to channel that into these clinics because it’s not just about how they look. It’s about the love that goes into them and how that will carry out through the people they are impacting.”
