Growing up, Ekua Hudson spent summers in Accra, Ghana, watching her father tend the organic crops that would nourish the family, including his sister with an autoimmune disease trigged by chemicals. It was there, half a world away from her Orlando home, that the seed of changemaking took root in the public health major. 

Like her father, Hudson is a self-taught farmer. But instead of soil, the Frederick Douglass Distinguished Scholar is using water to grow crops to feed her community, including the one in six children in DC who don’t have enough to eat, according to Feeding America. 

Since last year Hudson has been working on a prototype of a sustainable hydroponic farming kit. She plans to sell the system to DC Public Schools through her nonprofit, the Food for Thought Foundation, to grow and distribute produce free of charge to teachers, students, and their families. 

Hudson, who taught herself to code by watching hours of YouTube videos about the Arduino platform, says commercialized technology is the key to solving many of society’s most pressing challenges, including food insecurity, which impacts 34 million Americans, according to the US Department of Agriculture. 

“Somebody must design those systems—so why not me? The joy you get from solving a problem is invigorating, especially when it’s a problem you care about,” Hudson says. 

Her prototype includes a microprocessor, jumper wires, a water pump, and a pH meter for the soil, the results of which determine water flow. The first version worked for five minutes before flooding. Another failure prompted Hudson to design custom pieces using AU’s 3D printer, whose modeling software she learned in just a week. With each iteration, she’s getting closer to a scalable system.

Like the seeds her father planted during her childhood, she’s growing through good weather and bad, patiently waiting to break through with a beautiful bounty.