Ken Surritte
WATERisLIFE
Oklahoma City, OK USA
"What are the things that make you tick, and what are the things that tick you off? What are the things that you pound the table over and stay up at night worried about? That’s where you need to make a difference."
Career Roadmap
Ken's work combines: Non-Profit Organizations, Environment & Nature, and Helping People
See more careers and stories that connect to your interests.
Take Roadmap Quiz
Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
It is a daunting challenge, but we have everything that we need available to us already in order to end the world water crisis. Someone just needed to try, so that's what I am doing. You can't listen to the people that say you can't do something. If you are passionate about something, then just go for it.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Southwest Baptist University
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
Attended Southwest Baptist University, where I graduated with my bachelor’s degree.
2.
Worked for many years as a teacher and participated in humanitarian missions all over the world alongside my wife.
3.
After traveling to the Philippines and China, I found myself becoming more and more passionate about helping people and less concerned with the security of a weekly paycheck and retirement benefits.
4.
My wife and I decided to start Hearts and Hands International, an organization that built and operated orphanages for at-risk children in Asia, South America, and Africa.
5.
While helping to build a water well at one of our orphanages in Kenya, I realized the full extent of the water crisis in Africa and around the world.
6.
In 2007, we founded WATERisLIFE, an organization dedicated to ending the world water crisis by using technologies that already exist.
7.
Using my backpacker knowledge, I helped develop portable straw filters that children could take to school to help prevent water-borne illness as a result of contaminated water sources.
8.
We have since utilized and implemented home systems using NanoTube technology, solar and wind-powered community systems, drilling, and rainwater catchment systems in over 45 countries.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Society in general:
You can't fix the water crisis. That's stupid.
How I responded:
It is a daunting challenge, but we have everything that we need available to us already in order to end the world water crisis. Someone just needed to try, so that's what I am doing. You can't listen to the people that say you can't do something. If you are passionate about something, then just go for it.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
I left my secure job as a teacher with a weekly paycheck and retirement benefits in order to pursue my passion for humanitarian service. Out of this, I became a business owner and I've been able to pursue what I truly love.
Starting my own companies without any knowledge or experience on how to do so was definitely a challenge. We made a lot of mistakes, but you can't be afraid to make them. That's how you learn.