Meet Jacob Niemeier

We recently connected with Jacob Niemeier and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jacob, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
I definitely got my work ethic from my father who modeled to me how to work hard and still be a strong family man! Working hard was instilled in me from a very young age as I had many experiences helping my father with projects around the house from renovations to building retaining walls to doing yard work, but if I am being honest, the greatest source of my work ethic was simply watching my father work so hard in his career as a Chemical Engineer and yet still have time to do house projects and even more importantly make time to be a present and actively engaged father. He truly modeled a strong and dedicated work ethic in all aspects of his life and for that I am abundantly grateful to have been able to learn from him!

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
The Inspiration Behind Vera Aqua Vera Vita

Vera Aqua Vera Vita was founded by Jacob Niemeier, a water resources engineer currently living Murphy, Texas a suburb of Dallas. During a foreign mission trip in 2011 with a team of students from St. Thomas Aquinas’ Catholic Newman Center at Purdue University to Haiti a year after its devastating 2010 earthquake opened his eyes to the world’s biggest problems such as poverty, the food crisis, and the global water crisis.This trip combined with his studies at Purdue in Agricultural and Biological Engineering with a focus on water resources, ultimately inspired Jacob to respond to a calling from God to eventually start Vera Aqua Vera Vita.

Jacob says one story sticks with him every time he thinks back to his trip to Haiti:

“I was overwhelmed by the severity of poverty. There was a woman that walked from her tent carrying a bucket to the canal that was flowing through the city and filled up her bucket with water that looked like chocolate milk. The canal had animals defecating and walking around it, was visibly full of trash and litter, and had people washing their clothes and dumping their waste into it.”

He said he knew the woman was going to use the water for her family, and it was very likely going to make them sick if not kill them.

This personal and firsthand encounter with the reality of the problem was pivotal in leading him to eventually start Vera Aqua Vera Vita which means “True Water True Life” and answer the call to provide clean, safe water to people in need in developing countries.

After graduating from Purdue University in 2012, Jacob accepted a position as a water resources engineer consultant in Dallas, Texas, as an Engineer in Training (E.I.T). He continued to foster his call and network building to have a strong foundation to launch Vera Aqua Vera Vita. An opportunity arose in 2015 when friends of Jacob approached him about a community in the Piuran region of Peru in need of clean water. As Jacob recounts:

“A few members of the pueblo of Monte Castillo had approached my friends to ask if they could help them get clean water because their children and elderly were suffering and dying, and immediately my friends thought of seeking out me to help them because in our social circles that we would hang out in, I would very often be talking about wanting to work to combat the global water crisis.”

Together with his friends, the journey to finally start Vera Aqua Vera Vita had begun with an enormous amount of prayer & support and a pilot project to bring clean, safe water to 7000+ people in to the aforementioned community, Monte Castillo. To solidify his credentials, in 2016, Jacob earned his Professional Engineering (P.E.) license and finally, on June 13, 2017, Vera Aqua Vera Vita, Inc. was born as a nonprofit NGO and began its mission to bring “True Water True Life” to the less fortunate in developing countries.

The pilot project in Monte Castillo that served as the final bit of motivation needed to launch VAVV started back in May 2015 and eventually commenced operations on Aug. 3, 2019, when the constructed and tested Water Treatment Plant was commissioned and ever since it has provided consistent access to clean water to the entire community.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three things that have been most impactful in my journey to get to where I am today are perseverance, passion, and patience. I strongly encourage all folks who are early in their career or entrepreneurial journey to spend time actively working on developing these virtues because they are fundamental building blocks to truly impactful character! I once had a former supervisor from a past job constantly reiterate how important it is to “never stop learning (and growing) because the day that happens is the day you begin to die.” So, no matter where someone is in their career journey the best thing they can do is to be better tomorrow then they were the day before, even if it is just in some small way. Keep on persevering!

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
The most impactful thing my parents did for me was to encourage and support me in exploring my God-given talents and passions by providing me ample opportunities to try new things and experience many different ways to utilize my talents to make the world a better place. This freedom they allowed me to explore and experience life is truly one of the of great gifts they could have given me because it allowed me to discover what I was and wasn’t good at, how to courageously try new things, and how to deal with failure and get back up and going again despite the challenges and setbacks. Yet, they always offered a safe-refuge to return to them or lean on them to provide help and encouragement when things got tough. They are amazing parents, not perfect, but truly doing the best that they could and can!

Contact Info:

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Productivity
Where do you get your work ethic from?

We’ve all heard the phrase “work hard, play hard,” but where does our work ethic

Resilience
The Power of Persistence: Overcoming Haters and Doubters

Having hates is an inevitable part of any bold journey – everyone who has made

Confidence
From Self-Doubt to Self-Assurance: Saying Goodbye to Imposter Syndrome

Self-doubt and imposter syndrome have stopped far too many talented folks from going for their