Tuesday, March 17th 11:30 am - 2:30 pm

New to the 2009 Joint Conference & Exposition next year in Springfield will be an exciting event aimed at improving public awareness and understanding of the global water environment and potential job opportunities.  Our target audience: Springfield area high school students. 

Working with Springfield School District officials, we have arranged for 45 students from the three high schools in Springfield to visit the 2009 Joint Conference and attend a session of events specially organized for them.  The goal of the event is to educate the students on where water comes from and how it is managed as a precious resource and to expose them to a wide variety of career opportunities within the water and wastewater industry. 

Students will be divided up into three groups and rotate thru the following three activities:

• Intro to Careers in the Water and Wastewater Industry – Panel Discussion
• Water Investigator Challenge – Hands-on Experiment
• Exhibit Hall Experiential – Up close look at conference exhibitors

The Panel Discussion will introduce the students to a wide variety of career opportunities within the industry.  Members from ISAWWA and IWEA will serve as speakers and give students valuable information.  The Water Investigator Challenge will give students the chance to search for an unknown substance in a water sample.  During the Exhibit Hall Experiential, students will visit two to three pre-selected conference exhibitors and learn more in depth about a particular product or service.  Each exhibitor will also provide the students with either a game/challenge to test the information they learned or some physical activity such as turning a valve or re-assembling a product.

WE NEED YOUR HELP

ISAWWA and IWEA members are needed to help with this exciting event.  Volunteers are needed for the following opportunities:

Liaison/Tour Guide – Guide a group of students during the event and share your industry experience/stories.  The time commitment would require guiding the students from the time they arrive until the end of the event, approximately 3 hours in duration.  

Career Panel Speaker – Participate as one of 5-7 speakers on our panel and be willing to share basic information on your job as well as stories and insights on your particular experience and area within the industry.  We will need representatives from all facets of the industry such as utilities, consultants, suppliers, regulators, technical resources, and more.  Panel speakers will be needed for 45 minutes slots, which will include 15 minutes of questions and answers.

Water Investigator Monitor – Assist the students with the Water Investigator Challenge; previous experience with laboratory testing is not required.  The investigator session will be held three times and last 45 minutes for each session.

Exhibitor Experience – Present a targeted presentation to each group of students followed up with a game, quiz, re-assembly test, or challenge of come kind.  Prizes or giveaways will be given to the top 2 or 3 students.  The top two to three proposed ideas will be selected.  Each exhibitor experiential will last approximately 15 minutes. 

Goodie Bag Sponsor – Help provide items for the student’s goodie bags.  We are looking for items such as water bottles, note pads, rulers, pens/pencils, toys, etc.  We will be looking for items to fill 75 goodie bags which will be given to each student as well as the adult chaperones and representatives from each high school who accompany the students. 

Springfield School Presentations – Prior to the event, representatives from ISAWWA and IWEA are invited to visit the three high schools in Springfield to present information on this opportunity to our partner teachers.  Individuals from the local area or those who travel to Springfield on a regular basis are invited to help promote this event at the schools.  Informational materials will be prepared by the committee ahead of time for use in this activity.  Volunteers will be asked spend approximately 2 hours visiting one of the high schools in Springfield.

Please contact co-chairs Catherine Hurley (catherine.n.hurley@mwhglobal.com, 312-831-3049) and Jack Polce (jpolce@F-W.com, 217-352-7408) to volunteer for any of these opportunities or for more information.  

We are very excited about this event and need help from ISAWWA and IWEA for it to be a success.  Thanks in advance for your help.

Organizing Committee Members

Catherine Hurley, Co-chair

Jack Polce, Co-chair

Graig Cargill

Lori Cox

Laurie Dougherty

Kyla Jacobsen

Matt Peyton

Kristin Rehg

Tom Skelly

Bill Soucie