ILLINOIS WATER ENVIRONMENT ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER
Volume 24, No. 3 - Fall 2003

2003 Stockholm Junior Water Prize

For the first time ever, the IWEA selected an Illinois State Stockholm Junior Water Prize winner and sponsored her to the U.S. competition. The winner was Daria Zelasko, a student at Mother Theodore Guerin High School, River Grove. Earlier this year, we named her our Grand Prize Senior Division Clean Water Award winner presented at the Illinois Junior Academy of Science State Fair. Based on this evaluation, we selected her to compete at the next level. For information on Daria's project see the Summer Edition of this newsletter or go to http://www.iweasite.org/?Newsletters/newsletters.html.

The Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP) is an international youth award competition for water science research projects. It was first awarded in Sweden in 1995 and internationally in 1997. The competition for the SJWP award is for projects from students in Grades 9-12 aimed at improving the quality of life through improvement of water quality, water resources management, water protection or water and wastewater treatment. The projects can apply these criteria, for example, by focusing on water environment problems or improving water management in schools, communities or watersheds. Currently, there are 30 countries participating in the international competition.

Daria, accompanied by her parents, participated in the national competition in Dallas, Texas, June 5-7. We paid for their travel expenses while ITT Industries and the Coca Cola Company, covered all local expenses (hotel, meals and entertainment).

The three-day event was not all pressure and judging. Daria had the opportunity to attend several special activities. The first evening was an Aloha Luau and Dance. The second day included an all attendee breakfast and lunch, with planned activities, after which the preliminary judging was conducted. That evening the participants went to the Circle R Ranch for horseback trail rides, line dancing lessons, a quick draw contest with gunfighters, and a souvenir photo with a longhorn steer. Afterwards, a BBQ buffet dinner with all the fixings was served. Dessert was roasted marshmallows over the campfire.

The last day, Saturday, included final judging for the science fair, and a Science Fair Luncheon and Awards Presentation. The day concluded with a trip to Medieval Times Castle for dinner and show. However, Daria and family couldn't attend because she had to return home that evening to prepare for final exams on Monday.

The Water Environment Federation, the Coca-Cola Company and ITT Industries sponsor the winner of the U. S. National SJWP competition to compete in the international competition in Sweden. This year, the U.S. National SJWP winner received $2,500 and four finalists received $500 each. Information on the national winner and finalists can be found at http://www.wef.org/publicinfo/stockholm/finalists.jhtml.

Upon returning from the national competition, Daria commented, “Thank you for the opportunity to represent Illinois for the National Stockholm Junior Water Prize. It was a wonderful experience and I was so impressed by the caliber of the projects there - I honestly felt out of place at first until I got to know the other participants. It was great! I felt like I was treated like royalty over there, the southern hospitality was really unforgettable!”

Daria also enjoyed the opportunity to get to know a wide range of people. Most of the students didn't know one another by name -but rather by state. Her closest friends included Hawaii, Indiana, Colorado, and Oklahoma! Daria was impressed by how much work the students put into their research. For them their projects were “really a passion” and it fueled her motivation to keep working on her project and to make it even better than ever. Being just a sophomore when she participated, she should have ample opportunity to accomplish her goal!

We intend to again select an Illinois State winner for next year's competition scheduled for June 10-12 in Denver, Colorado. We have included the National Stockholm Junior Water Prize guidelines in our awards announcement to the Illinois Junior Academy of Science for mailing to their 600 plus member schools.