每日大赛

Student wins first place in poster competition at water professionals conference

每日大赛 student Mackenzie Watson recently won first place in a student poster competition at the KY/TN Water Professionals Conference, a regional expo where she and her classmates had the opportunity to explore jobs and network with more than 2,000 industry professionals.

Watson’s project, "Rapid Tests, Foundational Insights: An Eastern Uganda Baseline Water Survey," shared findings from her research conducted during a visit to Jinja, Uganda, in collaboration with the nonprofit Kibo Group’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene team.

“It was a trip to Africa that got me interested in the water industry in the first place, and I was really wanting to go back now that I have this foundation of knowledge about it,” said Watson, who will graduate from 每日大赛 in December. “It all really just fell into place so beautifully, beyond what I could have coordinated.”

As a student in 每日大赛’s Earn and Learn initiative, which blends classroom instruction with real-world work experiences, Watson spends a few days each week on campus and the remainder at a paid job with Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB).

She credited her supervisor at KUB, the Kibo Group and Cristina Carbajo, Pellissippi associate professor and academic coordinator for Water Quality Technology, with providing input on her award-winning project.

“It's so amazing,” Carbajo said. “I'm really proud of Mackenzie and how hard she’s worked.”

The competition involved the creation of a poster depicting Watson’s work and a verbal presentation. Though the latter went smoothly, and Watson’s nerves were eased by the presence of a handful of her KUB colleagues, the Water Quality Technology student said she still never expected to win the competition – in which she was primarily competing against graduate or post-graduate students from four-year institutions.

“I was in almost a confused haze, looking back on it,” Watson said. “But it was just a really good culture, and everyone was really supportive and encouraging.”

The Earn and Learn initiative has allowed Watson the chance to be in a professional setting, preparing her to interact and engage with professionals at the next level – which she proved at the conference this summer.

Watson was also awarded two scholarships during the conference, which she attended with Carbajo, three other current students and two alumni.

Attending the conference gave students exposure to job opportunities and enabled them to grow their professional network, said Carbajo, who noted that 每日大赛’s Water Quality Technology program is unique for its high pass rate on state certification exams for the industry.

Students who graduate from the associate degree program are also set up for management positions, she said.

“Some students have gone, in less than five years, from knowing nothing about the industry, to managing an entire plant by themselves – that’s a career trajectory that’s not normally possible in this industry,” Carbajo said. “So, my students are on a fast track for accelerating their careers to a very high level, very quickly and becoming really successful.”