WCSU STEM Program Alumna Earns Award in Recycling Competition

DANBURY, CONN. — Kanchan Suresh, a student at Broadview Middle School and alumna of the “Finding Our Way” STEM program at Western Connecticut State University, has received first place honors among Danbury seventh grade student participants in the 2017 “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” poster competition sponsored by the Housatonic Regional Resource Authority.

Suresh received the opportunity to learn about water resources, ecosystem biodiversity and related environmental topics as one of the seventh grade middle school students who have participated with their families in the “Finding Our Way” STEM skills education program at WCSU. Supported by a grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and organized in collaboration with Danbury Public Schools and the Danbury Family Learning Center, the program features a summer session at Western and other sites in Connecticut and New York as part of a yearlong integrated environmental stewardship experience focused on New England watersheds.

Suresh said that her award-winning drawing portrayed opportunities for reducing resource use and for reusing and recycling goods in real-life situations. “I got my ideas from the summer STEM program at Western,” she said. “I am especially concerned about the use of plastic, and I was able to successfully draw a picture related to saving the environment.”

The “Finding Our Way” program includes sections conducted in partnership with the WCSU Weather Center, the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, the NOAA Fisheries Lab in Milford, and FirstLight Power Resources. The program is directed by Dr. Theodora Pinou, professor of biological and environmental sciences and faculty curator of the H.G. Dowling Herpetological Collection at WCSU.

For information, contact the Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8486.