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Local high school students examine water privatization and consumer waste issues
LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, PA – Two teams of local high school students participating in Lincoln University’s Upward Bound program offered their winning Trio Quest presentations on water privatization and consumer waste during an-all university convocation Tuesday, Nov. 13th at the International Cultural Center.
Photo (from L to R): Karina Cuevas Mora, Shannon Chilcote, Mauricio Barrera, Nicolas Pierce, Oscar Magana and Devin Randall were among the Upward Bound presenters.
Susan E. Powell, Lincoln’s Upward Bound director, explained that the Trio Quest competitions, which Lincoln’s Upward Bound has participated for the last 10 years, promote the use of 21st century skills by TRIO staff and students, and teach research, writing, digital image, audio and video, and web presentation skills.
“Overall, I think it (the competition) helps develop their maturity and independence,” Powell said. “That strengthens those abilities and prepares them for the most part for college. That’s what it’s all about. In college, you have to do presentations and you have to work in a group. It emphasizes the importance of working in a group and the value of every group member.”
Lincoln’s team presentations, “Universally Private: Who’s Thirsty?” was a 2012 finalist while “The Fig Tree” earned the Gold medal.
Powell added that the winning student presentations, which emphasize educational uses of the web and promote critical thinking, intellectual honesty and proper citation skills, are all web-based and serve as resources for classroom teachers.
“We can create a future where our water is ours and not someone else’s,” said Devin Randall, a senior at West Chester East High School, whose team project, ‘Universally Private: Who’s Thirsty?’ examined the impact on water privatization on the world.
Their project argued that the World Bank and others coerced some 130 developing countries such as Bolivia into privatizing not only their water supplies, but in some cases, their rain water rights in order to receive continued funding and support.
Among those team members were Randall, Maurico Barrera, Oscar Magana, Nicholas Pierce, all juniors at Avon Grove High School and Katherine McNeil, (not present) a junior at Octorara High School.
Lincoln’s second Upward Bound group, comprised of Shannon Chilcote, a senior at West Chester High School, Karina Cuevas Mora, an Avon Grove High school senior and Jason Sadler, a junior at Octorara High School (not present), focused on cheap clothing and the impact of consumer waste with its ‘The Fig Tree’ presentation.
That project also revealed how cheap clothing, often fueled by fashion trends and advertising, impacts consumer waste and time management.
“We’re not asking you to stop buying clothes or to stop shopping,” said Chilcote during their presentation. “We’re asking you to think about how your purchases impact the rest of the world.”
Lincoln University of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, founded in 1854 as the nation’s first historically Black degree-granting institution, combines the elements of a liberal arts and science-based undergraduate curriculum along with select graduate programs to meet the needs of those living in a highly-technological and global society. Today, the University enrolls a diverse student body of approximately 2,000 men and women. Internationally recognized for preparing and producing world class leaders such as Thurgood Marshall, the first U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Lillian Fishburne, the first African American woman promoted to Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy, Langston Hughes, the noted poet, Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana and Nnamdi Azikiwe, the first President of Nigeria.