Meet Morgan Barnes, Florida’s 2021 Stockholm Junior Water Prize Winner Shea Dunifon On August 24 during World Water Week, the Stockholm International Water Institute announced the 2021 recipient of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP), Eshani Jha of California. Thirty-two countries and 44 participants from around the globe competed for the coveted international title and a chance to be recognized as an innovator in the water sector. In the United States, the Water Environment Federation (WEF) received 235 entries, including Morgan Barnes, a student at the Canterbury School in Fort Myers. Morgan, a junior, won the Florida Stockholm Junior Water Prize for her research titled, “Analyzing In-Situ Environmental Impacts on Long-Term Durability, Cohesivity, and Viability Sodium
Alginate Immobilized Chlorella vulgaris Bioremediation Units.” As both an innovator and an inspiration (and a rare native Floridian), I decided to interview her and share her story. Shea: What is one interesting fact or thing that you would like to share about yourself? Morgan: Although this is not research-related, I would say the most interesting thing about me is that I rodeo. I started competing when I was 7 years old and now I have been fortunate enough to travel across the United States and compete at some of the largest rodeos in the nation. Although this sport requires a lot of hard work and dedication, it’s something that I truly enjoy doing and is really rewarding. As someone who got into gardening at a young
age because my mom and my grandmother were both really into it, I’m just curious what got you started in rodeo? Both my parents grew up in the city; our family friends, however, had a farm and their son used to bull ride. They invited us to watch one of his competitions and I remember seeing all these cowgirls and cowboys on horses and I just looked at my mom and said “I really want to do this one day!” My mom kind of laughed and said “Okay.” She took me out to our family friends’ farm and I got on a horse and I fell in love with the sport. My mom was like “Well, this is going to be quite an expensive hobby, but we’ll do it.” It honestly was such a great opportunity that I was given, merely by chance. That’s very cool. Do you plan to do rodeo after high school? I’m in high school right now and I am able to compete at that level, but I want to go to an elite university so I will not be able to do it in college because of studying and research. These are two things I take seriously in a career option, but maybe later in life I would like to pick it back up again. Have you chosen a university and what are you thinking about in terms of a career? There are a couple of universities in Florida that I would like to attend; for example, the University of Florida for research. I would also really like to attend an elite university, like an Ivy League school. I want to continue pursuing a career in research and develop my invention that I am focusing on right now in this study.
Above: Morgan conducting research at the Canterbury Independent Science Research Laboratory. At right: Displaying her medal as the 2021 Florida state winner of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize competition.
48 October 2021 • Florida Water Resources Journal
Other than rodeo, do you have any other interesting or relevant factoids you’d like to share with our readers? Besides rodeo I also play in my school’s jazz band and wind ensemble. I play a variety of instruments, but my favorites are clarinet and bass so that’s another thing I do in my free time. You sound really busy; what’s your secret? It’s definitely a challenge balancing everything. I had to narrow my focus to three things, which are research, rodeo, and music.
