FWEA Chapter Corner—Get Involved With the FWEA Students and Young Professionals

Welcome to the FWEA Chapter Corner! The Member Relations Committee of the

Florida Water EnvironmentvAssociation hosts this article to celebrate the success of recent association chapter activities and inform members of upcoming events. To have information included for your chapter, send details to Melody Gonzalez at gonzalezm@bv.com. Melody Gonzalez

Get Involved With the FWEA Students and Young Professionals Committee!

Nicole Cohen, P.E., ENV SP

The mission of the Students and Young Professionals Committee (SYPC) is to develop and implement programs to increase the activity and membership of students and young professionals in the Florida Water Environment Association (FWEA). Involvement and participation within the committee is vital since these individuals are the current and future leaders of our industry.

Internship Program

The SYPC is excited to announce the firstever FWEA internship program. The purpose of this program is to help inform and guide talented individuals to reputable companies, utilities, and organizations within the Florida water industry for a summer 2023 internship. If your organization is interested in participating, please fill out a quick interest form at www.fwea.org/internship_program. php. If you have any questions about this program or getting involved, please reach out to fwea.sypc@gmail.com.

Events at the Florida Water Resources Conference

The Florida Water Resources Conference (FWRC) will be held at the Gaylord Palms in Kissimmee from May 31 to June 3, 2023. Each year at FWRC, the SYPC organizes and holds the annual statewide Student Design Competition. This competition tasks student members within FWEA to design and present a solution to a problem statement that they have worked on together as a team.

At this year’s FWRC, Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) and University of South Florida (USF) were the first-place winners in their categories and represented FWEA and their respective universities at the 2022 Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) Student Design Competition, held in October in New Orleans. Both teams did an incredible job, and a special congratulations to USF for placing third!

In addition to organizing the competition, the SYPC hosts many other events at FWRC, such as the poster competition, which provides students and young professionals the opportunity to present at FWRC. Prizes are awarded to the top two posters. Additionally, the SYPC organizes and hosts the Young Professionals (YP) Symposium and the Students and Young Professionals Social at the conference. Stay tuned for further details and times for these great events!

Other Activities

The SYPC administers the FWEA Young Continued on page 42

FWRC 2022 Student Design Competition teams.

FWRC 2022 Young Professionals Symposium panelists. FWRC 2022 Poster Competition.

Continued from page 41 Professional of the Year Award, recognizing outstanding service to FWEA. This award goes to an outstanding young professional who shows leadership, initiative, and technical knowledge, and actively participates within FWEA. The winner also earns a paid trip to attend the annual AWWA/WEF YP Summit. Nominations are open and available on the SYPC webpage. Forms must be received by March 24, 2023.

On top of all those activities, the SYPC also works hard to organize, coordinate, and conduct outreach events at universities and at FWEA’s respective student chapters. We’d like to give a big thanks to our members and sponsors!

If you’re interested in participating in or sponsoring the SYPC, please send an email to fwea.sypc@gmail.com or any of the committee’s leadership: S Chair - Nicole Cohen:

NCohen@carollo.com S Vice-Chair - Kamal Taha:

Kamal.Taha@arcadis.com S Treasurer - Olga Mikhalchishina:

OMikhalchishina@woodardcurran.com S Secretary - Jissell Muir:

Jissell.Muir@arcadis.com

Nicole Cohen, P.E., ENV SP, is a project engineer with Carollo Engineers in Sarasota. She serves as FWEA’s Students and Young Professionals Committee chair and is a member of the FWEA Manasota Chapter. S