OUR SUSTAINABLE FUTURE: WATER

Sustainability Spotlight: Student

A PASSION FOR RECYCLING

Katelyn Boisvert 20C, Environmental Science Student

When senior Katelyn Boisvert talks with middle schoolers about the science behind what’s going on deep within the root systems of Emory’s WaterHub, she reaches for language that paints a vivid picture. “Sometimes, it’s hard for them to visualize what they can’t see, so I describe it as a buffet line for microbes — an environment where everything passes through and all the food gets eaten,” laughs Boisvert, who studies environmental science at Emory College of Arts and Sciences.

For the past two years, Boisvert has served among a team of Emory undergraduate and graduate students who work as docents at the WaterHub, which has attracted more than five thousand visitors since the facility officially launched in April 2015. At any time, the curious may range from Atlanta area schoolchildren, Emory peers, and college students from neighboring states to architects, facilities managers from universities or municipalities, and Fortune 500 business leaders.

The student docent program launched less than a year after the WaterHub opened. Since then, about a dozen Emory students have been trained to talk about the acclaimed water reclamation facility, providing something well beyond basic information. “The Student Docent program utilizes the WaterHub as a platform to engage communities across the country in water awareness,” says Taylor Spicer, programs manager with Emory’s Office of Sustainability Initiatives, who cofounded the docent program.

During the semester, public student-led tours are offered twice weekly. Not only does the program give Emory students a thorough understanding of the facility, it offers a chance to meet other like-minded students and professionals, serve as a resource to peers and professors, advocate for community water conservation, and polish their professional skills. “It’s one thing to listen to someone else talk about the technology, but it requires completely different skills to be the one describing the benefits and the process,” Spicer admits.

For Boisvert, the WaterHub actually helped seal her decision to attend Emory. “I was visiting campus as a finalist for a Woodruff Scholarship and touring the WaterHub was one of our options,” she recalls. “I think the second I realized what was being done here (with water recycling) was when I realized Emory was the place I was supposed to be.”

Growing up in Arizona, Boisvert was always aware of water conservation, “so finding an institution that was actually doing something about it was incredibly exciting,” she says. “And Emory also had a fully developed Environmental Sciences program with lots of research opportunities.”

—Kimber Williams