Water Week 2019
The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, DC Water and Environment and Education co-designed and implemented Water Week. A cohort of 20 rising juniors and seniors in the Cardozo TransSTEM Academy at the Cardozo Education Campus gained an understanding of their community’s water supply system and infrastructure-related careers/career pathways. Water Week is part of a pilot Summer Infrastructure Careers program initiated by Introducing Young Americans to Infrastructure (IYAI+).
Water Week field experiences included visits to the DC Water headquarters and the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant, the largest of its kind in the world; the Covanta Alexandria/Arlington Waste to Energy Facility and a green infrastructure site. Activities included speed mentoring and drinking water and infrastructure mapping. The field trips helped familiarize students with local and regional infrastructure while incorporating ideas from the My Beloved Community speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Beloved Streets of America Project.