ABOUT
Initiated in 2013, the Water Systems working group is composed of 27 faculty and staff, representing five Colleges or other administrative units within the University of Kentucky. The group contains a diversity of water-related expertise and research interests, and originally coalesced with the aim to better highlight water-related research and educational opportunities on campus and throughout the state. Initiatives have included the development of Water Week- an intensive series intended to engage undergraduate students- and the creation of the CATchemtn rain garden which mitigates UK stormwater impact and helps demonstrate stormwater best management practices to students and community members. Currently the working group is collaborating with Environmental management to help UK meet its MS4 permit requirements and is actively seeking additional collaborative projects.
Interns
Kayla Rosko | 2017-2018
Kayla Rosko worked for environmental management focusing on the MS4 report on storm water education and outreach for the University of Kentucky. Kayla worked under faculty advisor Carmen Agouridis to collect information from the University of Kentucky's annual storm water report in order to identify areas for improvement. Kayla's focus was to identify classes, clubs and extension publications that could have further storm water involvement and intern based research in the future.
Storm Drain Marking Program
Kayla and fellow sustainability intern, Sara Stewart worked together to develop "Adopt-a-Drain" in which clubs can mark and collect data on a drain and create a report on the drain to present during Water Week in October in 2018 where they can demonstrate what they have learned from their time managing the drain.
Sara Stewart | 2017-2018
Under the direction of faculty advisor, Carmen Agouridis, Sara worked on outreach, promotion and education with a focus on stream restoration projects on UK Campus. Sara assisted with instruction in two sections of GEN 100, facilitated class projects, arranged for guest lecturers and worked with a fellow sustainability intern, Kayla Rosko, on stormwater management and development of the Adopt-a-Drain program.
Garrett Pieratt | 2015-2016
Major: Information Communication Technology
Graduation Date:May 2016
Senior at the time of her internship
Mentor: Doug Curl, Kentucky Geological Survey
Independent Project Title: Waterwatch Database/Website
Description: Build a database to store the research data collected from the rain garden in a centralized location. Build a website to allow easy access to the data and the ability to add data through the web.
Outcomes: Developed a database to store the collected data and a website to interface with that data.
How has the internship influenced you or provided additional skills?
I initially applied for the internship because I wanted to do database administration. However, this internship taught me more about web development which ended up being a good thing. In fact, I am more interested in pursuing web development now than database administration, though my interests still encompass a wide range of IT related areas.
I definitely gained valuable skills. I learned a lot of technical skills related to web development such as coding in PHP, JavaScript, Dojo, and more. I also learned about building a website and database from scratch which was a valuable experience. I also improved at self motivating since I was mostly working by myself.
What's next?
As I was pursuing a job in web development, I ended up finding a great internship doing technology security, something which really interests me and would give me valuable IT skills. I am currently working there, though I’m not sure yet which career path I will settle on.