St. Teresa students score science prize

When the members of the Science Club at St. Teresa of Avila School were approached with the Lexus Eco Challenge, they thought they were just doing their part to help the environment. Little did they know of the prize at stake.

"They didn't know cash was involved," said Laura Salewski, who is in charge of the Science Club. "They did this purely to make our school better."

In fact, some of the students just heard about the $10,000 cash prize.
"I didn't know about it until now!" said one of the girls after hearing Ms. Salewski's remark.

St. Teresa's, located in Albany, won one of the eight middle-school awards given nationally. The group consists of ten members, all girls.

Innah Bisquera, Carmen Hubert, Allison House, Ashley Evola, Theresa Rubi, Jen DuMond, Summer Clevenger, Clare Herubin, Cailin McKenna, and Faith Welch were given the challenge of identifying an issue dealing with land that affects the local community. They chose to highlight waste management and recycling because, as the students pointed out, it is just one of the many things that can help the environment.

Together, the group focused on the parishioners at St. Teresa's as well as their local community, to make them aware of recycling. "They spread this throughout the entire parish and its neighbors," said Sister Patricia Houlihan, RSM, the principal of St. Teresa's. "Every-one is now trying to recycle."

To spread the word, the club put flyers in the church bulletins, created a website and held a paper drive and a bottle and can drive on the same day.

They even designed their own t-shirts saying "Gators Gone Green," as a tribute to their school mascot.

Green from green
Through a recycling project with the help of Company Green Fiber, the club gathered 2.2 tons of recyclables. As a result, they were named the winners of the challenge and were presented with a prize of $10,000. Sister Patricia explained the prize more in depth.

"The $10,000 will be divided among everyone involved," she said. "Each of the students gets $700, Laura [Salewski] will get $1,000, and the school receives the remaining $2,000."

Though their parents will be receiving the check, what the students plan to do with their $700 is up to them. Most of them plan to use it towards school.

"A lot of the kids are going to Catholic high schools," Ms. Salewski pointed out.
"My parents are planning to use it for my tuition," one of the girls added.

Message out
Their efforts caught the attention of Albany officials. As Cailin McKenna told her group, "The city is hiring a specialist to build a plant and they said they were inspired by the St. Teresa's kids."

Despite their success, this is only the first step for the girls. The challenge actually includes four parts with the final challenge awarding a grand prize of $50,000.

"The second challenge deals with water and the third is air and climate," explained Sister Patricia. These challenges will also award $10,000 to the winner. The final challenge has yet to be announced by Lexus.

While the main goal for the students is to make people more aware of the environment, the money is still enticing. When asked if there would have been more motivation had they known originally of a cash prize, the girls shrugged modestly. One of the girls then smiled and said "we probably would have worked a little harder," to which the rest of the group laughed.

"It was mostly just because this is a good thing to do," said Clare Herubin. The rest of the girls replied with scattered "yeah's" and nods of agreement.

"I don't think they realized what they did," said Ms. Salewski, "and how much good they did."

(11/27/08)