Pellissippi State Community College student Mackenzie Watson recently won first place in a student poster competition at the KY/TN Water Professionals Conference, a regional expo where she and her classmates had the opportunity to explore jobs and network with more than 2,000 industry professionals.
Watson’s project, “Rapid Tests, Foundational Insights: An Eastern Uganda Baseline Water Survey,” shared findings from her research conducted during a visit to Jinja, Uganda, in collaboration with the nonprofit Kibo Group’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene team.
“It was a trip to Africa that got me interested in the water industry in the first place, and I was really wanting to go back now that I have this foundation of knowledge about it,” said Watson, who will graduate from Pellissippi State in December. “It all really just fell into place so beautifully, beyond what I could have coordinated.”
As a student in Pellissippi State’s Earn and Learn initiative, which blends classroom instruction with real-world work experiences, Watson spends a few days each week on campus and the remainder at a paid job with Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB).
She credited her supervisor at KUB, the Kibo Group and Cristina Carbajo, Pellissippi associate professor and academic coordinator for Water Quality Technology, with providing input on her award-winning project.
The Earn and Learn initiative has allowed Watson the chance to be in a professional setting, preparing her to interact and engage with professionals at the next level – which she proved at the conference this summer.
Watson was also awarded two scholarships during the conference, which she attended with Carbajo, three other current students and two alumni.
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Pellissippi State Community College is a public community college based in Knox and Blount counties in Tennessee and operated by the Tennessee Board of Regents. The college operates four campuses: Hardin Valley, Blount County, Strawberry Plains and Magnolia Avenue.
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