A Buckeye Valley High School junior studying bioscience at the Delaware Area Career Center will host a panel discussion Saturday about clean water.
The event, which will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Second Ward Community Center on Ross Street in Delaware, will feature speakers from the City of Delaware’s Watershed and Sustainability Public Utilities Department, the Delaware General Health District, and the Delaware County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
The panel will be lead by Bionna Corder, a junior in the DACC’s bioscience program and will be her capstone project for The Global Scholars Diploma Program and the Columbus Council on World Affairs.
“I’ve been a part of Global Scholars since my freshman year,” Corder said. She explained that for the first two years of being involved in the program, she went abroad and studied several global issues, including the importance of clean water.
Corder said she’s in her third year in the Global Scholars program, which requires her to do a “take action” project.
“Mine is maintaining clean water on a consistent basis and in the wake of natural disasters,” Corder said, adding she did research about clean water and spoke to the city’s Watershed and Sustainability Public Utilities Department, the Delaware General Health District, and the Delaware County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. She decided to assemble the experts and host a community discussion.
“Saturday is a community awareness event,” Corder said. “I will have some health district representatives with me and they will explain more about water and what (not having clean water) can do to your health. EMA will explain what these issues will do to the area, and the City of Delaware will talk about the water and what we can do about it.”
Corder said she’s passionate about clean water and hopes people will attend the event to learn more about it.
“I want to spread the word out to people,” she said. “Even though they’ve heard about what’s going on with water, most people haven’t done thorough research … I felt this would be great to actually share with the public and the community. There are people in the community that can’t afford purified water.”
Corder said her panel will be very informative for people interested in the topic, and she wants to motivate people to take action.
“It’s important to me because I’ve heard about it so much on the news, so I wanted to address it to the public so that they can be aware of it and spread awareness,” Corder said. “I just want to address them so they can be aware and take necessary cautions or steps that they need. I hope that people can have a better understanding of what is in their water and influence others do to the same.”
After Corder completes the program, she’ll receive special recognition cords when she graduates and an additional seal on her high school diploma.
