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Veolia North America’s sponsorship of STEM-focused programs is helping ignite interest among hundreds of local students through hands-on learning opportunities, furthering the company’s goal of seeding the next generation of STEM professionals.
Veolia provides high-quality water to 500,000 customers in Rockland and Westchester counties in New York, and its charitable contributions program supports this goal throughout the region by strategically funding STEM initiatives that inspire students to continue their education in these essential fields.
“Understanding all the ways science, technology, engineering and math are applied in day-to-day life makes students start to see how they can be part of creating a sustainable future. That’s why Veolia is excited to partner with STEM educators here in our community and across the country,” said Chris Graziano, Veolia’s Vice President and General Manager of New York Operations.
This year, Veolia sponsored three STEM education programs in Rockland and Westchester counties. Pictures are available upon request.
St. Thomas Aquinas College’s STEM Exploration Summer Camp
Thirty high school students from across the New York metropolitan area participated in this one-week overnight residency program focused on core STEM themes. Activities included collecting and studying aquatic organisms from the Sparkill Creek, participating in hands-on virtual reality and computer programming exercises, kayaking on the Hackensack River, touring Veolia's water treatment facility in Haworth and attending a career panel. Click here to see students in action.
7th Annual STEM-tastic Festival
Hosted by The STEM Alliance, the 7th Annual STEM-tastic festival at Hommocks Middle School in Larchmont, NY, brought dozens of hands-on STEM activities to over 950 attendees of all ages. Students were treated to first-time experiences that included flying drones, soldering, and viewing soil and pond organisms through a microscope.
Dominican University’s Chemistry Program at Spring Valley High School
Participating students collected approximately 150 water samples bi-weekly over a six-month period from Memorial Park Pond, including local sites with suspected elevated pollution levels and other sites considered non-polluted upon visual observation. All water samples were analyzed for pollution indicators, viable bacterial loads, total bacterial loads using next-generation sequencing, algal populations and microplastic levels using light microscopy. Data collected was used to determine the overall health of each ecosystem sampled. Veolia’s contribution helped fund the supplies and equipment required for sample collection and testing.
About Veolia North America: A subsidiary of Veolia group, Veolia North America (VNA) offers a full spectrum of water, waste and energy management services, including water and wastewater treatment, commercial and hazardous waste collection and disposal, energy consulting and resource recovery. VNA helps commercial, industrial, healthcare, higher education and municipality customers throughout North America. Headquartered in Boston, Mass., Veolia North America has more than 10,000 employees working at more than 350 locations across the continent.
About Veolia Group: Veolia Group aims to become the benchmark company for ecological transformation. Present on five continents with nearly 213,000 employees, the Group designs and deploys useful, practical solutions for the management of water, waste and energy that are contributing to a radical turnaround of the current situation. Through its three complementary activities, Veolia helps to develop access to resources, to preserve available resources and to renew them. In 2022, the Veolia group provided 111 million inhabitants with drinking water and 97 million with sanitation, produced 44 terawatt hours of energy and recovered 61 million tons of waste. Veolia Environnement (Paris Euronext: VIE) achieved consolidated revenue of 42.885 billion euros in 2022. www.veolia.com
