Newington HS Students Show Sustainability Prowess In State Contest

Energize Connecticut

NEWINGTON, CT — Newington students Adriana Arango, Leticya Dos Santos, and Ashley Muharremi were recently honored as winners in the 20th Annual eesmarts Student Contest.

Presented by Energize Connecticut in partnership with Eversource and Avangrid subsidiaries, United Illuminating, Southern Connecticut Gas, and Connecticut Natural Gas, the eesmarts Student Contest invited Connecticut students in grades K-12 to showcase their energy smarts.

Participants chose from a variety of project formats based on their grade level, including poems, essays, posters, billboard advertisements, comic strips, short videos, persuasive images, and more.

Additionally, to celebrate the 20-year milestone, a teacher prompt was introduced, inviting educators to gather their students and friends and create a song or video about saving energy in their own classrooms.

Newington High School students Arango, Muharremi, and Dos Santos competed in the 9-12th grade category, which was split into two divisions – persuasive image and poem.

Dos Santos received second place for her persuasive image submission.

For the image, she drew a cartoon strip that depicted a girl explaining why using less energy is important and environmentally friendly to her brother.

By the end of the eight-cell cartoon strip, the brother changes his perspective and agrees to turn off the lights and use less energy.

In the poem division, Muharremi won second place for her poem entitled “Who Will Save Them,” where she addresses climate change and its effects on rising water levels and the polar bear population.

Arango received third place for a piece that identified the similarities between women and Earth.

In her poem, she states, “women disappear every day, gallons of water do to…still they endure. Women and the Earth sustain life.”

More than 500 students throughout Connecticut submitted projects for consideration, and 35 entries from 26 schools in 25 Connecticut communities were selected as this year’s finalists.

Finalists attended an awards ceremony on May 13 at the Connecticut Science Center in Hartford and received their prizes and certificates.

For more information on the student contest and the EESmart program, visit www.EnergizeCT.com/eesmarts.