SFHS Student Consultants Working on the
United Nations Sustainability Development Goals
Once again South Fayette High School
student consultants have been tasked
with an authentic problem-solving
project with a corporate partner. Covestro
Corporation has provided an opportunity
for students in Tom Isaac’s Exploratory
Science and James Hausman’s Story
Telling by Design classes to provide
research, analysis, and solutions to an
extremely relevant, universal concern. In
addition, Baldwin-Whitehall High School
(BWHS) students are collaborating with
South Fayette students to work on this
cross-district project. BWHS teacher
Maria Hausman will be facilitating this
experience with her team within their
calculus and statistics coursework.
Based on the United Nations
Sustainability Goals by 2030, global
corporations have been tasked to do their
part in finding solutions to 169 targets
the UN has identified within the topics
of people, prosperity, peace, partnership,
and planet. Covestro has a goal to
become 100% sustainable within 10 years
which falls under the planet target.
Because of the success of South
Fayette’s past two years of problem-
solving collaboration with Covestro, they
reached out to the student consultants
to assist with a fresh perspective on their
sustainability goals. Covestro is a leading
global producer of plastics used in endless
products. In particular, the electronics
industry is one of their largest customer
bases. Recycling of electronics waste is a
priority for the company to reach their goal.
During their January 28, 2020, kick-
off tour of the Covestro Corporate
Headquarters, the combined student team
received their project goal of providing
an analysis of electronic waste streams in
the United States. As with all projects over
the last decade, the student consultants
received an invaluable education that
combines their academic knowledge
with the essential skills needed to be
successful in the future.
Former South Fayette students who
have taken part in these school-to-
business projects have afforded those
graduates with the extra experience of
working with business partners. Current
Covestro employee and South Fayette
graduate, Ryan McGowan, met with the
students during the tour to discuss the
value of these programs and how
his personal experience as a South
Fayette student consultant for Thar
Industries in 2015 was valuable during
his college years.
The South Fayette team includes Shay
Aitken, Mackenzie Bracken, Braden
Conway, Brenden Cooney, Rebecca
Finnie, Alexander Gates, Maddison
Joyce, Matthew Lenart, Kyle Magdich,
Rafael Louise Mananguite, Louis
Massetti, James Matijevich, Nicholas
Oddo, Austin Rees, Ethan Sanders,
Anna Sergio, Simone Sergio, Anushka
Solipuram, Bryce Spolnik, Justin Vezzi
and Ethan Vogelsberger.
SOUTH FAYETTE
❘
SPRING 2020
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