Way to Go! Smithtown West student launches nonprofit for drinking water
Shannon Alptekin. Credit: Smithtown Central School District
A Smithtown High School West student is striving to use innovative technology to bring clean drinking water to villagers in Kenya.
Shannon Alptekin, a senior, recently launched the nonprofit International Innovative Solutions Project, which aims to provide humanitarian aid to underprivileged communities.
The nonprofit's pilot project will be to deploy a self-sustaining solar microgrid that powers an atmospheric water generator in Turkana County, Kenya. The technology extracts water vapor from the ambient atmosphere and condenses it into clean drinking water.
Alptekin has set a fundraising goal of $200,000 for the project and is raising money through a GoFundMe campaign and her nonprofit's website, i2sp.org.
"I took a look at the global water crisis, especially what is happening with the pandemic, and knew it was a mission that deeply impassioned me," said Alptekin, 17.
The project will be executed in Kenya with the help of Samuel Aronson, a former director at Brookhaven National Laboratory, through his organization Sustainable Off-grid Solutions for African Economic Development.
Alpetkin is also president of her school's Class of 2021 and English Honor Society, vice president of the National Honor Society, public relations officer of the Math Honor Society, and on the golf and track teams.
In addition, she and her older brother, William, co-founded a local chapter of First Tee, an organization that introduces golf and its values to youth.
- MICHAEL R. EBERT
Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.
