‘The Traveling Water Droplet’: Pershing students take top three spots in Water Awareness Poster Contest

Three Pershing Elementary School students made history after placing first, second and third place in an annual Water Awareness Poster Contest – the first time that Pershing students have won all top prizes in the competition. 

The contest, hosted by the San Juan Water District, Orangevale Water Company, Fair Oaks Water District and Citrus Heights Water District, challenged students to illustrate the theme “The Traveling Water Droplet.”

Pershing art teacher Maureen Keene encouraged her students to explore their own interpretations of the theme, leading to a variety of unique designs.

“I was thinking of the water cycle, but I wanted to open it to their thoughts because they had some ideas I would have never thought of,” she said. “One of my students, for example, thought about how someone from California may be drinking the same water that someone from Asia did.”

Keene was especially thrilled to see the three winners receive recognition, noting that they are typically on the quieter side.

“The winners are kind of quiet girls, so it’s just great that they are being recognized for their artistic ability,” Keene said. 

Fifth-grader Leila, who placed third, immediately thought of the water cycle and said she focused on illustrating its scientific process.

Shreya, also a fifth-grader and the second-place winner, wanted to take a different approach.

“I felt like everybody would be doing the water cycle, so I just thought of doing like different ways of how the water travels, and I did like a small potion portion of it of the water cycle, but mainly it was how the mountains, the snow all travel to the rivers and all of that,” Shreya said. 

Sixth-grader Anna, who won first place, had a similar idea but emphasized how snow transforms into flowing water.

“I really wanted to incorporate how snow melts and goes down into the rivers, and then the rivers go down into the oceans,” she said. 

Anna’s winning artwork was selected by all participating water agencies as the overall top design. As a result, her illustration will be featured on the cover of the water districts’ annual calendar and printed on the back of t-shirts distributed to all contest participants.