Cherokee County Middle Schoolers Earn Top Honors in State Water Tower Competition, Two Teams Advance

Students from Dean Rusk and Woodstock middle schools earned top district honors in the annual Georgia Association of Water Professionals contest, sponsored locally by CCWSA

Two Cherokee County School District teams are headed to a statewide STEM competition next month after earning top honors in the Georgia Association of Water Professionals' annual Model Water Tower Competition. Sponsored locally by the Cherokee County Water and Sewerage Authority, the district-level contest challenges seventh-graders to plan, design, and build a working model water tower — an exercise that blends structural engineering, creative problem-solving, and the kind of practical thinking that underlies real public infrastructure.

Taking first place in the district was the Dean Rusk Middle School team of Kendyl Kell, Aubrey Quinn, and Lynlee Wells, whose entry — named "Starry Night" — earned the team a $300 prize. Their STEM teacher, Teresa Hutto, coached the group. Second place and a $200 prize went to Elizabeth Stringer of Woodstock Middle School for her tower "Team Snoopy," coached by STEM teacher Joi Marques. Both entries will represent CCSD at the state competition.

Third-place honors, along with a $100 prize, went to Lorelai Clark and Emily Kalata of Freedom Middle School for their entry "Otterly Awesome Tower," coached by STEM teacher Edwin Rodriguez.

Several additional teams earned $25 prizes recognizing specific areas of excellence. Foster Southern, Gabrielle Williams, and Logan Woods of Woodstock Middle School won Best Engineering Design for their "Rapunzel Tower." Baylor Loe of Creekland Middle School earned Excellence in Structural Efficiency for an entry called "Dum Dum." Tony Leo, Aidan Reid, and Ezequiel Vidales of Teasley Middle School won Best Artistic Design for their "Statue of Liberty" tower, while Sadie Kunzman and Austen Lowman of E.T. Booth Middle School took Excellence in Presentation for "Cotton Candy." Melanie Ku and Cora Maselli of Mill Creek Middle School earned the Cost Effectiveness award for their entry "Up," and Fiona Callanan, Ryleigh Cummings, and Allison Guerra — also of Teasley Middle School — won Thinking Outside the Box for "Big Ben."

The breadth of participation tells its own story. Entries came from seven of the district's middle schools — Dean Rusk, Woodstock, Freedom, Creekland, Teasley, E.T. Booth, and Mill Creek — spanning communities across Cherokee County. That reach is no accident. The Cherokee County Water and Sewerage Authority, which manages water and sewer services for much of the county, has made sponsoring this competition part of its investment in local education, giving students direct exposure to the engineering challenges that keep a growing community like Cherokee County functioning day to day.

The Georgia Association of Water Professionals, a statewide organization supporting the water and wastewater industry, created the Model Water Tower Competition specifically to bridge the gap between classroom STEM concepts and real-world infrastructure. For students in a county that has seen some of the fastest growth in Georgia over the past two decades — growth that puts constant pressure on water systems and the engineers who design them — that connection is more than academic.

For the two teams advancing to the state stage next month, the competition is a chance to show what Cherokee County students can do on a broader platform. For the rest, the experience of designing, building, and defending a working model tower is the kind of hands-on learning that tends to stick.