Women of Water Scholarship Foundation
SARASOTA, Fla., Oct. 03, 2024 – USST Holdings has officially announced the launch of the Women of Water Scholarship Foundation (wowscholarship.com), a nonprofit entity. The foundation’s purpose is to promote opportunities, fundraising, networking, education and public awareness of women in water, wastewater or sanitation or women interested in pursuing careers in these professions.
SediVision LLC, a USST Holdings company, is an engineering firm that delivers innovative wet infrastructure diagnostics to wastewater utilities. More than a year ago, the team at SediVision, which includes 50 percent female employees, began discussing their desire to establish a foundation for supporting and advancing opportunities for women in water and wastewater.
“By March 4, 2024, we had adopted our logo for the Women of Water Scholarship Foundation, and we gave away our first pink hard hats with the WOW Scholarship logo April 2-4 at the Florida Water Resources Conference,” said Caroline Dunkel, Sr. Data Analyst at SediVision. “Everything about the concept of the foundation was embraced enthusiastically by our peers and other water and wastewater industry professionals.”
The SediVision team distributed the highly popular logoed hot pink hard hats on SediVision job sites and at industry events in Florida, Texas, and Alabama throughout the spring and summer of 2024. July 11, 2024, the SediVision team, supporting Women of Water, was part of the Tampa Bay Women of Water Panel and Networking Event.
Denver J. Stutler, PE, President and Founder of SediVision, said, “I’ve been inspired by amazing women, from my mother to my wife to countless other strong, intelligent women with whom I’ve worked. Their impact on my life made establishing this foundation extremely important to help pay it forward and elevate women pursuing water and wastewater-related careers.”
Although the SediVision team, as part of USST Holdings, conceived the idea of the Women of Water Scholarship Foundation, the goal is to engage participation and support from many other industry leaders.
“After soft launching our idea last spring,” said Stutler, “we’ve seen tremendous support and receptivity by the wastewater industry for the Women of Water Scholarship Foundation. Our objective now is to ramp up awareness so we can provide meaningful assistance to the many incredibly talented women who are part of water and wastewater today and in future years ahead.”
