Aquavation meets Allendale Columbia Summer LEAP

Several years ago, a Rochester start-up caught my eye: Aquavation. The local company made customizable BPA- and dye-free water bottles. I ordered one with four photos of our dog, as a gift for Charlie. Recently, when I went to purchase more (for my chorus, Concentus), I noticed a change in their website – the customization option seemed to have disappeared. Disappointed, I contacted the company, and was delighted by an immediate response, explaining that their process was being redesigned, since the customization had been difficult for some customers to use. In the meantime, Sarah Plasky, the founder, and Entrepreneur in Residence at the Simon Business School, offered to meet with me to discuss my project.

Lindsey Brown, left and
Sarah Plasky, right

Fast forward: our conversation sparked other project ideas, and I was pleased to be able to facilitate one in particular for speedy implementation (Concentus would have to wait…). My idea was to provide bottles for the Summer Leap students at Allendale Columbia (a summer program to stem summer learning loss for city kids, that currently has grades 1-4). Sarah’s improvement of the idea was to have the kids actually design their own. So on the second day of the program, Sarah and a team of mentors, mostly Simon students and grads, spent a couple of hours with the kids. After introducing Sarah to the students, in the auditorium (fun fact – Sarah’s first job was lifeguarding with Michael Jordan!), Lindsey Brown, Co-Director for Summer LEAP at AC, interviewed Sarah about the engineering design process, so the students could understand the problem Sarah had hoped to solve (her initial bottle was personalized for a friend biking 100+ miles, to motivate him; she also wanted to make a dent in the use of single-use plastic bottles), how she imagined a solution (Sarah not only wanted to design personalized bottles, but to be a “social entrepreneur” – to give back to the community), how she developed a plan, how she created her first product, and what improvements were needed (not only has the quality improved drastically, so has the delivery – the first bottles melted into bananas because of poor packaging).

Sarah's table

Finally, we all moved into the cafeteria, in groups of 5 students and 2 mentors (including the instructors, and Charlie and me). Sarah and her team had designed a template, with a large (and to me, intimidating) blank space for the kids to draw on, or paste cut-out paper to – whatever they desired. It was great to watch each child dive right in, and to witness their enthusiasm and imagination. The project was tied to a lesson about the Harlem Renaissance, and the students were asked to choose a title that they identified with – poet, singer, chef, writer, musician, artist, healer – and they used this identity to inspire their art. 

The results were colorful and creative, and each one was uniquely beautiful. Sarah delivered the completed bottles at the end of term, so each student not only has a personalized, reusable bottle, but something to remember a fun and productive summer learning experience by. And with luck, they’ll all be back next summer.

For some video of Sarah chatting with the kids about their bottles: 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA76RRMVcmw3F1XksmssuYyCwQ59N591J

For more information about Aquavation, go to their website: aquavation.org

For more information on Allendale Columbia’s Summer LEAP program:

http://www.summerleap.net/summerleap-at-allendale-columbia