The Hudson High School Envirothon team finished in 3rd place out of 35 teams at the 2022 New York State Envirothon, an environmental science competition that tests students’ knowledge and understanding in five areas: aquatic ecology, forestry, soils and land use, wildlife, and current environmental issues.
It is the fifth consecutive year HHS has participated in the state event and the team’s highest finish ever. Although they did not win the overall competition, HHS had the top score in the state for the Soils & Land Use category and tied for the highest score in the Forestry category.
The Envirothon team consisting of seniors Arianna Camacho, Reagan Schlimgen, Bishwokrit Rayamajhi, Kyle Farley and Fahim Ahmed finished in 3rd place out of 35 teams at the 2022 New York State Envirothon.
“A team from Hudson has represented Columbia County at the state Envirothon nine times in the past 13 years,” said Jim McDarby, a science teacher and the Envirothon advisor at Hudson High School. “The 2022 state competition was the third consecutive ‘Top 5’ finish for this team.”
The team consisted of seniors Fahim Ahmed, Arianna Camacho, Kyle Farley, Bishwokrit Rayamajhi and Reagan Schlimgen.
To prepare for the Envirothon competition, the team met after school several times a week to study and practice for the current issue oral presentation, said Camacho. They were required to come up with a solution to an environmental problem and present their plan to a group of judges.
This year’s current environmental issue tasked teams with developing a comprehensive Local Solid Waste Management Plan and present it to a “County Executive” (the judges). Their plan had to include outreach and education, how they will coordinate with solid waste landfills and hazardous waste collection services, how they will assess existing infrastructure and equipment, and how they will deploy resources to develop new infrastructure. Their presentation had to be 7-10 minutes long and they had to make a PowerPoint to help support their plan.
“This club really helped spark my passion about the environment and there was never a day that I went home without learning something new,” said Rayamajhi. “It was an honor to learn from such a dedicated teacher like Mr. McDarby and amazing peers that are as interested in learning about the environment as much as I am.”
“It is wonderful working with these students,” shared Mr. McDarby. “They are some of the hardest working, most dedicated students I’ve ever had the pleasure of being involved with.”
Although this Envirothon team is about to graduate, the secondary team consisting of Anthony Cozzolino, Amirul Faysal, Autumn Hopkins, Lina Hutchings, Logan Rowe and Marissa Scali (pictured below) holds much promise for the future as they have also been very successful and finished second place in the county at the regional Envirothon competition.
HHS Envirothon Teams Spring 2022