July 21, 2026
Making Waves in Mount Vernon’s Water Conservation - Aspen's Take Action Project
This fall, Mount Vernon Local School students will return back and find familiar classrooms, teachers and classmates. The wall tiles, lockers and hallways may look the same, but amidst all of this familiarity the school is making a drastic change in one area, water conservation.
This past school year, Aspen McMahon, a recently graduated student at Mount Vernon High School and Global Scholars alumni, installed low-flow aerators into her high school’s restroom and fieldhouse sinks. By switching out the restroom sink aerators in her school’s restrooms to water-efficient, low-flow variations, Aspen’s project will lower her school district’s estimated $1,500 in annual water bills for her district, with each aerator decreasing sink water flow by 77.27% compared to the older model.
Aspen spent her senior year collaborating with Mount Vernon Local School District’s superintendent, administration and maintenance director to better understand the current water-use system and the best way to improve efficiency and limit excess waste, taking action on a pressing global issue in her own neighborhood.
Water Conservation, U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goal #6, remains a concern in and outside of Aspen’s community and throughout the globe with 2.2 billion people having inconsistent access to safe drinking water services, according to the U.N. In Mount Vernon, it remains a relevant issue as leaders and residents navigate updating outdated water meters and waterline breaks. As Aspen noticed rising water bills for her local community and school, she realized she could implement a quick and sustainable change by installing the low-flow aerators in spaces used by staff and students everyday.
The district’s previously installed aerators, small devices on the end of faucets controlling the waterflow from the sink, operated with a flow rate of 2.2 gallons per minute. After researching ways to limit water waste, Aspen discovered aerators with adequate pressure for washing hands that limited excessive water usage.
Aspen presented her findings to her district administration, pointing out how the affordable update would lead to lower water cost and waste for the district.
After being cleared to move forward with her project, Aspen recruited help from her fellow robotics team and began work installing the new aerators to 14 restroom sinks. After the successful installation and saving her school $63 dollars in water bills that month, her project expanded with an additional 12 low-flow aerators in fieldhouse sinks.
Mount Vernon High School will continue to save on water as Aspen waits to install 50 additional backordered low-flow aerators around the district’s buildings.
“Water conservation isn’t just about ‘using less’; it’s about addressing the systemic complexity of utility billing,” Aspen says. “I discovered how easily highflow fixtures lead to massive, hidden costs that often go unnoticed in large-scale institutional budgets.”
Outside of her long-term impact in Mount Vernon High School’s water usage, the amount saved by the district in water bills will be used to support the high school’s robotics team to develop STEM education.
“The project demonstrates how a small, practical improvement can create measurable environmental and financial benefits for the entire school community,” she says.
Through using skills in critical thinking, data analysis, and professional communication for her project, Aspen merged her own creativity along with pillars of global scholars curriculum to create lasting change.
“The greatest impact Global Scholars has had on me is the realization of my own agency,” she reflects. “I used to believe that significant change could only be made by experts or people in positions of power.
Following graduation, Aspen is studying mechanical engineering and hopes to learn more about the intersection between environmental conservation and economics.
Ways to get involved: