STEP scholar presents at Genius Olympiad

Alexia Savage has an academic resume that trumps many adults’. Just from this year’s Terra Fair, the high school junior from Rush-Henrietta walked away with seven awards, honors and other recognitions that also helped punch her ticket to present at Genius Olympiad.

During the event June 12-17 at Rochester Institute of Technology, Savage, 16, will be presenting her individual project on a desalination and electrolysis system – an idea that started with the desalination process, inspired to provide fresh water to coastal areas in developing countries. Through a series of trial and errors, she worked to create a way to then incorporate electrolysis to get hydrogen out of water and store it to be used into a renewable energy source.

“It started last year, and I kept adding variables to get to where it is now,” Savage said. “It’s really important that you go through these failures to see when adjustments need to be made, so it can be successful in the long run.”

She competed in Genius Olympiad virtually as a freshman by showcasing an early warning fire system.

According to the event website, Genius Olympiad is an international high school project competition regarding environmental issues, and founded and organized by Terra Science and Education. This year’s event will highlight projects in five general disciplines with an environmental focus.

“I’m always in a problem-solving mode, and have been really interested in renewable energy and systems with clean energy, so all my projects follow that theme,” Savage said. “I think growing up in this generation makes you more aware of things like that and exposed to a lot of resources to learn from.”

In fourth grade, she learned about climate change and became passionate about it. By fifth-grade she held a presentation on the topic, and has continued with various projects ever since.

“If I’m going to be designing things, I want to make sure it solves one problem, but doesn’t create another, so I try to be really cognizant about that,” Savage said.

Since being involved in the Science and Technology Entry Program, also known as STEP, she has regularly attended STEM-based conferences to feature her work that puts her on a platform to advocate for what she is passionate about.

STEP is a state-funded precollegiate initiative that provides outreach to eligible seventh- through 12th-grade students to support pursuing college and careers in STEM fields, as well as New York State licensed professions. Administered by RIT’s K-12 University Center, the goal is to provide afterschool and weekend enrichment activities to help foster academic growth, the development of a STEM identity and more, so students can successfully transition from middle school to high school and high school to college or the workforce.

“It’s one of the reasons I started with science fairs,” Savage said. “You can show off your work, meet new kids and learn from others. There are a lot of great mentors in the program, which allowed me to make great connections, and I think STEP is one of the prime reasons I know what I want to do in my future. It’s helped me to connect with others, have great opportunities and network.”

She aspires to someday study aerospace engineering. Currently, Savage is also taking college-level classes in physics and pre-calculus at RIT.