City of Highlands Ranch Senior Project Presentations
The Incorporation of Highlands Ranch 100% Focused on Energy Independence
Five TRHS seniors joined together (Kush Argwal, John Callahan, Phil Clukies, Andy Furze, and myself Ashleigh Warntjes) last fall to research the various issues to incorporate Highlands Ranch under the energy platform. The three major strategic outcomes of incorporation are: 1. secure Highlands Ranch’s energy security for the next generation, 2. reduce and eliminate our dependence on 3 rd party energy sources and 3. take Highlands Ranch “off the grid” by the year 2020.
On Friday, April 27, 2007, all five of us gave our senior board presentations to a panel of reviewers. In addition to the panel judges, Ford Motor Company’s Director of Environmental Policy & Special Projects was in attendance. We had a Ford Flex Fuel Vehicle display outside the school’s entrance and Ford is also conducting “Ford Clean Tech Energy Week” presentations in our high school science classes the week of April 30.
On Tuesday, May 1, 2007, in cooperation with Burt Automotive Network and the South Metro Chamber of Commerce, we presented our “Future City of Highlands Ranch Energy Efficiency” senior project to a diverse group of about 60 individuals/businesses. In attendance was Xcel Energy, Merrill Lynch, Saunders Construction, GMAC, Bank of the West and a few clean tech businesses. Audience feedback was extremely positive and enthusiastic.
On behalf of my senior project team, we would like to thank the South Metro Chamber of Commerce and Burt Automotive Network for exploring summer internship opportunities for us with companies that are in the energy-related field.
The “Future City of Highlands Ranch senior research project was educational and it raised my interest in wanting to pursue environmental engineering studies at the Colorado School of Mines this coming fall.
Contributed by: Ashleigh Warntjes
