After months of brainstorming, Rebecca found her project when Merit’s College Advisor informed her that the bottled water she was drinking contained pharmaceutical drugs. In disbelief, Rebecca checked with local water treatment plants and pharmacists to find that the water treatment plants neither test for nor remove drugs from the public water. Merit College Advisors helped Rebecca set up an outreach program to teach consumers not to flush down the toilet or toss in the trash their expired or unused medications. They worked with her to find ways to divert the drugs from our water systems and into safe containers that she designed. Realizing the economic and political resistance from pharmacies and drug companies, Rebecca approached Senator Simitian via his Ought to Be a Law contest, and joined Simitian in Palo Alto, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, and Sacramento to turn her idea into a California law. In July 2008, Rebecca’s idea officially became a law (SB966). When several colleges that had initially denied Rebecca admission heard about her project’s success, they immediately reversed their decisions and offered her a place in the upcoming freshman class.
top
