{"id":3574,"date":"2019-05-07T21:04:18","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T21:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.auburn.edu\/aww\/?p=3574"},"modified":"2023-05-10T14:39:43","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T14:39:43","slug":"2019spiritofsustainabilityaward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/2019spiritofsustainabilityaward\/","title":{"rendered":"AWW’s Sergio Ruiz-Cordova Receives Spirit of Sustainability Award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sergio Ruiz-Cordova is the Data Coordinator of Alabama Water Watch and a 2019 recipient of the Spirit of Sustainability Award. This award was created to honor Auburn University students, faculty, staff, and alumni who are making significant contributions toward sustainability on campus or in the community. Having dedicated his entire career to researching sustainable solutions in water quality and quantity, Sergio meets and exceeds these qualifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sergio Ruiz-Cordova (center) with AU Water Resources Center Director, Dr. Puneet Srivastava (left) and AWW Program founder, Dr. Bill Deutsch (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Growing up in Guatemala, Sergio realized the importance of\nliving sustainably from a young age. In a home without electricity or running\nwater, Sergio and his family relied on the local river for basic needs like washing\nand cooking. Because of the country\u2019s seasonal droughts, rain was not always a reliable\nwater source. \u201cMy mother loved her plants,\u201d Sergio says, \u201cSo during the dry\nseason we would have to use the river to water them.\u201d The lessons he learned\nfrom living with what he had have stuck with Sergio to this day and are a source\nof the inspiration that led him to pursue a career in sustainability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was while Sergio was living in Georgia in 1993 that he\nfirst heard of Dr. Bill Deutsch, the founder of Alabama Water Watch (AWW).\nSeveral friends of Sergio\u2019s studying aquaculture in Guatemala had come to\nAuburn to participate in one of Deutsch\u2019s Aquaculture Training Programs. It was\none of these friends who later encouraged Sergio to reach out to Deutsch, which\nhe did just months after he was funded to start the AWW Program. The two hit it\noff immediately, and Sergio has been dedicated to the Program ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n\nSergio\u2019s belief that we can empower citizens by providing them with access to knowledge, awareness, and skills that can bring about positive change in local and global water systems and communities, has driven him to support these programs for over 25 years. He is known for his technical prowess and was an integral part in the creation of AWW\u2019s online database. This database grants public access to 93,000 data records that have worked toward securing protections for Alabama\u2019s waterbodies as well as providing a source for information for Alabama\u2019s citizens. \n\n<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sergio has also been instrumental in establishing several\nother Water Watch Programs throughout the U.S. as well as in other countries\nwith Global Water Watch (GWW). Because of his background in Spanish, his work\nwith GWW began in Ecuador in 1994, where he taught and worked alongside the\nQuechuan people to further their water health education. Since then, Sergio has\nhelped implement GWW Programs in the states of Washington and Mississippi as\nwell as a program in Mexico, which now has water monitors in half of its\nstates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2019 Spirit of Sustainability Award recipients. AU faculty, staff, and students were represented.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In his down-time, Sergio enjoys engaging in volunteer\nmonitoring throughout the Auburn area. Over the years, he has personally\nsubmitted over 2,400 water quality data records for the AWW Program! He also\npractices sustainability on a more personal level in which he maintains an\norganic garden, keeps chickens, and aims to run a marathon in all 50 states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sergio\u2019s impacts on sustainability are obvious. His lifelong\ncommitment to the health and security of waterbodies has been an inspiration to\nthose around him as well as to other volunteer water monitoring programs around\nthe world. His tireless efforts will continue to impact the Water Watch community\nfor generations, which only furthers his relationship with sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sergio with his wife, Edith, and daughter, AWW’s very own Carolina!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sergio Ruiz-Cordova is the Data Coordinator of Alabama Water Watch and a 2019 recipient of the Spirit of Sustainability Award. This award was created to honor Auburn University students, faculty, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","hentry","category-alabama-water-watch","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3574"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10139,"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3574\/revisions\/10139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaes.auburn.edu\/wrc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}