SAA Canstruction Team Wins Top Award

The SAA Canstruction Team won the top award, Juror’s Favorite, at the Canstruction Jr. competition held recently at the University of Memphis. The St. Agnes team received top marks in all categories, including structural integrity of the design and best use of labels.

Canstruction, which is sponsored by the West Tennessee Branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers, is unique in that it incorporates fundamental STEAM principles-Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics-while teaching the concepts of teamwork, brainstorming and community service.

In the competition teams are charged with building creative theme designs with non-perishable cans of food, benefiting the Mid-South Food Bank. The theme for this year’s competition was Memphis Moves!

The St. Agnes team competed against students from 15 area high schools. Their winning structure, entitled Stemming Towards the Future, was a representation of our iconic Memphis riverboats. The structure reflected Memphis’ commitment to innovation and constant change while respecting our past, present, and stemming towards our future.

When asked about the design process and the experience of the actual build event, SAA Team Captain Claire Berkenstock explained, “The design process required a lot of creativity and trial and error because our ideas went through paper, to the design program, and to the actual cans. So, it was expected of us to adapt and be able to create new ideas of how we would construct our structure. During the actual competition, we realized we had a time crunch, so we had to cut parts of our design out and quickly come up with new ideas. Teamwork was crucial because of the time constraints, and I am so proud of our team to be able to overcome those obstacles.”

One of the lead designers, Addie Brady agreed saying, “I learned that teamwork is no joke! There is no way we could have overcome the obstacles we faced without working as a team.”

The SAA team also received recognition as the “Food Bank Hero” for the event. In total, the Memphis Canstruction Jr. event collected over 13,000 pounds of food, with SAA contributing 4564 pounds of food-35% of the total amount. Claire shared, “Canstruction is a great opportunity to work with different people and involve the entire school in a creative project that also donates food to the Midsouth Food Bank.” 

Members of the St. Agnes 2022 Canstruction Team are:

Captain-Claire Berkenstock (12)

Lead Designers-Liza Russ (9th) and Addie Brady (11)

Team Members-Emma Coady (12), Addison Hardwick (12), Oliva Page (12), Haley Howard (11) Anna Osias (10) Abigail Henninger (9), Maria Paz Angeles-Alejandro (8)