In February 2025, counties in southern West Virginia faced destructive flooding – uprooting communities, infrastructure, and residents alike.

Chambers alumna and Nicholas County native Sydney Cowell knows from firsthand experience how devastating a flood can be.

“In 2016 there was a big flood that affected the whole state of West Virginia,” Cowell said. “Especially where I'm from, in Nicholas County, it flooded several schools there, including my own. They had nowhere to place us, and we had to scramble to find a solution.”

Though the community eventually recovered, the effects of the flood were long-lasting. For Cowell, it was a formative experience that shaped not only her education but also her perspective – a perspective that made her an essential asset in the fellowship project she completed during her senior year as a Management Information Systems major in the Chambers College.

“My involvement in the project started in Joshua Meadows’ class,” Cowell said. “A speaker from the High Technology Foundation came to speak to our class about making an application to be used by K-12 students both in West Virginia and beyond.

“What immediately grabbed my attention, though, was that the application would be partnering with NOAA.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration works to provide forecasts and monitors the climate using data from a variety of sources – data which Cowell was eager to have access to through the WVU Cloud Analytics Faculty Fellowship.

“One of the major things I wanted to be able to do was to give back to my home state in some way, so having the opportunity to work on a project specifically for West Virginia students felt really meaningful,” Cowell said.

Using her past to propel the future, Cowell and her team, composed of students from the Chambers College and Statler College, got to work.

“There were definitely some challenges,” Cowell said. “It was my first time actually working with a client, and in tech sometimes you don't know what you're asking for or trying to create until you do it.”

Cowell has never run from a challenge, though, and especially not one so important to her.

“It was a very big project, and it was a lot of work, but my personal investment definitely motivated me to not give up and push through,” Cowell said.

Cowell also credits her education from the Chambers College and the support she received from the High Technology Foundation, Data Driven WV, the NOAA, and professors like Meadows for helping her team overcome challenges and persevere.

“I would not have been able to do that project if it wasn't for the education and support that I got from Chambers,” Cowell said.

In the end, Cowell and her team were able to create a free platform that gave students and educators alike a tool to understand and predict trends in the weather. Using her education, her support system, her team, and most importantly her motivation, Cowell was able to create something that her younger self would have immensely valued.

"My town has rebuilt, and I've grown along with it,” Cowell said. "If I could look back at my 7th-grade self seeing my hometown face such hardship, I'd be proud to know that I used that experience to create something that helps others.

“The lessons I learned from my community-resilience, action, and the power of community – have shaped the platform I helped to build, and I hope this work inspires others to know that rebuilding is possible, that growth follows hardship, and that with the right resources, we can overcome anything."

-WVU-

Emma Higgins 3/14/25 

MEDIA CONTACT: 

Andrew Marvin 
Senior Communications Specialist
John Chambers College of Business and Economics
andrew.marvin@mail.wvu.edu