GOLD AWARD WINNER: Hopewell Valley Central High School senior Sophia Noto’s 18-page comic book, which she created to teach young naturalists at The Watershed Institute about invasive species, won her the top honor from the Girl Scouts.

By Anne Levin

Growing up in Hopewell, Sophia Noto was lucky enough to have a patch of woods just off her family’s backyard. It was there that she and her sister spent time exploring, beginning a lifelong enthusiasm for the natural world.

This interest led Sophia, a senior at Hopewell Valley Central High School and a Girl Scout, to create an 18-page comic book that is currently on The Watershed Institute’s website and will be printed into a hard-copy book. The effort won her the Girl Scout’s Gold Award, the highest honor for completing a project that offers lasting solutions for the community.

Since elementary school, Sophia has visited The Watershed on school field trips and with her family. “It has always been at the forefront of my mind when I think of the environment,” she said. “My intention is that the comic book is an asset owned by The Watershed and, if allowed, can be shared with other environmental groups.”

Focusing in on the spotted lanternfly and four other invasive species — hydrilla, multiflora rose, garlic mustard, and Japanese honeysuckle – Sophia’s project was designed to teach young people how to identify these species, and do their part to control them.

“Whenever we would do a project in school involving the environment, I was always concerned about the direction we were going in our planet’s health,” she said. “Certain things stand out to me — I remember learning about landfills in the middle of the ocean, thinking that’s crazy how we, as a society, have allowed this to happen.”

The problem of invasive species also made an impression. An invasive species can be any kind of living organism that is not native to an ecosystem, and can therefore harm the new habitat. Plants, insects, fish, fungi, or bacteria can be classified as invasive.

When the spotted lanternfly population exploded last year, especially across the local region, Sophia got to work. Using her considerable artistic talents, she decided to embark on the comic book project. The book follows three children in their adventures through the woods, on a lake, and in their backyards. While the tone is educational, it is occasionally funny. “I wanted to make it light and humorous,” she said. “They were a little bit like me when I was a kid.”

Sophia chose a comic book format for her project because she wanted it to be engaging. “The standard textbook style can be hard to learn from,” she said “They are dense and are not really as inviting. Comic books are popular with kids, and I thought they would be a good medium for conveying the information.”

She had help with the project. As part of its leadership criteria, she managed a team of seven, some of whom were friends; others acquaintances or new connections.

“I had a lot of different people working with me,” she said. “From The Watershed, my school STEM coordinator, classmates, and my younger sister. The minimum for the gold award is 80 hours, and it took over 100 hours. It took longer because of the pandemic.”

This is not Sophia’s first Girl Scouts honor. As an eighth grader, she created a butterfly coloring book as part of her Girl Scouts Silver Award project, and shared it with visitors to The Watershed’s 2018 Butterfly Festival. The coloring book is still used by The Watershed’s education team and was adopted for last year’s festival T-shirt.

Sophia is currently awaiting news about college acceptances, and plans to major in graphic design. In the meantime, visitors to The Watershed Institute’s website can access her work.

With the comic book, Sophia “took the global problem of invasive species and loss of biodiversity and brought it to a local level where people can do something about it,” said Pat Heaney, The Watershed’s assistant director of education.