2004 GCA Awards
For
Summer Environmental Studies Funded by Zone III Clubs
Jennifer Sander, Evansville, IN, Lee University,
Cleveland, TN, Junior,
Biology/Environmental Science and
Biodiversity.
Study: Geographic pattern
analysis of pesticide exposure in salamander populations in Great Smoky
Mountain National Park.
Nathaniel O’Meara, Tucson, AZ,
University of Arizona, Tucson. He joined American Museum of Natural
History’s Center For Biodiversity and Conservation in the Bahamas this
summer, interviewing Bahamian
people on ethnobotanical data to
gain understanding of their attachment to the sea.
Shanna Huckins, Broadus, MT,
Montana State University,
Bozeman, MT. Sophomore, “Agr.” Education.
Study: Internship
with Natural Resources Conservation Service, Student
Career
Experience Program under auspices
of U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.
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Scholarship
Committee Report
The purpose of the
Garden Club of America is to stimulate the knowledge and love of
gardening. We are all familiar with this mission, but we are not always
aware of how far-reaching and how broad is the scope. The GCA
Scholarship Program, designed to carry out GCA's mission, is dynamic,
prestigious, and highly recognized throughout the United States - and
abroad!
After attending the GCA
Scholarship Committee meeting at Headquarters in New York as the Zone
III Scholarship Representative, I was filled with a feeling of great
pride in this organization that contributes so much to the betterment of
the world in which we live - in many different areas of interest and
concern. The sixteen scholarship offerings are truly extensive - Botany,
Ecology, Landscape Architecture, Birds, Environmental Studies, Garden
History and Design. More opportunities are being researched.
None of this would be
possible without the interest, generosity and support of the clubs in
the Garden Club of America including the Fort Orange Garden Club. This
year, scholarships were awarded to 53 students, totaling $162,500. For
Environmental Studies, with just three endowed scholarships, there were
45 - 65 applicants. A record number of 18 were awarded - six times the
number allowed by endowments - thanks to additional contributions made
by individual clubs, thus allowing the number of recipients to be
increased.
The Douglas Dockery
Thomas Fellowship in Garden History and Design, among other things, is
intended to look to the future of gardens and their unique place in the
environment. Megan Fairleigh was the 2004-2005 recipient of this
scholarship and wrote her thesis on "Investigating the Use of Community
Gardening for Stress Treatment in Marine Corps Families." A community
garden was established at a military base, and a soldier stationed in
Iraq and living in a big sand box, asked his wife to send him dirt,
fertilizer and some grass seeds so he could have the sweet aroma and
feel the grass beneath his feet. He cut the grass with a pair of
scissors! Little things sometimes are not so little and mean so much.
How far-reaching was this scholarship!
You will be hearing
more about the different scholarships and what they offer in future
issues.
Ginny Kopp, Zone III
Scholarship Representative
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