BHAS Partnership with TESC in Sponsoring a Scholarship
By Nancy Hubly, BHAS Treasurer
The Black Hills Audubon Board recently had the opportunity to work with The Evergreen State College Foundation to fund a one-time scholarship for $5,000. This scholarship will be awarded to a student who is a full-time undergraduate with a financial need, pursuing a course of study in Environmental Studies, Climate and Environmental Justice, or related fields in the sciences. Preference will be given to students with a passion for Ornithology, or the world of birds, and those who identify as a person of color. TESC Foundation will vet candidates and choose the recipient. We will have the opportunity to continue funding this scholarship annually if we choose.
Board member Charlotte Persons attended TESC previously and worked in the scholarship office. She made an initial presentation for our involvement in the Board’s 2024 planning session and I worked with TESC Foundation to communicate our desires for the award and make financial arrangements. It is gratifying to know that our scholarship will help one local student ease the financial burden of college, and exciting to think that it could also be a catalyst for local environmental changes that could have a much larger impact. We expect our first scholarship recipient will be announced in fall 2025. Charlotte will help that student connect with our organization.
We consider this program to be an investment in our community. We are grateful that the generosity of our membership enables us to fund this and other larger-scale programs that recently included the publication of an illustrated bird book in Spanish for children, and the purchase and installation of a Motus tracking tower along Hood Canal.
The Board is interested in ideas from our membership for other community projects we could tackle that are consistent with our organization’s mission. Please see Operating Documents – Black Hills Audubon Society on our website for additional information about major project guidelines and a checklist. Ideal projects are those that involve a limited amount of volunteer time to accomplish. While we are fortunate to have passionate, caring and generous members, we are typically constrained by having enough people to carry out some of the good ideas we generate.
The Board thanks all our members who work tirelessly to make our local environment a better place for the birds and other living things with whom we co-exist.
