New England Outdoor Writers Association, Inc.

Each year the New England Outdoor Writers Association awards six scholarships to one natural resources major from each of the region's six land grant colleges. Under this program, in place since 1972, a scholarship is awarded to the student who best demonstrates creativity, committment and an ability to communicate his or her enthusiasm and knowledge about the outdoors. NEOWA works with the faculty of each University to identify and interview suitable candidates who receive their awards at NEOWA's annual meeting in February of each year.

Scholarship winners at NEOWA's annual meeting in February, 2008

Scholarships have been raised from a $1,000 stipend to $2,500 for a total of $15,000 annually as a result of a major gift to the program. The Scholarship Program is the major beneficiary of NEOWA's fundraising activities. It is supported by gifts from members and Supporting Members, through raffles and through gifts.

Scholarship Committee Members

Connecticut

Bob Sampson
Bill Brown
Bob Gregorski

New Hampshire

Pat Fleurie, Chair
Judy Silverberg
Tom Pantages
Richard Pinney

Maine

V. Paul Reynolds
Diane Reynolds

Rhode Island

Sam Carr
Bob Sampson
Bill Brown

Massachusetts

Mike Roche
Tom Fuller
Spence Conley

Vermont

Mark Scott
Matt Crawford

2008 Scholarship Winners

Mary Regan Jamieson
University of Rhode Island

Mary is a conservation/biology graduate student at the University of Rhode Island. She is a Fulbright Scholar and belongs to the National Honor Society. She volunteers to organize various ecological projects, such as Earthwatch’s Watershed Association’s clean-up project on Massachusetts’ Charles River. This effort proved to be successful in improving the water quality as well as developing a science-based understanding of river ecology for the participants. Mary has a passion for working with wildlife-human relationships. Recently, she radio-collared nuisance elephants in India and presently is in the process of setting up a program to study coyotes in Connecticut. Mary hopes to combine her wildlife-people experiences to land a job in New England working for a state or federal agency. Mary enjoys fishing, camping, hiking and being in the outdoors.

Christopher Hawkins
University of Massachusetts

Christopher Hawkins received his undergraduate degree from Massachusetts Maritime Academy in 1998 and his Master’s degree in Tropical Coastal Management from the University of Newcastle in 2001. He is a doctoral student in the Human Dimensions of Marine and Coastal Ecosystems Program in the Department of Natural Resources Conservation. He has studied the “Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Management Plan,” conducted an integrated assessment of the Tortugas Ecological Reserve, and researched data collected on users in the Florida Keys for the Florida Reef Resilience Program. Chris hopes to use his human dimensions research skills to obtain a position related to coastal marine issues. Work experiences range from the Keys to Samoa where he was employed as the South Pacific U.S. Territory of America Samoa as the coordinator of the territorial government’s Coral Reef Initiative. Chris enjoys fishing, boating, tennis, and travel.

Emily Bastian
University of New Hampshire

Emily will graduate from the University of New Hampshire in May 2008 with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Wildlife Management. A highlight of her education has been the opportunity to study in New Zealand for four months through the EcoQuest Program. Her immediate goal is to work as a fisheries or wildlife biologist. She already has gained field experience working with Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife biologists from September 2003 through March 2004. Emily is a resident of New Gloucester, Maine. An avid hunter and angler, she also enjoys backpacking, hiking, cooking and gardening. Her love of the outdoors is the driving force behind her future goal of expanding her education and one day working with a nonprofit organization with outreach programs designed to excite people about wildlife and the outdoors.

Katie Andrle
University of Maine

Katie Andrle is a junior at the University of Maine majoring in wildlife ecology. A native Mainer, she plans to attend graduate school somewhere in the West. Her aspiration is to eventually work as a state or federal research wildlife biologist somewhere in New England. She is particularly interested in working with birds of prey, and hopes to have the opportunity to work in Alaska or the Arctic before returning to New England. For the past two summers, Katie worked for the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge conserving threatened and endangered seabird species such as arctic and roseate terns and Atlantic puffins. She has also worked as a barge operator for a marine services company in Boothbay, and had volunteer experience with wood ducks, owls and white-tailed deer. Katie is an avid Maine outdoorswoman who enjoys hunting, fishing, boating, hiking, skiing, backpacking, and camping.

Paul W. Simonin
University of Vermont

Paul Simonin is pursuing his master’s degree in natural resources at the University of Vermont. He is currently studying the ecology of native and exotic fish in Lake Champlain. He joined UVM just a few weeks after completing a distinguished undergraduate career at SUNY-Syracuse College of Environmental Science and Forestry. There, he was named Class of 2007 valedictorian and volunteered on American eel research in the Hudson River. He also spent two summers working as a fish and wildlife field technician with New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation. In Vermont, he has taken a paid internship with the Lake Champlain Sea Grant program conducting an experimental sea lamprey control study, hoping to alter migration patterns of lamprey with the use of pheromones. This could have implications in lamprey control efforts in future years. An Eagle Scout, Paul enjoys fishing and is a former Nordic ski racer and an accomplished jazz trombone player.

Kirstin “Kersey” Lawrence-Apfel
University of Connecticut

Kersey is a graduate student working on her Master’s of Science degree at the University of Connecticut’s Department of Natural Resources Management and Engineering. Her thesis work is titled “Accuracy Assessment of Global Positioning System Collars for Wildlife Movement in two Hemispheres.” In Chilean Patagonia, she tracked pumas, and in Connecticut, she mapped forested habitats. Kersey has maintained a 3.876 GPA and won numerous scholarships and prestigious awards. She has attended numerous tracking and wilderness survival schools and hopes some day to do research on leopards in Africa. Kersey is an accomplished tracker and wildlife educator, a wildlife rehabilitator and pursues the outdoor life style as an active hunter and angler. Kersey plans to work in the wildlife ecology field after attaining her doctorate degree.

This year the competition was for Graduate and Undergraduate students. Next year’s competition will be for undergraduates only.

A list of prior scholarship winners is available in the Members' area.

NEOWA: Communicating Our Outdoor Heritage