Our World-Underwater Scholarship SocietyŽ Announces 2003 Scholars
Posted By Branon Edwards on 16 April 2003
Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society® (OW-USS) Announces 2003 Scholars
From the 1969 mid-coast dive show and film festival called Our World Underwater (OWU), the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society® has continued to evolve. In 1972, founders brainstormed as to how revenue money from OWU should be spent. Following a proposal from Dr. Joe MacInnis that the money be used to invest in an individual with an experience-based scholarship, the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society (OW-USS) was born. In 1974, the Society secured its status as a 501-C-3 non-profit corporation.
Each year, the Society awards funds to deserving scholars as part of a competitive process. Past recipients include Wesley "Rocky" Strong, Adam Ravetch, Karen Van Hoesen, M.D., and Norbert Wu. Sponsors include Rolex Watch U.S.A., Aqua Cat Cruises, Boston Whaler, Mercury Marine, Dacor/Mares, Divers Alert Network, Helix Camera and Video, E.P.I.C., Nikon, Light & Motion, USIA, Eaton Publications, the Explorers Club, Ford Motor Company Fund, Subsalve USA, and a myriad of generous individuals. OW-USS boasts support of bountiful contributors offering worldwide exposure to numbers of young underwater enthusiasts -- future stewards of the waters of the world. Fifty-four scholars and the addition of internships to the Society's educational outreach have created a significant legacy for the Society. In 2001, the Society created a European Rolex Scholarship and a Ford Fellowship to the National Geographic Society, in addition to the long running North American Rolex Scholarship.
This year's recipients are:
KERRY J. NICKOLS -- North American Rolex Scholar 2003
JADE
BERMANN -- European Rolex Scholar 2003
Kerry Nickols is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, with a B.A. in Integrative Biology (12/02) and a B.A. in Earth & Planetary Science (12/02). Her primary underwater interest is in fish ecology and her objective is to explore the underwater environment.
Her internship was spent at the Caribbean Marine Research Center, Lee Stocking Island, Bahamas where the majority of her warm-water dive experience took place. (She logged 115 dives in just one year!) Kerry has experience ranging from the providing of research support in marine science field studies - two projects which included studies of Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus) which were designed to examine fishing pressures and habitat, to operating Boston Whalers and Seahawks for research purposes, assisting SCUBA projects including artificial reef studies, maintenance of moorings and docks, and maintenance of a NOAA buoy, the RV Christina and collecting and raising lobster larvae in aquaria. She was an environmental toxicology lab assistant at the University of California, Berkeley where she dissected juvenile salmon and analyzed gut contents for toxicity studies and maintained aquaria of midge larvae. In the fall of 2001 Kerry was chosen from a competitive process to conduct a field study at the Richard B. Gump South Pacific Field Station. She completed studies in Cook's Bay, Moorea, French Polynesia.
Enthusiastic and passionate, Kerry uses music and songwriting as a supplemental means of communication to express her abiding love and deep concern for the protection of oceans worldwide. She feels that by sharing her love of the underwater realm with others, educating them about the true beauty and importance of oceans, which cover 70% of our planet, that, "People will take care of the things that they are passionate about". She was greatly influenced by the late University of California, Berkeley, Professor Bernard Neitcschmann who advocated that studying the environment comes hand in hand with studying cultures, and that one can only learn about an ecosystem by learning about its people and understanding how they use that ecosystem.
Kerry sees the scholarship as a great opportunity to continue her underwater explorations and satiate her desire to learn and study ocean ecosystems in an effort to share with the public the vast amount of wonderful life found at depth and why it is so important to protect it.
- Bookmark with :
- what are these?
