Congratulations to Monica Craig, the St. Petersburg, Florida student who is the recipient of RMOWP’s 2012 scholarship of $2,000. Scholarship chairman Mike Hammond said that Ms. Craig is receiving the award because of her love and devotion to the great outdoors as well as her writing and photography skills.
Hammond said that although the number of scholarship applicants was down somewhat this year the quality of applicants was at the highest level ever, with the top applicants all expressing their unselfish desire to communicate to others the need to keep the outdoor world front and center, not removed from our everyday way of life.
Ms. Craig had been selected for the scholarship last year but was disqualified on the grounds she would not be a full time college student at that time, according to Hammond, and applied again for the 2012 award, which he said was a statement to her character and drive.
She will be attending Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, and told us, “I plan to major in Environmental Science and minor in Coastal Management, which will allow me to pursue a career in conservation ecology. I plan to work in a field that will allow me to teach the public about the importance of preserving natural places, such as parks and preserves, in an effort to save the wildlife that call these places home while simultaneously working to save the wildlife from harmful human interaction.”
Ms. Craig said that while attending Eckerd she plans to continue volunteering at Fort De Soto Park, where she works alongside an incredible team of park rangers to protect wildlife such as shorebirds, sea turtles, and marine mammals from harmful human interaction. She was recently recognized for her outstanding work at Fort De Soto Park by Park Ranger James Wilson, according to Hammond, who said that Mr. Wilson stated that someday Ms. Craig might very well hold the title of Park Ranger at Fort De Soto.