Three Cornell undergraduates are among 80 students nationwide who have been awarded Morris K. Udall Scholarships for the 2001-2002 academic year. The winners of the scholarships are top students with an interest in careers in the field of environmental public policy.
Cornell's Udall scholars, all in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, are junior David Nicola and sophomores Noah Pollock and Benjamin Wolfe. Laura Petes, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, won an honorable mention in the competition. The scholarship will cover up to $5,000 in eligible expenses for each of the winners during the year.
Established by the U.S. Congress in 1992 to honor Congressman Morris K. Udall and his legacy of public service, the Udall Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental Policy Foundation operates an educational scholarship program designed to award excellent students who will be college juniors or seniors during the 2001-2002 academic year.
This year Cornell is one of only two institutions in the country to have three Udall scholars. Since it began participating in the competition four years ago, Cornell has ranked first or second in the nation each year in the number of students earning Udall Scholarships. Some 517 candidates from across the nation competed for the awards this year.
David Nicola, a natural resources major from Chatham, N.J., hopes to pursue a career that acts, he said, "to conserve and rehabilitate natural resources on national and international levels through the use of land acquisition, resource management and public initiatives."
He received an honorable mention for the Udall Scholarship last year, and he enhanced his experiences in environmental public policy and conservation by spending a month this past summer studying community wildlife management in south central Kenya and by interning with the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources during the fall 2000 semester, while he was in the Cornell-in-Washington Program in Washington, D.C.
Nicola's academic focus at Cornell is in the policy and human dimension aspects of natural resources, supplemented by studies in business and economics.
"My philosophy is that the integration of the environment, business and public policy is the most effective method with which I (and others) can accomplish conservation," he said.
His Cornell recommenders for the scholarship were Steven L. Jackson, professor of public policy at the Cornell-in-Washington Program, and Charles R. Smith, senior research associate in natural resources, who, Nicola said, "has had a profound influence in my conservation philosophy and helped me realize the importance of integrating sound science with public policy to accomplish conservation."
Nicola's activities at Cornell have included participation in the Nature Conservancy Landscape Ecology Program, Cornell Mock Trial, Ho-Nun-De-Kah undergraduate honor society and the Golden Key honor society and membership in the Cornell Ski and Snowboard Club. He now spends much of his time working with the Big Brother and Big Sisters of Cornell Club, Ithaca's One-to-One big brothers-big sisters program and participating in intramural sports. And he also has been selected to be part of the Student Assembly Finance Commission for next year.
"Winning the Udall Scholarship has been quite an honor," Nicola said. "The opportunities that abound at Cornell combined with the unique education that the Department of Natural Resources and Cornell-in-Washington Program provided have allowed me to gain a diversity of environmental knowledge and experience."
Noah Pollock is a natural resources major from Delmar, N.Y., who hopes someday to work as an environmental scientist for a watchdog group and, he said, "take on the many complex environmental problems we face today in the fields of sustainable development, natural resource management and energy policy and conservation."
Acknowledging that environmental issues are interdisciplinary in nature, he has been taking classes in both the natural and the social sciences, ranging from ecology and field biology to environmental sociology and environmental economics.
"I'm particularly interested in sustainable development, environmental policy and conservation biology," he said.
His affiliations have included involvement with some of the environmental organizations on campus, including Cornell Greens, Roots and Shoots (a chapter of the worldwide Jane Goodall Institute program) and Earthrise, in activities ranging from teaching environmental lessons to elementary and middle school students to helping with campaigns such as the Kyoto Now! movement on campus. He has been honored by the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and received a Bernard Harvith Memorial Scholarship for students planning careers related to the environment.
Pollock's faculty recommenders, who also helped him in the Udall Scholarship application process, were his adviser Charles R. Smith, research associate in natural resources, and Duane Chapman, professor of environmental economics.
Commenting on the Udall scholarship, Pollock noted that the award's namesake, Morris Udall, "was a remarkable policymaker and did truly inspirational things for the environment in this country. I felt very honored to receive a scholarship in his name."
Natural resources major Benjamin Wolfe, from Dallas, Pa., hopes some day to gain a position at a research institution as a research associate/professor in the field of environmental sciences.
"My main area of interest in the realm of natural resource management is conservation biology, specifically related to the exciting world of plants," Wolfe said.
He has worked with Barbara Bedford, research associate, and Carmen Chapin, postdoctoral associate, both in the Cornell Department of Natural Resources, in the unique wetland ecosystem of rich fens throughout New York state. He also has been involved with the Cornell Environmental Inquiry Research Partnerships (CEIRP) program directed by Marianne Krasny, associate professor of natural resources, as a National Science Foundation fellow, leading high school students in original research projects.
Wolfe is a Cornell Tradition fellow, and through that program he has taken an active role in various service activities in the Cornell and Ithaca communities. He also has volunteered for the Landscape Ecology Program of The Nature Conservancy, the Ithaca Sciencenter and Cornell Plantations' Natural Areas and Wildscience program, and he is a member of Roots and Shoots.
"I am honored to have been selected as a Morris K. Udall scholar," Wolfe said. "I've read a considerable amount of material written about and by Congressman Udall, and he seemed to possess many key qualities that are currently missing in Washington's current political arena. As I discussed in my essay for the scholarship, Congressman Udall placed great value on the intrinsic properties of the natural world when considering legislation affecting the fate of organisms, ecosystems and natural processes. ... He did not however foolishly ignore the fact that the world is dominated by humans and they must be considered in the 'big picture' in order to achieve feasible and successful environmental policy."
Biology major Laura Petes, from Chapel Hill, N.C., has a concentration in ecology and a specialization in marine sciences. After obtaining a doctorate, she said, "I would eventually like to run my own laboratory and teach as a full professor at a university, passing my knowledge of marine systems on to younger generations."
She is studying the Aspergillosis disease of sea fans in the Caribbean under the guidance of Drew Harvell, Cornell professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.
Petes is co-president of the Society of Student Skaters at Cornell, and she is a member of the Biology Student Curriculum Council, the National Society of Collegiate Scholars and the Golden Key honor society.
"I feel extremely honored to have received honorable mention for the Udall Fellowship," she said. "Through my experiences with Shoals Marine Laboratory and the Cornell ecology and evolutionary biology faculty, I have been given the incredible opportunity to concern myself and my research with the state of the oceans, while appreciating the many missing links involved in protecting their health and the health of the surrounding terrestrial environment.
Besides acknowledging the help and guidance of their faculty advisers and recommenders for the Udall scholarship, each of the student winners praised the crucial support and assistance they received from Beth Fiori, Cornell fellowship coordinator.
Cornell students applying for the Udall Scholarship must be endorsed by the university to participate in the national competition. This year's endorsement committee consisted of James Lassoie, professor and chair of the Department of Natural Resources; Daniel Usner, professor and director of the American Indian Program; William Rosen, senior lecturer in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management; and Fiori.
Students interested in applying for the Udall Scholarship should consult the web site http://www.career.cornell.edu/students/grad/fellowships/udall.html and contact Fiori at btf1@cornell.edu and 255-6931. Faculty also are encouraged to suggest possible applicants.
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