Meet our impressive Scholarship recipients in this short video.
Katherine “Kate” Nicholson is graduating from Templeton High School this spring. She is planning to attend UC Santa Barbara, study biology and become a field researcher, doctor or biology teacher. As a Junior, she earned an AP Capstone Diploma with her AP Research project on water quality at water refill stations throughout the Templeton School District. Her presentation skills are also excellent. She’s inspired by her biology teacher Mr. Ben Weinberger, who recommended her for a field research project (on California purple needle grass) on Santa Cruz Island. The experience was initially out of her comfort zone, as she had never been camping and did not know any of the other students participating. Nevertheless, she thrived, and this was a life-changing experience for her. She demonstrated not only her love for research but also talent and skill in doing it. This year she is a T.A. supporting younger students in that program.
Kate is President of the school’s Environmental Club. As such, she organizes beach clean ups from Cayucos to Pismo Beach, and clean ups at Templeton schools and local parks, engaging club members to decide together when and where to have the beach and community clean ups. While doing that, she teaches her fellow students the importance of having a livable and sustainable habitat and what that entails.
Kate also founded and leads a fashion club at THS, called Always on Trend. This is an opportunity she created to teach other students how to use fabrics and clothes to enhance environmental sustainability. And she is involved in the non-profit Company Culture Must! Charities.
Kate learned about our scholarship from her elder siblings and her mother. She knew all about MFP (Mission Statement and early history) from our website.
Kate’s greatest concerns about the future include government cuts to research and environmental protection. She is both worried and encouraged about the future: she wants to be part of the change toward sustainability and is curious, determined, dedicated and passionate about working for a better world.
Mila Shih is graduating from San Luis Obispo High School this spring. She plans to Harvard College where she intends to study Environmental Science and Plant Science. She is a 1st generation Taiwanese-American and was visiting her grandmother in Taiwan on spring break when we interviewed her. Her grandmother, having taught her all about gardening, is an inspiration to her. She named her ceramics teacher as a person she greatly admires, as it has been through her ceramics work she has learned “Art and life are meant to be shared,” and that art can drive social change. She has begun to use her art as a medium for her activism, recently using her art to highlight the impacts of urbanization on nature.
Mila found out about our scholarship by doing a web search. She also learned about our Mission Statement and history there. She’s interested in our focus on climate and social justice, the environmental impact of Diablo Canyon, and she knows we started as an anti-Vietnam War group.
She is active with TurningGreen.org, where she was a finalist in Project Green Challenge. She completed a year-long research project on the sustainability of permaculture. She encouraged homeowners in her community to reimagine their lawns as sustainable ecosystems, beginning with planting one fruit tree. She has inspired members of Future Farmers of America to use natural resources to develop sustainable farming methods by discussing how the intense consumption of water by urban lawns can be reduced by converting lawns to more sustainable entities, thus leaving more water for food farming. She recently won 1st place at CA Association of Resource Conservation Districts for her speech on conserving resources by replacing lawns with permaculture.
Her greatest concerns about the future include general apathy – that people have become desensitized by so many injustices in the world. She wants to change this through advocacy for social justice and permaculture.