Every year the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation awards scholarships to college students pursuing careers in wildlife and conservation who exhibit outstanding leadership. First given in 1991, the Wildlife Leadership Awards this year went to Amanda Horning of Reading, Pennsylvania, and Joseph Welch of Superior, Wisconsin.
In the 17 years the foundation has given the awards, 139 students from 48 universities have received $215,000 in scholarships. Many past winners are now conservation leaders and have stayed ardent supporters of the Elk Foundation.
Applicants must list their leadership activities, hobbies, employment and accomplishments as they relate to wildlife or natural resources in their communities. They must also write short essays describing important conservation issues facing North America, the role of hunting in conservation, and how the scholarship would benefit them in achieving their career goals.
Winners each receive $2,000 and a one-year membership with the Elk Foundation.
Most of Amanda’s hobbies involve the outdoors. “I’ve been hunting and fishing with my dad since I was little,” she says. A senior in wildlife and fisheries science at Penn State, Amanda is also a chapter president of The Wildlife Society.
Amanda says the biggest challenge in working with wildlife is helping the public understand what you are doing. “People won’t protect what they don’t understand,” she says. The most fun she’s had in working with wildlife was the snake project she did during her internship at the Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge. She was involved in a population study, capturing and taking data on copperbelly water snakes, which are relatively rare in the area. “We were up at the crack of dawn, wading around in a marsh. It was very hands-on.”
Planning to spend her last semester at the University of Melbourne in Australia, Amanda is looking forward to the diversity of another culture. Upon graduation, she hopes to work for a federal or state agency, teaching the public more about wildlife.
Joseph Welch, University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point
Joe’s latest research project is in Utah, where he’s a crew leader, trapping and monitoring small mammals. He has participated in a fisheries biology crew and co‑led a research project with captive cougars. He’s also volunteered in an elk relocation project, collaring and transporting elk in northern Wisconsin.
With a major in wildlife ecology and biology and a minor in water resources at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, Joe has already accomplished his goal of being a well‑rounded individual. He has been a tutor and teaching assistant in addition to doing research, and has played lacrosse for four years.
“My focus is on keystone animal species, like large carnivores—the animals that have a wider-ranging effect on ecosystems,” Joe says.
Joe is also the vice president of the university’s chapter of The Wildlife Society, the second largest chapter in the country, with over 200 members. Joe initiated a mentoring program to encourage freshmen to join, which increased membership nearly 50 percent.
He is the first-ever recipient of the Gerald “Jerry” Turpin Memorial Award (see story below), and after graduation his plans include six to nine months in the field. Then, it’s on to graduate school.
Gerald “Jerry” Turpin (1977-2001) Memorial Award
Beginning this year, an annual Wildlife Leadership Award scholarship will be given to an individual in memory of Jerry Turpin. Jerry was killed in a logging accident near Hamilton, Montana, in 2001 at the age of 23. He was an enthusiastic outdoorsman and member of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Jerry worked as a hunting guide in the Bitterroot Wilderness and was a fourth-generation logger. Larry Turpin, Jerry’s father, chose to honor his son’s memory with this award to help other young people pursue their dreams through a college scholarship.