2010 Progress Report

Marjot continues funding exceptional students. Based upon the Science Panel recommendations, we awarded grants to two students and one student team this month. Vincent Lin, a freshman at Falmouth High School, was ranked first. He will be examining leaf litter decomposition and the relationship of CO2 release on tree species and temperature. Dr. Jim Tang of the Ecosystems Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) will mentor him. This is the very first time we have linked funding a FHS student with a world-class local institution. We hope this model will flourish in the future.

 Eva Faber of Martha’s Vineyard will be working with Bill Wilcox, Water Resource Planner and Luanne Johnson, a wildlife biologist. Eva’s research will address how mechanical pond openings impact blue crab abundance, distribution and recruitment. Finally, Emily Castro, Maggie O’Grady and Ellie Tedeschi from Cohasset, Mass. will be studying with Dr Ann Thomae. This team will investigate how sea foam levels impact the growth of algal blooms in Cohasset Harbor.

Where are the awardees of 2009-2010 going?  Lian Folger received a third in the local science fair and was unable to go to the state level due to illness. She has received an early acceptance to Middlebury and will be off to Vermont. Sam Levin, a junior in Great Barrington, placed in the western Mass science fair and is aiming for the Ivies next year. Finally, from Vermont, Nick Grasso heads off to Lewis and Clark College while his partner, Breton Schwartzenbach, is going to Colorado College.

Out of the clear blue sky, we heard from Michele Hood, mentor to many Vermont students, who wrote that Martin Blood-Forsythe has now won a Churchill Scholarship at Haverford. We also received an unsolicited email from Dr. Josh Kristiansen; email is attached, now a dentist graduating from Harvard Dental School. Josh was one of the first awardees from Waldoboro, Maine in 1998.

Can you all believe this? I can’t.  Our science panel is selecting young men and women who are going into medicine, dentistry, graduate schools, and all the things we thought about in the late 1990s when Marjot was launched.

As to financials, we remain solidly in the black due to contributions from all of you over the years. Our grants have risen from $3000 to $4500 per each team based upon a vote of the Board of Trustees.  This year we were able to fund three teams at a total cost of $13,400. Depending upon our continued financial good health, we want to expand to four teams next year if there are meritorious applications.

Thanks to all of you, the wonderful ride continues.