Scholarships Awarded to Five GCRL Summer Field Program Students

Five students who are part of the Summer Field Program at The University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL) have been awarded scholarships to assist with their marine studies this summer.

The 2014 Summer Field Program offers undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to earn college credit during three sessions from May through July. Classroom sessions take place on the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory's 50-acre waterfront facility. Field experiences are conducted on the Gulf of Mexico, Mississippi's barrier islands, Mississippi Sound, and adjacent coastal waters.

“We have a record number of students attending the GCRL Summer Field Program this year,” said Darcie Graham, undergraduate programs manager at the GCRL's Marine Education Center. “In addition to classroom instruction, our courses afford students with hands-on field and laboratory exposure that encourages experiential learning. We are grateful to our endowment supporters that allow us to offer these scholarships to our attending students.”

The scholarship recipients include:

• Lea Humphrey, a native of Gravois, Mo., and a marine biology major at Northwest Missouri State University, received the Dr. John S. Sharp GCRL Endowment.
• Three students were recipients of the Bennie A. Rohr GCRL Summer Field Program Scholarship Endowment: Paula Champion, a native of Pearl, Miss., and a biology major at Mississippi College; Helen Weber, a native of Columbia, Miss., and a marine biology major at the Southern Miss Hattiesburg campus, and Jessi A. James, a native of Biloxi, Miss., and a marine biology major at the Southern Miss Gulf Park campus. 
• Casey Lynn Aumann, a native of Hudson, Wis., and a biology major at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire was the first recipient of the Chris Langel Memorial Gift.

The Dr. John R. Sharp Gulf Coast Research Lab Endowment provides scholarship money for returning Summer Field Program graduate or undergraduate students at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory. 

The Bennie A. Rohr GCRL Summer Field Program Scholarship Endowment provides a scholarship to three students majoring in biological sciences that are attending the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory Summer Field Program and reside in Hancock, Harrison, or Jackson County.  If there are not enough applicants from the three Mississippi coastal counties, students who reside in the state of Mississippi are able to apply for the Rohr Scholarship. 

The Chris Langel Memorial Gift provides scholarship money for a summer field student attending from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire.