AWI is pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s AWI Scholarship, helping students pursue career opportunities focused on improving animal welfare:
- Siraj Gandhi of New Jersey, who helped shut down a local park’s three animal exhibits that had appalling living conditions.
- Emily Comar of Washington, DC, an intern who planned educational activities for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Insect Day.
- Robert Berlage of Illinois, a nature center volunteer who helped create
- an innovative opportunity for high school students to design animal enrichment activities.
- Rebecca Rhodes of Washington, who completed the rigorous requirements of the Leaders for Ethics, Animals, and the Planet (LEAP) training program.
- Julia Jackson of North Carolina, who has taken on a range of projects to benefit wildlife and wildlife habitat and volunteered at companion animal rescues.
- Janelly Villalobos of Indiana, who organized an event for the Nala Fund that raised thousands of dollars to provide financial assistance for medical care of companion animals.
- Claire Lignore of Oregon, a long-time shelter volunteer and now youth mentor, whose future aspirations include helping to protect endangered species.
- Rylan Garrett of Virginia, who has received his veterinary assistant certification and who, at age 12, organized a community recycling program and now volunteers at a wildlife rehabilitation center.
- Katherine Fourtner of Missouri, who has raised awareness of lead poisoning in birds and hopes to combine science and public policy to generate meaningful improvements for animals in her career.
- Cathrine Lamprecht of Florida, who recruited fellow students to work with rescue animals and handle other shelter tasks at her local humane society.
- Luke Andersen of Missouri, who is known in his rural community as the person to call when animals need help—from saving calves born in dangerously cold temperatures to assisting law enforcement officials in safely removing horses from roadways.
- Claudia Metge of South Carolina, who has worked as a shelter volunteer for three years and fosters cats and kittens at her home.
For more information on the AWI Scholarship, click here.