Sierra Club Group Awards Scholarship

Alan Parmalee Memorial Scholarship recipient Ava DeBray Andreotta
(Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Sierra Club Loxahatchee Group)

(PRESS RELEASE)_(Palm Beach County, FL – July 24, 2023) The Loxahatchee Group of the Sierra Club Florida Chapter today announced that Ava DeBray Andreotta is the recipient of this year’s Alan Parmalee Memorial Scholarship, which is named after a long time Loxahatchee Group member and activist. The $2,000 scholarship is targeted towards students at Forest Hill Community High School and Palm Beach State College that are interested in the fields of environmental/natural science or environmental activism.
 
Given for “exceptional scholarship at the Gale Academy of Environmental Science and Technology at Forest Hill Community High School,” Andreotta’s observation of the natural world helped her design science fair projects that analyzed water quality and measured herbivory on seagrasses, earning her the Stockholm Junior Water Prize and other respected honors. The 18-year-old from Lake Worth will begin her college studies at Palm Beach State College this fall and hopes to eventually work for either the Florida Department of Environmental Protection or the South Florida Water Management District.
 
This year’s Alan Parmalee Memorial Scholarship was presented to Ava Andreotta at an awards dinner last May at FPL’s Manatee Lagoon in West Palm Beach. It was one of several scholarships presented by the Gale Academy.
 
Members of the Loxahatchee Group’s Alan Parmalee Scholarship Committee include Mike Fitzpatrick, Sapna Gupta, Rose Loeff, Drew Martin, and Ricardo Zambrano.

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