Alaska college students sought for national marine policy fellowship

Submitted by Doug Schneider
Phone: 907-474-7449
12/11/08

Hoping to extend their winning streak to a third year, the Alaska Sea Grant College Program is looking for a few good men and women currently enrolled in higher education to apply for a paid Washington, D.C., fellowship in marine policy.

Each year, Alaska Sea Grant recruits exemplary students to compete nationally for the John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship. The prestigious fellowship provides eligible students a year of paid experience working on marine issues with a congressional staff or with an executive branch resource management agency.

Applications are currently being accepted for the 2010 fellowship. The deadline for applying is Feb, 20, 2009. The fellowship is open to all students enrolled in a graduate or professional program in a marine- or aquatic-related field at a U.S. accredited institution of higher learning.

"For Alaska’s college and university students interested in marine and aquatic sciences and policy, the Knauss Fellowship can be a springboard to an exciting career in resource policy, biology, and management," said Paula Cullenberg, interim director of the Alaska Sea Grant College Program, based at the University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.

During 2009, three UAF students were among 51 people chosen in the national competition. Celeste Leroux, Erin Steiner and Mary Bozza, all graduate students at the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, will travel to Washington, D.C., in January to begin their fellowships.

Former UAF graduate student Seanbob Kelly was named a Knauss Fellow in 2008. He currently is completing his fellowship with the National Marine Fisheries Service. Much of his work centers on the implementation of congressional reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

Other past Knauss Fellows from Alaska were Jill Brady and Ashley Evans (1991), Carl Rebstock and William S. Robie (1992), Erika Feller (1995), and Nina Mollett (1996).

The Knauss fellowship began in 1979 and is run by the National Sea Grant College Program. Since then, more than 600 Knauss Fellows have worked in the executive and legislative branches of the federal government.

To learn more or to apply, please visit the John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship;

Also on the web:
UAF students named (2009) Dean John A. Knauss Fellows
UAF fisheries graduate student chosen as 2008 National Sea Grant Knauss Fellow