Julien Pometta

"I received my scholarship during my sophomore year of college at UC Santa Cruz. I applied for it because I was starting a project that attempted to capture a snapshot of the macrofungal diversity within the UCSC Arboretum. I documented observations on iNaturalist, collected specimens that are stored at the Norris Center for Natural History on campus, and even managed to sequence 25 of those specimens. At the end of the project, I compiled my findings into a book, Mushrooms of the UCSC Arboretum, An Annotated Checklist, which also served as my senior exit requirement for my major.

"The scholarship made working on this project much more accessible; I was able to purchase the necessary equipment to properly collect specimens and towards the end, it helped cover the costs of publishing and printing copies of my book. Aside from the financial aid of the scholarship, it made me feel encouraged about my project at a time when I was still figuring out how I would get everything done. I am very grateful that I was able to pursue a project like this during college, the experience it gave me applies to many different types of environmental jobs. The sequencing experience helped me land at my current job where I work as a lab technician in a molecular ecology lab at UCSC."

Peter Vahlberg

"I am happily studying Computer Science at Gonzaga University, and I’m hoping to get a PhD in a similar area of study. Despite my interest in technology, I’m still captivated by the world of fungi, and most other kinds of nature. Getting the scholarship meant a lot to me, particularly because it meant that I was taken seriously at a relatively young age. I feel like I was able to contribute something real to science, and I learned a lot from it. Just the other day I spied a Coprinellus (the genus that I studied) while driving, and I just had to go and see it."