Student Earns EPA Research Grant

Rachael Sclafani

Photo by Carl Socolow '77.

Rachael Sclafani ’16 becomes Dickinson’s third EPA-GRO recipient

by Tony Moore

Rachael Sclafani ’16 has been awarded an EPA-GRO (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Greater Research Opportunities) fellowship grant for environmental research, becoming the third Dickinson student to receive the prestigious award.

The grant, given to only 34 students nationwide each year, awards students $50,000 over two academic years and will give Sclafani, an environmental science and biology double major, the opportunity to conduct research outside the classroom. And she’s ready to dive right in.

“I want to be able to learn how the research process works,” she says, noting that she'll be off to Portland, ME, to assess the health of salt marshes with the Casco Bay Estuary Partnership through the EPA’s Region 1 Ocean and Coastal Protection Unit.

Students applying for the grant are evaluated by a peer-review committee, which takes into account academic achievement, a personal statement, professors’ recommendation letters and the student’s career goals. The selection process also takes into account factors that might be a little more intangible: scientific creativity and curiosity.

The grant’s funds are allotted over the student’s junior and senior years, and winners experience a fully funded 12-week summer research excursion with primary environmental investigators.

Learn more

Published February 20, 2015