South Florida Sun Sentinel
Sep 21, 2021 5:10 PM
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Boca Raton’s Mallory Thomas was recently awarded the Friends of Daggerwing Nature Center’s Scott Cowan Memorial Scholarship.
Boca Raton’s Mallory Thomas was recently awarded the Friends of Daggering Nature Center’s annual Scott Cowan Memorial Scholarship.
Launched in 2017, the Friends of Daggering Nature Center, 11435 Park Access Road, in Boca Raton established the annual $500 scholarship to recognize outstanding student volunteers and help promote their future educational aspirations.
Thomas is currently pursuing both her high school diploma at FAU High School and an undergraduate course of study at FAU. She has been with the Friends of Daggering Nature Center for over a year and a half.
The senior plans to continue her studies in environmental engineering.
“She was certainly a standout,” said Edith Cowan, the president of Friends of Daggerwing Nature Center. “She was working in our butterfly garden; that was her main volunteer project at Daggerwing.
“The gentleman who was kind of overseeing the garden at that point realized what a great student she was,” Cowan said. “He said she was amazing at everything she learned and everything he was trying to get across to the group.”
Established by the Cowan family, the annual scholarship was named after Edith Cowan’s late son, Scott, who died in October 2017, as a way to commemorate his life.
After receiving donations following his death, Edith Cowan decided to launch the scholarship program, hoping to leave a “footprint” for her son. The first scholarship was awarded in 2018.
Scholarship contributions to the Scott Cowan Memorial Fund can be donated to the Friends of Daggerwing Nature Center, Inc.
“We offer the scholarship opportunity to anyone who is a volunteer at Daggerwing Nature Center,” Cowan said. “A notice goes out around early April for anyone who wants an application. There’s an application process, a committee that reviews the application form, the letters of reference, the essay, and the grades as well.”
