Burrowing Owl—Photo: Dow Lambert
OPAS Scholarships Program Update
Submitted by Rhonda Coats on behalf of the OPAS Scholarships Committee
Members can take pride in the steady growth of the OPAS Scholarships Program over the past three award seasons. Since inception in 2024, OPAS has been gifting the Natural Sciences Scholarship Award to a select number of graduating high school seniors in Clallam County, each of whom plan to pursue a college education in the natural sciences including wildlife biology, ecological and environmental studies, and related fields.
Each award certificate citation reads in part:
In recognition of outstanding scholarship and dedication to the study of the natural sciences for the benefit of people and wildlife . . .
In the program’s inaugural year (2024), OPAS gave scholarships in the amount of $1,000 to each of four recipients. In the following year (2025), five recipients received the same recognition. In this current award season (2026), the Scholarship Committee determined that six students (from a field of 16 applicants) meet the program’s selection criteria. Four students from Port Angeles High School and two from Sequim High School will each receive awards in the amount of $1,500. The career goals of these six scholars include the fields of Wildlife Biology, Conservation and Wildlife Management, Ecology, Marine Biology, and Environmental Law.
Each year the award has named an honoree. Kendra Donelson (2024) and Jim Gift (2025) were honored posthumously for their decades of service in time and talent both to OPAS and to the Dungeness River Nature Center. This year OPAS named Shirley Anderson as its honoree. Adding to the previously quoted passage, the citation further reads:
. . . Given in the year 2026 in honor of Shirley Anderson, MS, naturalist, biologist, educator, lifelong learner, and community leader.
All six recipients of the Natural Sciences Scholarship Award 2026 have had the opportunity to meet and visit with Shirley in person. A brief bio “About Shirley” accompanies each award certificate, providing the scholars a window into the exemplary life Shirley continues to lead among us!
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The scholarships program is supported by the generosity of Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society through donations made by its members and others to the OPAS Scholarships Fund. If you wish to give to the fund by check, please enter Scholarships Program on the memo line. If you wish to donate online, please go to https://olympicpeninsulaaudubon.org/donate-to-our-mission; click “Dedicate this Gift” and enter Scholarships Program in the “Dedicatee’s Name” space provided. Thank you!
OPAS Scholarships Committee members include Bob Boekelheide, Tom Butler, Karen Cwirla, Sue Dryden, and Rhonda Coats.