All prizes are brought to you by our friends, Rivanna Natural Designs.
The Joseph A. Piehuta Prize
Recognizing Sc3 Fellows who have demonstrated extraordinary leadership and commitment over time, and contributed greatly to the goals of Sc3 and the Green Schools Alliance.
The Joseph A. Piehuta Prize is an annual award established in 2009 by the Green Schools Alliance and the National Conservation Training Center in honor of Joseph “Joe” Piehuta who served in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from 1977 to 2009 and whose vision helped shape Sc3.
The Piehuta Prize recognizes an Sc3 Student Fellow who exemplifies the values and vision of “Joe” Piehuta through extraordinary, selfless leadership over time, contribution to the goals of Sc3, and commitment to the conservation community.
Joseph A. Piehuta was an extraordinary role model who, like many great leaders and visionaries, led from behind. He would quietly and modestly create the framework for projects to succeed, and others to shine.
Joe’s counsel and advice was the backbone of every team and working group in which he participated. He never sought recognition beyond the satisfaction that he felt from doing the best job possible to help his colleagues make a difference. He believed in under-promising and over-delivering and was always able to help people work through the complexities they brought to the table, determine and clarify a vision, and craft a clear a path to reach the end goal. The result was always elegant in its simplicity.
2017 - Paul Brown-Taylor
2017 - Hannah Haynes
2016 - Taylor Grove and Jacquelyn "Jax" Ingrassia
2015 - Jessie Thornton
& Zach Woogen
2014 - Polly Terzian
(with Marca Piehuta)
2013 - Alexandra Barlowe & Aida Orozco (pictured)
2012 - Sarah Allen & Amy Chase
(with Marca Piehuta)
2011 - Patrick Reed & Pamela Mishkin (with Marca Piehuta)
2010 - Eric Estroff
(with Marca Piehuta)
2009 - James Underberg
(with Marca Piehuta)
The Carl Safina Award
Recognizing one student annually who reflects the values and determination required to make a lasting difference in their community and in the world.
The Carl Safina Award was established in 2014 by the Green Schools Alliance and the National Conservation Training Center with the support of Dr. Carl Safina. The Safina Award recognizes a student fellow who exemplifies leadership, determination and a firm commitment to lasting, practical solutions for conserving natural places and free-living species, no matter the obstacles.
Learn more about Dr. Carl Safina.
“I am drawn to the wild not because it is wise, but because it is sensible, logical, ordered, stable, resilient. Wild nature is everything we’re struggling to regain.” - Dr. Carl Safina
2014 - Jaried Buxton
2015 - Lea Jarnberg
2016 - Katherine "Katie" J. Bremer
The Rachel Carson Award
Recognizing one student annually who reflects the values and determination required to make a lasting difference in their community and in the world.
Established in 2023, The Rachel Carson Award is presented to an Sc3 Alumni who has demonstrated exceptional commitment to protecting and preserving the interconnected natural world and our shared future. “In nature, nothing exists alone.” By creating awareness through the humanities, sciences or public service, the recipient fosters change through public policy.
Rachel Carson’s courage, grit and advocacy raised important questions about the chemical industry, and humankind’s impact on nature. Her 1962 book, Silent Spring, exposed the hazards of the pesticide DDT and eloquently questioned humanity’s faith in technological progress, which helped set the stage for today’s environmental movement. Renowned nature author and former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service marine biologist, her enthusiasm for nature was matched only by her love of writing and poetry. (Text inspired by NRDC)
“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter. The balance of nature is not a status quo; it is fluid, ever shifting, in a constant state of adjustment. Man, too, is part of this balance. The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.” — Rachel Carson
The Barry Lopez Inspiration Award
Recognizing dedication to service, to protecting and preserving the natural world and our place in it.
“We cannot, of course, save the world because we do not have authority over its parts. We can serve the world though. That is everyone’s calling, to lead a life that helps.” - Barry Lopez
Established in 2023, The Barry Lopez Award is presented to a Faculty Fellow who has demonstrated selfless service and long-standing commitment to Sc3, and has advanced Barry’s mission to “promote awareness about climate change and our relationship with the land in a time of environmental crisis.”
Sharing their knowledge and wisdom to help guide and develop Sc3 program goals and ideals, the recipient has carried the values of Sc3 into the world. Through their passion and dedication they have inspired students and fostered the next generation of stewards.
Barry Lopez devoted his life to the gift of stories. With fierce intellect and deep compassion, in luminous prose, he gave us stories of wolves and men, of traveling with and learning from indigenous people, stories of narwhals, polar bears, and vanishing sea ice, stories of the larger, older world that, in our dangerously alienated culture, we call ‘nature.’ (Text from Harper’s Magazine by John Luther Adams, 2021)