Eligibility

• Each conservation scholarship has its own eligibility guidelines. One commonality is the requirement for students to enroll in, or plan to enroll in, a program of higher education that deals with subjects of conservation. These include programs in wildlife and fishery management, environmental education, conservation public relations and forestry. Other eligibility requirements extend to work experience. For example, the Donald A. Williams Soil Conservation Scholarship is only open to students who have at least one year of experience working for a natural resources conservation program and are also currently employed in such a program. Students may also need to meet minimum grade point average requirements or belong to the professional society that awards the scholarship to be eligible.
  
  

Function

• Because they only apply to students within a narrow subject field, conservation scholarships are likely to attract fewer applicants than general scholarships that many more students are eligible for. This reduces competition and gives students with specific plans to study conservation or wildlife management an additional, exclusive source of funding. Students who receive conservation scholarships can use the money for any education expense, including tuition, books, university fees, housing and research. The groups that offer conservation scholarships both reward student interest in the field and attract others to the field who require scholarship funding to attend college.
  
  

Sources

• A number of different public agencies and private organizations offer conservation scholarships. Some conservation scholarships come directly from universities with conservation programs. For example, the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry offers its Presidential Scholarship to incoming students. Other conservation scholarships include the Women's Wildlife Management/Conservation Scholarship, which comes from the National Rifle Association, and the Donald A. Williams Soil Conservation Scholarship from the nonprofit Soil and Water Conservation Society.
  
  

Amounts

• Conservation scholarships have a range of award amounts. Some award one-time cash scholarships to students, while others are renewable. A renewable conservation scholarship allows a recipient to reapply each year and receive new funds, assuming that the student remains enrolled in an eligible program. Renewable conservation scholarships are the most valuable. For example, the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission's Conservation Scholarship program allows freshmen and sophomores to receive $2,000 per year, while upperclassmen can receive $3,000, for a total of up to $10,000 over the course of a four-year college career.