A student and a teacher from east and west Clallam County have earned honors from the Feiro Marine Life Center.
Alissa Lofstrom, a senior at Sequim High School, was chosen to receive the fourth-annual Feiro Family Scholarship award.
The $1,000 scholarship is available to seniors in Clallam County whose future educational endeavors best align to Feiro’s mission – “Feiro Marine Life Center contributes to a strong community by providing local marine and watershed learning experiences, inspiring us all to act on behalf of our environment.”
Lofstrom independently founded an environmental club, No Planet B, whose members conducted several cleanups and will next focus on planting native trees.
In addition to numerous volunteer opportunities, Lofstrom also serves as a student representative on Dungeness River Audubon Center board. She plans to study marine biology with a focus on coral reef conservation.
At the Quileute Tribal School, students are getting inspired with middle and high school science teacher Alice Ryan, who will receive the second-annual Marine Discovery Center Ocean Advocate Award.
Since joining the school in 2016, her students have become Nickelodeon Get Dirty Ambassadors, participated in Marine Advanced Technology Education underwater robotics and NOAA Ocean Guardians.
In 2019 Ryan was awarded the National Association of Geoscience Teachers’ Outstanding Earth Science Teacher Award, given for exceptional contributions to the stimulation of interest in the earth sciences at the pre-college level.
Ryan advocates for the ocean with her students every day, and the Marine Discovery Partners (Feiro Marine Life Center, NOAA Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, and Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary Foundation) are pleased to honor her with this award. Last year’s inaugural Ocean Advocate Award went to Young Johnson of H20 Bistro in Port Angeles.
Lofstrom and Ryan were be presented with their awards on Saturday, March 21, at Feiro’s annual benefit dinner, Making Waves; the event was canceled in response to COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
For more about the Feiro Marine Life Center, see feiromarinelifecenter.org.
