This year’s recipient of the David C. Mahan Fellowship Ashley Bucci, from Greentown, Pennsylvania. Ashley is completing her second year at Geneva College and is majoring in Environmental Science and minoring in Biology and Business. This summer she will take courses in Wildlife Ecology, Restoration Ecology, Field Techniques in Wetlands, and Conservation Biology at our Great Lakes campus in northern Michigan.

The Mahan Fellowship, started in 2017, celebrates the work and legacy of Dr. David C. Mahan, Au Sable’s Associate Executive Director for over 30 years, from 1985 to 2016. Known for his warmth, humor, and relational skills that made hundreds of friends for the Institute over his more than three decades of service, Dave’s namesake Fellowship is awarded to a student who has shown an ability to accomplish goals in conservation through collaborative, relational effort with others.

In her application for the Mahan Fellowship, Ashley wrote, “To be able to take courses in environmental studies in a place where everyone is feeling the same passion and everyone is trying to seek God’s heart, seems like the best place for me to learn and the most fulfilling place to learn. Not only does Au Sable offer a hands-on form of learning, but also a community in which all of us relate to each other as brothers and sisters in Christ pursuing God by stewarding His creation.”

Congratulations Ashley! We trust that you will continue to inspire others to serve, protect, and restore God’s earth in your future relationships and collaborations.