The Shasta Chapter CNPS is delighted to announce this year’s highly deserving scholarship recipients: Cade Harner and Sydney Cassity.
Out of this year’s extremely qualified field of applicants, Cade Harner was scored as the top contender by our five-member scholarship committee. Cade hails from Round Mountain and has just completed a two-year program at Shasta College. He was class valedictorian when graduating from high school, and has been on the Dean’s List all four semesters at Shasta College. He is headed to UC Davis, majoring in Biology.
Not only has Cade distinguished himself academically, he has also been very involved in in his community and spends considerable time outdoors, exploring the natural world. His many activities have included serving as a mentor with the TRIO Upward Bound Program, splitting firewood to raise money for non-profits, tutoring calculus students, helping with Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) maintenance, and even hiking the PCT from Etna to Crater Lake. I think you can see why Cade was our top selection for our $2,000 Plant Biology Scholarship.
However, the scholarship committee was also extremely impressed with another applicant, Sydney Cassity. The task of selecting scholarship recipients is always difficult due to the generally impressive scholastic records and community activities of the applicants, and some years we’ll add a supplementary scholarship when a second candidate has an exemplary record. This was the case for Sydney, for whom the Board authorized a $2,000 scholarship to recognize her outstanding accomplishments.
Sydney is from McArthur and just graduated from Fall River Junior/Senior High School—at the top of her class, of course! She is headed to UC Santa Barbara, majoring in Environmental Studies. She plans a career as a conservation scientist.
Sydney was actively involved in Future Farmers of American throughout her high school career, and also participated in several sports. One of her high school project was to identify native and invasive plants of the Fall River Valley. She also has experience in propagating and caring for native plants such as Douglas iris, California lilac, wild roses, and native sunflowers.
Congratulations to both Cade and Sydney! The Shasta Chapter CNPS wishes you the best of luck in your studies and careers.
As you may be aware, we always invite our scholarship recipients to join us at our June Chapter picnic. Cade and his family plan to attend. Unfortunately, Sydney already has other commitments that day—but maybe her plans will change. . . Please join us on June 15 (please see President’s Message, June 2023, for details) to meet at least one of our outstanding scholarship recipients!
-Don Burk, Scholarship Committee Chair