Sophomores Keriana Cooduvalli and Lucinda Lodder Lindstrom are the newest Ernest F. Hollings Scholars selected from Eckerd College. Photos by Robbyn Hopewell
Growing up in Chicago, Eckerd College sophomore Lucinda Lodder Lindstrom spent hours swimming in Lake Michigan. But it was a different body of water—Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, one of the oldest and largest aquariums in the Western Hemisphere—that changed her.
“My mom took me when I was six and I was hooked.” Lucinda says now. She later became the aquarium’s teen council president, and she worked at the aquarium while she was in high school. That’s when she got to meet and learn from scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“I was only 15 then and they told me about the Hollings Scholarship,” Lucinda says. “It became a major goal for me. It’s an honor now to make that a reality.”
A marine science major, Lucinda is one of two Eckerd College students who were recently awarded the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship. The other Hollings scholar is Keriana Cooduvalli, a sophomore physics major from Orlando.
Since 2005, NOAA has selected students from around the nation to receive up to $9,500 per year for two years of full-time study and a 10-week, full-time, paid summer internship at a NOAA facility one year after receiving the award. The scholarships honor former U.S. Senator Ernest “Fritz” Hollings of South Carolina, an advocate for ocean policy and conservation, and are intended to bolster undergraduate training in NOAA mission sciences, as well as increased environmental literacy.
Lucinda’s application was competitive because of her experience as a peer mentor, a member of Eckerd college Search and Rescue and an assistant on manatee releases.
“I’m really interested in acoustic monitoring as a way to assess ecosystem health and mitigate harmful human impacts,” Lucinda says. “NOAA is currently using it to track migration patterns so that shipping lanes can be adjusted to reduce incidences of vessel strikes involving endangered species like whales and sea turtles.”
That’s one example of a project I would love to be part of as a Hollings scholar.”
Lucinda is a peer mentor and a teaching assistant. She is also a member of the Eckerd College Search and Rescue Team and has helped release manatees from Eckerd’s Waterfront Complex.
“I want to thank Drs. Kat Robinson, Amy Siuda, Shannon Gowans, Jill Collins and my career mentor, Stephanie Arsenault, for helping guide me through the application process. I still can’t believe it. I saw the acceptance email while I was sitting in physics class. I kept reading the email over and over to make sure it was real. I called my mom right away. The Hollings internship and financial support will make a huge difference for me and my career.”
Keriana hopes her NOAA internship will align with her engineering major and interests in creating a healthier environment.
Keriana says she also read her NOAA email several times. Just to make sure. “The research I want to do as a career encompasses exactly what NOAA is all about,” Keriana says. That includes her interest in NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service program, which manages the nation’s operational environmental satellites that monitor climate and weather.
“My dad is an immigrant from India, and in raising my brothers and myself, he emphasized the intersectionality between sustainability and humanitarian aid,” Keriana says. “He always taught us that we have an obligation to give back to our community. I have always been interested in STEM careers, especially as a woman of color. So working to help grow our communities where there is such a vital need and in turn helping to create a healthier environment is exciting.”
Keriana was in Eckerd’s Unity Center when the NOAA email arrived. “I read the first line several times, jumped up and screamed,” she says.” She ran to the Career Center to thank director Dewayne Peterson, who along with Robinson was instrumental in helping her write her application.
Keriana is co-president of the Eckerd College Feminist Club and part of the College’s 3-2 Engineering and Applied Science dual degree program. The five-year program offers an accelerated course curriculum during a student’s first three years at Eckerd. The program is demanding; what most students accomplish in four years, 3-2 students are asked to do in three.
After three years at Eckerd, students then choose to attend Washington University in St. Louis or Columbia University for the final two years, where they take specialized engineering courses. At the end of the fifth year, students will have earned two bachelor’s degrees.
“My dad told everyone in our family about the scholarship,” Keriana says. “It’s so heartwarming to see him so happy about my success. My main objective is to help local communities and the environment, not only through research but also through helping others achieve these STEM degrees and careers. That’s our future. My dad always said ‘education is the key to success and a brighter future.’”
Since the establishment of the program, Eckerd students have been awarded 119 Hollings Scholarships.
