Note: Yale School of the Environment (YSE) was formerly known as the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES). News articles and events posted prior to July 1, 2020 refer to the School's name at that time.
The F&ES Alumni Board is pleased to announce that two F&ES master’s students have been chosen as the inaugural recipients of the F&ES Alumni Association Board Scholarship in honor of Ruth Allen M.F.S. ’72, Ph.D. ’77. Ruth was a longtime member of the alumni association board and former president. She is remembered for her dedication, mentoring, and volunteer service to F&ES alumni, students and the community as a whole. She passed away tragically in 2012.
Esther Rojas-Garcia, left, and Anandi van Diepen-Hedayat
Esther Rojas-Garcia M.E.Sc. ’14 and Anandi van Diepen-Hedayat M.E.Sc. ’14 will each receive $2,500 in scholarship aid toward their second year of study at F&ES. Both students were recognized for their leadership and exemplary record of volunteer service, especially to the F&ES, Yale and New Haven communities. In total, 29 F&ES students applied for this new scholarship demonstrating the strong volunteer spirit that is alive at F&ES.
Esther Rojas-Garcia has a lifelong connection to volunteering that germinated as a young Mexican immigrant to the United States. As an F&ES student, she is co-leader of the Climate Change Student Interest Group (SIG), actively involved with the Africa SIG that helped organize a major conference dedicated to the memory of Wangari Maathai, and volunteers as a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee overseen by Assistant Dean Angela Kuhne. She also actively volunteers for the New Haven People’s Center, working with at-risk youth to provide skills training and civic participation.
Anandi van Diepen-Hedayat serves as the treasurer of the Environmental Justice at Yale SIG helping to build intellectual and practical awareness of environmental justice issues in the F&ES community, and collaborates with the New Haven Environmental Justice Network to connect her efforts to local and national constituencies. As an extension of that work, she joined the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice to lobby legislators in Hartford on air quality and asthma, and met with environmental justice activists and scholars in Boston at the Local Environmental Action conference. Recently, she has volunteered at the East Shore Festival, a neighborhood event to facilitate community engagement on air and water quality in impacted neighborhoods in New Haven. She is also a volunteer member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
The F&ES Alumni Association Board Scholarship in honor of Ruth Allen M.F.S. ’72, Ph.D. ’77 was created in 2013 as a new endowed fund of the School. Donations to create the new $100,000 scholarship fund came from current and former alumni board members, as well as members of the Class of 1972 who remember Ruth and her legacy with admiration. Donations to the fund are still being sought and can be made by contacting the School’s development office. Annually, members of the F&ES board will award F&ES students who demonstrate extraordinary leadership and volunteer service with scholarship support.
Esther Rojas-Garcia has a lifelong connection to volunteering that germinated as a young Mexican immigrant to the United States. As an F&ES student, she is co-leader of the Climate Change Student Interest Group (SIG), actively involved with the Africa SIG that helped organize a major conference dedicated to the memory of Wangari Maathai, and volunteers as a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee overseen by Assistant Dean Angela Kuhne. She also actively volunteers for the New Haven People’s Center, working with at-risk youth to provide skills training and civic participation.
Anandi van Diepen-Hedayat serves as the treasurer of the Environmental Justice at Yale SIG helping to build intellectual and practical awareness of environmental justice issues in the F&ES community, and collaborates with the New Haven Environmental Justice Network to connect her efforts to local and national constituencies. As an extension of that work, she joined the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice to lobby legislators in Hartford on air quality and asthma, and met with environmental justice activists and scholars in Boston at the Local Environmental Action conference. Recently, she has volunteered at the East Shore Festival, a neighborhood event to facilitate community engagement on air and water quality in impacted neighborhoods in New Haven. She is also a volunteer member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
The F&ES Alumni Association Board Scholarship in honor of Ruth Allen M.F.S. ’72, Ph.D. ’77 was created in 2013 as a new endowed fund of the School. Donations to create the new $100,000 scholarship fund came from current and former alumni board members, as well as members of the Class of 1972 who remember Ruth and her legacy with admiration. Donations to the fund are still being sought and can be made by contacting the School’s development office. Annually, members of the F&ES board will award F&ES students who demonstrate extraordinary leadership and volunteer service with scholarship support.
Published
October 9, 2013