Calaveras Big Trees Association Scholarships

CBTA is proud to be one of the few Cooperating Associations that awards academic Scholarships each year to students who have chosen to pursue an education and/or career in environmentally related fields.  Applications are now being accepted for the 2025 scholarships.  Due by April 15, 2025.

Emily M. Hewitt Memorial Scholarship BACKGROUND

This scholarship is administered through a Fund created by the Hewitt family to honor Emily M. Hewitt and to honor a student who shared her love of nature.  CBTA is proud to select and award this scholarship on their behalf.

Emily M. Hewitt was a California artist, author, teacher, and docent whose life found meaning when communicating her love of Nature to others. To this end, she served as a docent at Calaveras Big Trees State Park, where she authored skits, monologues and audio-visual presentations for visitors.  As a University of California and California State College educated teacher, she combined literature and the natural sciences to present her lessons vibrantly.

As the first woman mayor of the City of Oakdale, California, she fought for the preservation of agricultural lands on the fringe of urbanization and established one of the first recycling centers in the state.  As an artist, she captured the essence of the Sierra Nevada, the Pacific Coast, and the Sonoran Desert in oils, watercolors, fabric, clay, and other media.

STEPHEN K. STOCKING MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP BACKGROUND

Steve was also a teacher, an author and a docent at Calaveras Big Trees State Park as well as a park naturalist at Sequoia National Park.   He taught biology at San Joaquin Delta College for more than 30 years.   Steve could give you an education on just about anything that walked, flew or grew, from mice to mountain lions, from songbirds to sequoias.  His mantra was Make every walk a field trip and every meal a picnic. Calaveras Big Trees Association created the Stephen K. Stocking Memorial Scholarship in Steve’s memory to inspire young naturalists to pursue a career in the footsteps of a great friend of Calaveras Big Trees State Park who dedicated his life to educating the conservationists of tomorrow.

PURPOSE OF SCHOLARSHIPS

To provide a monetary award of $3,000.00 for a promising California upper division or graduate student, 
who has shown an educational and career commitment to the study of the environment, shows a commitment to 
communicate and interpret a love of nature, and an understanding of need to practice conservation.

ELIGIBILITY

Eligibility for application is extended to any student or graduate student enrolled full-time in an accredited California post-secondary educational institution whose educational career goals clearly demonstrate an interest in communicating and interpreting nature’s wonder.  Students pursuing degrees in environmental protection, forestry, wildlife and fisheries biology, parks and recreation, park management, environmental law and public policy, environmental art, and California history are encouraged to apply.  Dedication ideals of the scholarship will be considered at least as important as financial need in making the award.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

A completed application should include the following:

• Statement of personal and career goals. (1-2 pages)
• Resume (and portfolio if applicable).
• Transcripts of all college work completed to date- (can be unofficial transcript)
• Completed Application Form

Only complete one application.  You will be considered for both scholarships.