2024 Sayville Garden Club Scholarship recipients

Autumn Bollinger’s interest in Long Island biodiversity and ecosystems began as a young camper at Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge. She continued there as a counselor educating youngsters in environmental and ecology issues, fulfilling her mission of educating people to the need for sustainability in the world. She plans on majoring in environmental science in college.

George Rose learned gardening as a child in his family’s summer gardens, preparing him to work in the BBP High School greenhouse. Through AP Biology and Environmental Science classes, he developed an interest in how the living processes in biology interact with their abiotic (non-living) environment. He will pursue this area with a major in environmental biology at Colgate.

Kylie Person served as vice president of SWEEP, was a member of Students for Climate Action (a civic-policy oriented group), and acted as a Junior Commissioner on the KIC Committee. Having seen a bird caught in a plastic six-pack ring as a child, her RISE project was the development of an algal-bioplastic alternative. Given the quality and success of her work, the Long Island Science Congress advanced her to present at the 2023 NYS Science Congress. She will study environmental science and business at the University of Notre Dame.