Menke Scholarship for Wildlife Habitat

The Menke scholarship for Missouri college or university students honors Don and Nell Menke, long-term members of WGNSS and lifelong birders and wildflower experts, and their son, David Menke, long-time outdoor recreation planner for the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex. The scholarship awards grants totaling up to $1,000, for one year commencing June 1, to be administered without overhead by the recipient’s institution.

The scholarship’s goal is to increase and improve wildlife habitat in Missouri by planting, protecting, managing, publicizing, and in various other ways demonstrating specific habitat improvement for specific threatened and rare species of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals or invertebrates, over the course of the scholarship year. Recipients may work or intern with complementary conservation programs.

Applicants typically major in areas such as biology, botany, zoology, natural history, environmental education, ecological research or management, natural horticulture, fisheries and wildlife, forestry, geology, conservation, etc., but meeting the scholarship’s goals is more important than the major field itself. For example, applicants are welcome from political science, social studies, pre-law, and so on.