Bridget Parks of Potsdam was recently awarded a scholarship to Paul Smith's College, funded with support from the National Science Foundation.

Parks, a junior majoring in fisheries and wildlife sciences, received one of four scholarships given under the college's Enhancing Ecological Education Scholarship Program, also known as E3SP.

Paul Smith's used a $530,000 NSF grant to establish the scholarship, which provides recipients up to $40,000 each over four years.

The NSF program helps students pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Students in the program will work side-by-side with a Paul Smith's faculty member on an intensive research project, spending about eight hours a week in a research lab. They will also be mentored by other students in the program.

Scholarship recipients will develop their own research questions and experiments with the intent of contributing to their respective fields.

"This is the most exciting part of E3SP - undergraduate students working together in an ecology lab preparing for their own careers as ecologists," said professor Jorie Favreau, the program's director.

To be eligible for one of the E3SP scholarships, students must have a GPA of at least 3.0, demonstrate financial need and be accepted or enrolled at Paul Smith's in the fisheries and wildlife science or environmental science majors.

Eventually, up to 14 students at a time will benefit from the program. The grant will last through the 2016-17 academic year.