2024 Scholarship Awardee - Larkin Garden

 Larkin Garden is a 2022 graduate of The Martin L. Nesbitt, Jr. Discovery Academy in Ashville, NC near her hometown of Weaverville, NC. Larkin excelled at the Academy while engaging in a rigorous science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curriculum, working part time, and participating in many volunteer activities in her community.  After her father, a former firefighter, was disabled by a life-threatening medical condition, Larkin also assumed additional family-related responsibilities.  Larkin is inspired and motivated by her love of nature and the outdoors.  Larkin now attends Catawba College as an environmental and sustainability major with minors in geographical information systems (GIS) and technology, ecology, and zoology. Her academic research has enabled her to visit (to date) Rwanda, and Columbia as well as many US national parks.  In 2024, she was the top selection for a prestigious, all expenses paid, summer marine research program in hosted by a university in Washington State during which she became a certified scientific SCUBA diver.  Larkin is very appreciative that the ability to attend college has introduced her to so many new friends, developed for her an expanded meaning of family, and offered her both travel and future career opportunities that she that never imagined.