Spartan Scholarship
Challenge: a match
for students and donors

Spartan's Amazon expedition yields surprising results

During an unprecedented expedition into the heart of the Amazon, MSU

geographer Bob Walker discovered surprising evidence that many of the

Brazilian government's efforts to protect the environment are working.

Freshman Jordan Desrochers will never forget the

moment she learned she was to receive a Spartan

Walker and two fellow scientists—the first research team to travel a

Scholarship.

700-mile stretch of the so-called Transamazon Highway in the western

Amazon basin—confirmed the existence of illegal logging and mining

"Given the competitiveness for scholarships, it was

operations that threaten further damage to the world's largest rainforest.

something I just couldn't believe," she says.

But the researchers also found massive areas of undisturbed forest in the

Desrochers is one of nearly two dozen MSU freshmen

form of nationally protected areas and indigenous reserves, as well as

to receive the first scholarships as part of the Spartan

examples of where the government had halted unofficial road building.

Scholarship Challenge. Since its inception one year

ago, the challenge has raised more than $2 million

and has created 62 new endowed scholarships for

undergraduate students with financial need.

For Desrochers, who graduated at the top of her class

at Sault Area High School in Sault Ste. Marie,

Michigan, the assistance will lower both her student

loans and the amount of time she needs to work

during the school year.

To help donors stretch their dollars and support for

undergraduate scholarships, the challenge leverages

$7 million from a $10 million anonymous gift in a

novel matching program that is available only until

/I

We were kind of amazed by the number of good stories we actually saw,"

says Walker, a veteran Amazon researcher whose work is funded by the

National Science Foundation. "The environmental enforcement agencies

in Brazil often do seem to be doing what they're supposed to do."

An estimated 17 percent of the Brazilian rainforest has been destroyed,

MSU geographer Bob Walker and his team

are researching environmental protection
efforts in the Brazilian Amazon.

much of it in the more developed eastern Amazon basin. Due to a

government crackdown on illegal logging, Walker suspected loggers were moving such illegal operations
westward—deep into the Amazon.

In late June, he and his team made the 10-day trip by truck along the western Transamazon Highway—a wild

stretch of jungle that Walker had assumed was becoming the new logging frontier. He was correct—researchers

witnessed fairly sizable logging operations. But the biggest surprise of the trip was witnessing multiple examples

of how the government's conservation efforts are working, including dense jungle and indigenous reserves.

December 31, 2010. During the matching gift period,

Ultimately, Walker says, the answer is sustainable growth that protects both the environment and the

for every two dollars given to establish a new

livelihoods and culture of Brazil's citizens.

scholarship endowment, one dollar will be

designated from the matching funds.

That means that instead of the usual minimum of

$30,000 required to create a named scholarship, a

donor may create an endowed scholarship for as

little as $20,000—payable over five years. Because

every gift is important, a university-wide Spartan

Students build a house and hope

This fall, students are demonstrating civic responsibility

The build—part of the 2010 Whirlpool Building Blocks

with MSU's first-ever Habitat for Humanity house build,

initiative, Whirlpool Corporation's signature program

which got under way just as MSU's 2010 Fall Welcome

with Habitat for Humanity—is one of two national

festivities began.

on-campus builds that Whirlpool is sponsoring; the

other is at Indiana University.

Scholarship match also has been created to match

gifts of less than $20,000 each.

"Events such as this not only help to meet current

community needs," says Karen McKnight-Casey,

To learn more, visit givingto.msu.edu/ssc or contact

director of MSU's Center for Service-Learning and Civic

Jennifer Bertram, director of development for

Engagement, "but also introduce students to the

university scholarships and fellowships, at

importance of positive involvement with the

(517) 432-7332. 0

community."

The future owner of the house is an MSU graduate

This finding has some environmentalists wondering if

student who lives in Lansing. The family will be the

the rest of the world might embrace a global Yom

100th family housed by Habitat for Humanity Lansing.

Kippur as the centerpiece of an international

The first phase of the build took place at the MSU

movement to reduce auto exhaust emissions.

Commuter Lot. An opening ceremony on September 11

As it turns out, the World Carfree Network already has

marked the beginning of the build and coincided with

designated September 22 each year as World Carfree

National Service Day, a day set aside to honor those

Day. So far, the organizers of this international event

killed in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

have struggled, as it is not easy to get widespread

On September 20, the partially completed structure

community cooperation for a one-day moratorium on

moved to its permanent location in Lansing. The build

driving.

will end October 15, and a presentation of the keys to

But who knows? Maybe it's just a matter of time before

the new homeowners will take place during the

all Michiganders are saying "Gmar Chatima Tova!" as

October 16 Homecoming football game against the

they walk, skate, or bike past each other on carfree

streets one day every fall. 0

An MSU graduate student and her family will benefit from MSU's
first-ever Habitat for Humanity house build.

University of Illinois. 0

