GLENVILLE, WV – Abigail Johnson, a student at Glenville State College, is the recipient of the Appalachian Vegetation Management Association (AVMA) Roger Latham Memorial Award and the West Virginia Christmas Tree Grower’s Association (WVCTGA) Arnold Spitzen Memorial Forestry Scholarship for the 2019-2020 academic year.

The AVMA Roger Latham Memorial Award is open to full-time undergraduate and graduate students from West Virginia University, Dabney S. Lancaster Community College, Hocking College, and Glenville State College majoring in a natural science or related field of study with a demonstrated emphasis on the application of their major to the management of vegetation. The award, amounting to $2,000, is given in memory of conservationist Dr. Roger Latham, a former Pennsylvania Game Commission Research Director and outdoor sportswriter for the Pittsburgh Press.

The WVCTGA Arnold Spitzen Memorial Forestry Scholarship, a $500 award, is awarded in memory of Arnold Spitzen, who managed a Christmas tree farm in Jefferson County, West Virginia and was a long-time dedicated board member and President of the West Virginia Christmas Tree Growers Association.

Johnson is from Keyser, West Virginia and majors in forest technology within Glenville State College’s Natural Resource Management program.

“It is a complete honor to have been awarded two natural resource-related scholarships for the 2019-2020 year,” said Johnson. “Both the AVMA Roger Latham Memorial Award and the WV Christmas Tree Growers Association Scholarship will be used to further my education at Glenville State College where I aspire to graduate with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Natural Resource Management.

The financial assistance being provided means the world to me because I can now focus fully on my studies without having to worry about upcoming tuition and fees. The associations are doing wonderful things by helping out college students in a way that we truly could not be more thankful for! I will cherish and remember these gifts each day as I experience new opportunities and learn new subjects inside and outside of the classroom.”

“Thank you to Nathan Sites of the Appalachian Vegetation Management Association and Ed Grafton of the WV Christmas Tree Grower’s Association for their support and encouragement as I work toward this fall semester where I will be taking courses in Land & Soil Reclamation, Environmental Compliance, and Ecology & Field Biology,” Johnson adds.