Left to Right: Gayla Lacy, Emily Cox, and Izabela Chase (Photo Courtesy ALCS Staff)Silver City, NM: Izabela Chase, Gayla Lacy and Emily Cox have been named by the New Mexico Community Foundation as the 2019 recipients of the Aldo Leopold Charter School’s Ella, Michael and Ella Memorial Scholarship. Izabela Chase was awarded $2,000, Gayla Lacy was awarded $500 and Emily Cox was awarded $500.
The Ella, Michael, Ella Memorial Scholarship was established in loving honor and memory of the Aldo Leopold Charter School students Ella Kirk, Michael Mahl and Ella Myers who lost their lives in a small airplane accident in May of 2014. Their dedication to environmental studies, music and the arts, and their level of community involvement and civic engagement, serves as an inspiration to all.
Izabela Chase is serving as the 2019 Aldo Leopold Class President. Her Junior year she joined student council as well as becoming the Aldo Leopold Youth Conservation Corps Eco Monitoring Crew Leader. She will be attending Western New Mexico University and majoring in Botany. She says, “I’ve fallen in love with plants so I decided for my undergrad degree I will major in botany.” After two years at WNMU she plans to transfer to Montana State University to pursue botany as well as take some Latin language classes. She will seek her Ph.D. in Ecology. Education is very important to her and she would love to become a teacher or researcher.
Gayla Lacy is involved in student council and an accomplished artist. She has served on the Aldo Leopold Youth Conservation Corps Murals crew as Crew Leader. Her love of the arts has inspired her to study at New Mexico State University and seek a bachelor’s degree in creative media. Gayla says, “Not until my involvement with Aldo Leopold Charter School did I realize that being an artist actually has potential in this world.”
Emily Cox was a member of Student Council and participated in Varsity Volleyball and One Act Play in her school in Texas. It wasn’t until her sophomore year, when she moved to Silver City, that she really began to appreciate the natural world. In Silver City, she played Varsity Volleyball. Her Junior year she joined Student Council and the Aldo Leopold Gay Straight Alliance. She has been part of the Youth Conservation Corps Ecological Monitoring crew for 5 semesters. In her free time, she enjoys writing music, painting, taking pictures of things, and sewing.
This Memorial Scholarship Fund helps to continue to keep Ella, Michael and Ella in all our hearts and minds by providing other Aldo Leopold Charter School students the opportunity to reach their own potential in the manner we so admired in each of these three students.
The mission of the Ella, Michael, Ella Memorial Scholarship is to inspire young people to follow their passion for the environment, the arts, music and community involvement and to support them as they begin their post-secondary studies
The New Mexico Community Foundation is the entity that manages the Scholarship Fund and the selection process. Awards are made each year. To be eligible for the Scholarship students must have a 3.0 grade average or higher, be a graduating senior from Aldo Leopold High School the year that the scholarship is gifted and have plans to enroll in full time accredited program. To help support this scholarship, donations can be made to the fund directly to the Foundation or to Aldo Leopold Charter School.
Aldo Leopold Charter School is a tuition free public charter school that provides an engaging and challenging educational program for grades 6 through 12 emphasizing direct experience, inquiry learning, stimulation of the creative process, and stewardship of our community and natural environment.