Eight SNRE students who are either Duke Conservation Fellows or Wyss Conservation Scholars returned this week from an annual retreat held each year for members of the programs. The retreat, held at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, W.V., was again facilitated by SNRE Professor Steven Yaffee, who also serves as the school's director of the Duke and Wyss scholars program.

The retreat included 46 Duke Fellows from all eight universities participating in the program, as well as faculty and administrative representatives.

Pictured (left to right) in West Virginia last week were: Jessica Gorchow, Maggie Allan (Wyss Conservation Scholar), Parrish Bergquist, Seth Federspiel, Gus Winkes, Maggie Wenger, Steve Yaffee, Laura Matson, Kristina Geiger, Kevin Li and Martha Campbell.

Five of the students are pursuing dual degrees: Allan is joint with the Ford School of Public Policy; Bergquist and Matson are joint with Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning; Winkes is joint with Law School; and Campbell is joint with the Ross School of Business.

SNRE was one of the original three schools selected to recommend and host Duke Fellows. The Fellows are selected each spring as future leaders in nonprofit and public conservation. In the past 13 years, more than 100 SNRE students (of 500 selected at participating schools) have been selected.  A spring 2012 reunion for SNRE Duke Fellows alumni is in the early stages of being developed.

The Duke Fellows received significant tuition support, funding for a summer internship and the opportunity to participate in a set of enrichment activities. Earlier this spring, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which sponsors the Doris Duke Conservation Fellows Program through the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, announced that it was ending its nationwide program.