Red Barrington Scholarship

               The Red Barrington Scholarship Fund Director of NKFF does the solicitation and gathering of applications for this annual $500 grant.

             The Director and several other Officers and Directors of the organization review the applications and forward their nominations to the Northern Kentucky Fly Fishers, Inc Board of Directors.

Background

                  Red Barrington was one of the founding members of Northern Kentucky Fly Fishers back in 1987. From the very beginning, Red was involved with teaching our fly-fishing, fly-casting and fly-tying classes … especially for our youth programs. Red partnered with other club members and persuaded them to participate in the KDFWR Aquatic Education program. Several club members were certified the first year that program ran and maintained their certifications for many years.
 
                 When Red lost his battle with skin cancer in 1999, the club suffered a great loss and, wanting to continue Red’s legacy of teaching folks how to flyfish and cast and tie flies, we instituted a memorial scholarship fund. With initial donations from Red’s family and friends and many “special raffles”, Northern Kentucky Fly Fishers, Inc started to accumulate funds. Several really good years at our Annual Banquet helped to achieve our goal. A proposal was made to the NKFF Board to move $17,000 from the general operating fund to a special account which would be forever dedicated to earning enough interest to be self-sustaining. The idea was that the monies generated from interest would make up the bulk of a $500 grant to a deserving student in the northern and middle Kentucky area colleges.

                 For several years the grant was only open to students at Northern Kentucky University but now we will accept applications from any dedicated student (under-graduate or graduate) in a field that promotes water quality, fish habitat or behavior, etc. Not wanting to be too limiting on the course of study, the RBSF Committee is authorized to use broad judgment when reviewing the submitted applications. In 2006, the committee was so impressed by the qualifications of two of the applicants for the grant, that  they recommended to the Board of Directors that we award two grants this year. The Board concurred and approved two separate grants for this year’s winners.

Eligibility Requirements

Applicant must:

1.   Be a declared major in Environmental Science or Biological Sciences at any University in the state of Kentucky.

2.   Have at least sophomore standing (30 semester hours or more, successfully completed) as of January 1st of the calendar year in which they are applying.

3.   Applicants must have a 3.0 (of a possible 4.0) G.P.A. or better

4.   Be engaged in or have completed, a research project (under-graduate or graduate) judged by the supervising faculty member as evidence of the student's outstanding potential for research in an area having major environmental impact.  Water quality is an example of such an area of research.

Submission materials given to the Board of Directors of the Northern Kentucky Flyfishers:

1.   The applicants and their research supervisors will provide a brief written description of the student's research activities in an area having major environmental impact.  Again, water quality is a prime example of such an area of research.

2.   The Chairperson of the Biological Sciences Department and the Director of the Environmental Science Program will use their professional judgment to rank the applicants on the basis of the demonstrated quality of the students' work in completing the research projects in which they are engaged.

3.   Applicants must send a certified copy of his/her grade transcript.

All application materials must be submitted to the Board of Directors of the Northern Kentucky Flyfishers by the deadline announced at the time of opening of applications.  April 15th is the usual deadline but it would be wise to verify that each year.

The Board of Directors of the Northern Kentucky Flyfishers will announce the Scholarship recipients within a month of the close of applications.
 

Prior Year’s Winners

John Spaeth an undergraduate of Northern Kentucky University (2004 - $500)

Jason Fisher an under-graduate student at Eastern Kentucky University (2005 - $500)
 
Jeffrey Thompson an under-graduate student at Northern Kentucky University (2006 - $500)
 
Jason Fisher a graduate student of Eastern Kentucky University(2006 - $500)