The Hollandsworth Scholarship
Education and efforts to increase interest in vector control has long been one of the goals of the West Central Mosquito and Vector Control Association (WCMVCA). After successfully hosting the American Mosquito Control Association’s (AMCA) annual meeting in Denver in 1988 funds were available to establish a scholarship program.
The proposed scholarship was aimed at college and university under graduate and graduate students. The primary purposes of the scholarships are to promote student activity and interest in the WCMVCA and to encourage academic study and research in the area of vector biology, control, and vector-borne disease.
A scholarship was established in 1989 by action of the Executive Board and the membership at the annual meeting of the WCMVCA in Laramie, Wyoming. The scholarship program was developed by Chester Moore (Colorado) and Kenneth Minson (Utah). Up to two scholarships were to be given to one undergraduate and one graduate student to students studying in areas of public health entomology, vector control and other closely related fields.
The scholarship idea was strongly supported by Gerald Hollandsworth, a member of the executive board and past president of WCMVCA. After Gerald’s death the Association voted that the scholarship be known as the Gerald Hollandsworth Memorial Scholarship.
Gerald graduated from Oklahoma State University majoring in Biological Science. He began his public health career in 1962-1964 at Oklahoma City Health Department, Oklahoma City, OK working in the housing and nursing homes programs in Environmental Health. From 1964 to September, 1988 he was employed by the Pueblo City-County Health Department in the Environmental Health Division. His positions included general field staff, supervisor, and acting division director. However, his favorite environmental work was zoonosis including mosquito and vector control.
He was an active member of his professional organizations: Colorado Environmental Health Association; National Environmental Health Association; Colorado Public Health Association; WCMVCA serving as President in 1986 and Executive Board member; and AMCA, assisting in hosting the 1988 national convention. He was credentialed as Registered Sanitarian (RS) in 1966 in Colorado. He also obtained his National Environmental Health Association registration as a Registered Environmental Health Specialist (REHS).
If he was not busy with environmental health issues, he could be found fishing/hunting, gardening, cooking, watching movies, or enjoying the outdoors. Public health was a family matter being married to a public health nurse. He was a devoted family man, four children and at the time of his death six grandchildren.
Shortly after returning from the 1987 AMCA meeting in Seattle, he was hospitalized and underwent surgery for cancer of the kidney. However, July, 1988 illness again hit and in August he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died September 24, 1988.
Ted Davis, retired Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment in a letter summed up Gerald’s commitment to public health and WCMVCA “…Gerald made a positive contribution to the Association through his years of service on the Executive Board and especially as President. It had been a long standing goal to begin a newsletter. Gerald did it. In all of our joint activities, he was always the hard working professional. Every thing he did, he gave it his best shot. He was always ready and willing to do whatever had to be done to accomplish the task. He was a dedicated, caring person. We are supposed to learn from our associations and experiences. From Gerald we have learned about gentile, positive attitudes, doing the best we can, going that extra mile when necessary and reaching for something extra when the going gets rough. We can be an extension of those qualities Gerald exemplified when we put forth the effort to do as he would have done….” For this commitment, WCMVCA wished that the scholarship retain it’s identify as the Gerald Hollandsworth Memorial Scholarship.
Funding for the scholarship is supported by the money received from hosting the national convention (nearly $8,000.) donations from members, and accrued interest income. Gerald’s widow, Jane, has been a faithful contributor to the scholarship fund and has been included in all decisions regarding the scholarship.
Although the committee members and the organization promoted the scholarship vigorously, it met with limited success for three years. It did not receive much interest or support from students or administrators in the region. Most administrators and students felt that the $500 offered for the winning entry was insufficient and not worth the effort.
It was decided that science classes in middle schools of the host city of the annual meeting be given the opportunity to compete for the $500. This was awarded as US Savings Bonds to students and gift certificates for the teacher to purchase much needed supplies. This also met with limited success.
In 1989 AMCA had established a student paper competition awards program. Back to the drawing board and negotiations with AMCA began. AMCA agreed to include the scholarship in their awards program and it would be identified as originating from WCMVCA and it would retain its identity as the Gerald Hollandsworth Scholarship. The goals of the scholarship remained the same. An additional goal is to encourage student participation in the AMCA national meeting. Thanks to the efforts of Sammie Dickson (Utah) and other WCMVCA members this has proved to be a very logical and successful move.
The scholarship is listed as the Hollandsworth Prize in the AMCA Student Paper Competition. AMCA also provides additional funding for the scholarship. Currently the AMCA point person for the scholarship is Roxanne (Rutledge) Connelly, PhD (Florida) and the 1998 recipient of the scholarship. The WCMVCA point person for the scholarship is Sammie Dickson.
Gerald Hollandsworth Memorial Scholarship Recipients
1991 Tovi Lehmann University of Arizona
1992 University of Wyoming
1993 Peru State College, Nebraska
1994
1995 (middle school) Santa Fe, New Mexico
1996 not awarded Greeley, Colorado (lack of interest)
1997 working with AMCA
1998 **Roxanne Rutledge, Louisiana State U.; ***Timothy Schaub, U. Illinois; ***Emmalee Kennedy, U. Illinois
1999 **Laura Harrington, U. Massachusetts; ***Adam S. Jones, U. Massachusetts; ***Hillary Reno, U. Illinois
2000 **Jason L. Rasgon, U. California Davis: ***Hope Q. Liu, VPI; ***Linda M. Steyer, U. California - Davis
2001 No competition
2002 ** Laura B. Goddard, U. California - Davis: ***Sharon L. Minnick
U. of California - Davis; ***Margaret Sherriffs, Yale U.
2003 **Sarah A. Yaremych, U. Illinois; ***Jason L. Ragson, U. California - Davis; ***Laura B. Goddard, U. California - Davis
2004 **Gregory M. Williams, U. Delaware; ***Stephen Aspen, Colorado State U.;
***Christian Kaufmann, U. Zurich
2005 **Wesley Rubio, San Diego University; ***Whitney Qualls, Auburn University; ***Rebecca Trout, University of Kentucky
2006 **Robert D. Anderson, University of Delaware; Linda O’Connor, University of Delaware (First runner Up); ***Joshua R. Ogawa, Oregon State University; ***Matthew Eaton, Concordia College
2007 **Jennifer Armistead, University of Florida; ***Robert D. Anderson, University of Delaware; ***Thomas M. Mascari, Louisiana State University; ***Kristen Bartlett, Rutgers University
2008 **Jerome J. Schleier III, Montana State University; ***Christopher Barker, University of California – Davis; ***Lisa Reimer, University of California – Davis
**Gerald Hollandsworth Prize ($500)
***Honorable Mention ($250)
Note: 2007 and 2008 the prize money was increased with the winner
receiving $2000 and each honorable mention receiving $750.