Fred Stevenson Scholarship Fund

 A $1000 scholarship for students at a college or university in the SE Council majoring in a field of study that fosters the preservation of gamefish or their habitats, presented in honor of Fred Stevenson, the founder and first president of the SouthEastern Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers.

Above - Congratulations to:
Elizabeth Slade, 2nd year graduate student with her faculty             Mark Hoger, also a 2nd year graduate student with his faculty advisor
advisor and Biology Professor Joseph R Schiller, Ph.D..                     Rebecca Blanton Johansen, Ph.D..

                                                        Both are students at Austin Peay University in Tennessee.


See previous winners. 

Overview

A $1000 scholarship for under-gradute (Sophmore - Senior) or graduate students at a college or university within the SE Council majoring in a field of study that fosters the preservation of gamefish or their habitats.

Application

Here is a sample letter applying for the scholarship (from a previous winner of the grant to the the FFF-SEC Education VP).

Here are the REQUIREMENTS for application to the nomination list for the Fred Stevenson Scholarship Fund. It also helps if we get a "Letter of Support" from the student's Faculty Advisor or Department Chair concerning the student's project. 

Background

Fred Stevenson was the founder and first president of the SouthEastern Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers. In 1991, several states from a few other councils were combined to from the SouthEastern Council. About 800 Federation members and member clubs from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana (east of the Mississippi River), Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee were put into the new council. Fred gathered his initial working forces mostly from the Southern Council but also from other areas of the country. The SEC soon became the fastest growing council and in three years became and remained the largest council in the Federation for nearly a decade.

The idea for a scholarship fund in the SouthEastern Council came along in 1994 and was mainly promoted by members of the Atlanta Fly Fishing Club. They proposed that a grant be given annually to a student attending a public university or college within the council's boundaries (currently Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee - and one club in Florida) and majoring in a field of study that fostered the preservation of gamefish or their habitat. Examples of such majors could include fisheries management, wetlands ecology, environmental science, marine biology, to name a few.

A proposal was made to the SEC Board to move $15,000 from the general operating fund to a special account, one which would be increased until it was self-sustaining. The idea was that the monies generated from interest would make up the bulk of a $500 grant to a deserving college student from one of the SEC public universities or colleges.

Fred was still president at the time the proposal was made. Through his tireless efforts, the proposal became a reality. For his dedication to the council, his leadership for nearly a decade, his efforts to promote education at both the member and youth levels, and his work to make the scholarship fund part

of the SEC's contributions to our society, the SE Council Board decided to name the fund the "Fred Stevenson Scholarship Fund".

It was a surprise that in the first seven years the council had only had two or three students make application and be awarded with the grant monies. To improve those statistics, Mike Arnold started a campaign to make the process easier and more pointed towards actually giving the grant every year. One of his first changes was to ask the SEC Board of Directors to increase the award from $500 to $1000 annually. Mike also started the electronic mailing scheme to fifty plus public universities and colleges in the SEC geographical boundaries to try to stir up more applications for the grant. 
 

In 2008, Mike Arnold resigned his position as SEC Education VP to take a break from FFF SEC management. In 2009 another FFF SEC member stepped up and volunteered to take Mike's place as Education VP and was working his way into the position when other responsibilities dictated that he relinquish the position. Mike Arnold continued supporting the VP-Education position until 2010 when Bill Dunn, a reletively new Federation member in Alabama, asked the Borad about the position and volunteered to take it on. Bill jumped tright in and took over and now has a year under his belt and has started making his own changes and adaptations for our benefit.    

                                      SOUTH EASTERN COUNCIL LOANER EQUIPMENT

The South Eastern Council has Fly-CASTING Outfits (twenty 6-weight and ten 8-weight) rods/reels/lines/leaders for use at any SEC-sanctioned fly-casting or fly-fishing instructional class put on by member clubs within the South Eastern Council's borders
and twebty Fly-TYING Tool and Material Kits for use by member clubs for fly-tying classes

The use of this equipment costs the clubs only shipping back to our VP-Education (or to the next user if the dates are close). We ship them to you by Fedex Ground 5-Day service. How you get them back to us doesn’t matter as long as they are available for the next user in time for their classes. This process requires advanced notice. We need you to email or phone me your requested dates and other information (club name, address and phone number of where to ship them, etc).  We ask that you do that several weeks if not months in advance of your fly-casting or fly-tying session. That way we can plan on how to get the equipment to you in time for your classes.

Contact VP-Education Bill Dunn at wldfly@centurytel.net  or call (205) 937-2827 or mail him your request at

366 Roberts Circle

Lincoln  AL  35096





                                         SOUTH-EASTERN COUNCIL INFORMATION EXCHANGE

Years ago the SEC had this benefit for its members and for any member of any FFF-Affiliated fly-fishing club within the council.