Honors Geology Student Receives College’s First Crowdfunded Scholarship

Just inside the front door of the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History on the College of Charleston campus is a big glass and wood donation box. Perched on a block inside, amid a few dozen one-, two- and five-dollar bills, is a plaster cast of a cave bear skull with a sign that says “FEED ME!”

While much of the money visitors donate will go to support the museum’s top-quality fossil displays and educational outreach programs, a good chunk of it is going to support CofC’s first-ever Paleontology Scholarship. So, in essence, you’re not just feeding the museum; you’re feeding a future paleontologist perhaps. 

“This is the first crowd-funded scholarship that I’ve ever heard of,” says Tim Callahan, chair of the Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences who came up with the idea. “What I think is fun about it is that none of our gracious donors and visitors will be expecting us to turn around their donations to support a student.”

That student in question is senior Honors College student Camille Sullivan, a geology and Spanish double-major who will receive $2,500 for the 2021-22 school year.   

“I feel very honored,” she says. “I’m sure a lot of people applied for it, so I am very honored that Dr. Scott Persons and others chose me for this scholarship, that they thought of me that way. I’m glad that people see potential in me and that I can prove myself to them.”

To read more about Camille Sullivan and the Paleontology Scholarship, check out the full article by Tom Cunneff in the College Today.

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