Graduating Nipomo High School senior Michael Sween was recently awarded the Bill Denneen Environmental Award for his contributions to the community, including many hours volunteering at the Nipomo Native Garden. Sween was closely involved in the garden’s restoration, helping cultivate plants native to the Nipomo Mesa and dunes. He was also involved in general landscape maintenance, as well as weeding and pruning.
The environmental award was founded in 1996 by Nipomo native Bill Denneen to recognize individuals protecting the local environment and who have made significant contributions to their community. The criteria for the scholarship is based on Denneen’s personal choices and experiences with volunteers and their work on the Central Coast. This award includes a $500 scholarship and a limited edition photograph by local photographer David Stroup.
Award recipients are determined by a committee, chaired by Santa Maria Discovery Museum president Virginia Perry Souza, Dr. Herb Kandel, Professor David Georgi, and Denneen’s son Steve Denneen.
Sween joins a list of successful individuals who have received the award in past years, from cartoonist Russ Hodin to the Sierra Club’s Santa Lucia chapter head Karen Merriam.
When asked to talk about this year’s recipient Sween, committee chair Kandel couldn’t say enough about him.
“He’s really brilliant, a good scientific mind,” said Kandel, who describes Sween as a confident young man who overcame great odds to win the award and help his community.
Sween’s high school math teacher, Donna Kandel, also described in a press release how privileged she was to know Sween: “Michael is brilliant, hard working, and humble. He cares about environmental issues and social justice. This gifted individual will certainly make a significant difference in the world.”
Sween plans to attend UC Santa Barbara in the fall to study chemistry and to continue to make a difference in his community. The future Gaucho is interested in renewable resources, stating in a press release that the most significant issue facing his generation will be that posed by the uses and limitations of fossil fuels.
This article appears in Jun 9-16, 2011.