The Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2024 Judith A. Towle Environmental Studies Fund Award. Established at CFVI in 2003, the Judith A. Towle Environmental Studies Fund supports studies and activities that address environmental concerns that transcend the boundaries of any single island or island state in the insular Caribbean.
The St. Croix Science Teachers Association (Farm) has been selected to receive this year’s award, a $6,000 grant to support a project focused on defining environmental mitigation solutions from a youth-community engagement perspective. The project will concentrate on Tan-Tan, a useful plant that has become invasive throughout the Virgin Islands, which is increasing the cost of production and disrupting indigenous ecosystems.
“Addressing the problems resulting from Tan-Tan invasiveness on farmlands and parks is critical in abating ongoing and potential future human-ecosystem conflict in the territory,” said St. Croix Science Teachers Association (Farm) President, Rosa White Cromwell, who submitted the winning application.
An accomplished farmer, Cromwell is a retired science educator and district administrator with more than 40 years of service to the Virgin Islands Department of Education. The Science Teachers Association that she currently heads was established in 1991 with a mission to involve and engage young Virgin Islanders in environmental and agricultural sciences.
With funding from the Towle Fund, 30 students with a demonstrated interest in STEAM research (science, technology, engineering, agriculture, mathematics) will be selected from local middle schools, high schools, career and technical schools, as well as University of the Virgin Islands. They will serve as lead researchers on a “citizens science” project that will also be supported by members of the Legislative Committee on Agriculture, UVI’s School of Agriculture, and the Departments of Agriculture and Education. Students will engage in intense, hands-on scientific investigation and research on five St. Croix farms across Estate Bethlehem, Estate La Grange and Estate Sion Farm. Activities will include studying the history and environmental impacts of Tan-Tan; designing a research methodology; conducting surveys, collecting, charting and analyzing data; and presenting their findings and solution-oriented STEAM recommendations to the public during a one-day interactive expo.
