The Rachel Carson Healthy Planet Award is named for Chatham's best known alumna, the biologist and writer Rachel Carson. It goes to high school juniors nominated by a teacher, counsellor or adviser for work on sustainability and community development, and Chatham takes nominations from high schools nationally and internationally.
Winners receive a $2,500 merit scholarship to Chatham that renews each year, a certificate, and preferred consideration for the Rachel Carson Scholarship, a full-tuition award given each year to one incoming first-year student and one community college transfer.
The catch is timing and sequencing. The nomination happens in your junior year, roughly eighteen months before you would enrol, and you need a teacher willing to write it. The full-tuition upgrade also carries a FAFSA requirement, which students on an F-1 visa cannot file, so treat the $2,500 as the dependable part of the prize.
Chatham lists 1 June as the annual priority deadline for nominations.