SCA Awards FWS' Lamar Gore "Serving Youth Serving Nature" Partner Award

(CHARLESOTWN, NH) July 14, 2011-The Student Conservation Association (SCA), the nation's leading conservation service organization for youth, recently presented its "Serving Youth Serving Nature" Partner Award to Lamar Gore.

Gore, the Chief of Diversity and Civil Rights in the Northeast Regional Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in Hadley, Massachusetts has been instrumental in advancing the Career Discovery Internship Program (CDIP), a partnership between SCA and USFWS designed to recruit traditionally underrepresented students for summer internships in the conservation field.

Founded in 2008, CDIP introduces culturally and ethnically diverse college freshman and sophomores to careers in the USFWS. The internship equips SCA members with the hands-on learning they need to begin pursuing professional work in the conservation arena.
CDIP increases the diversity of the applicant pool for conservation-based jobs and provides FWS field staff the benefit of working with culturally and ethnically diverse employees.

A passionate advocate for diversity and youth in the outdoors, Gore has served as a dedicated mentor and role model to CDIP students over the last four years.

Gore recently accepted the SCA Partner Award at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, WV. As more than 100 interns-in-training and FWS staffers applauded, an appreciative Gore stated "I am very gratified, but this is not about me. This is about this program. It's about all of you interns who are stepping up to learn about and protect America's fish and wildlife refuges."

This year, the SCA-FWS partnership expanded from the Northeast Region (Region 5) to include the Midwest and Southwest Regions (Regions 3 & 4), with total intern numbers growing from 30 in 2010 to over 60. SCA relies on many resource management partners like Gore, whose work helps SCA achieve its mission of "building the next generation of conservation leaders."

About SCA

The Student Conservation Association (SCA) is the only national organization that develops tomorrow's conservation leaders by providing high school and college students with conservation service opportunities in all 50 states, from urban communities to national parks and forests. Since 1957, SCA's hands-on practice of conservation service has helped to develop new generations of conservation leaders, inspire lifelong stewardship, and save the planet. SCA is a non-profit headquartered in Charlestown, NH and maintains regional offices in Boise, ID, Oakland, CA, Pittsburgh, PA, Seattle, WA, and Washington, D.C. For more, visit www.thesca.org.