Outstanding students get support. (Society Of Park And Recreation Educators).

Want $1,000 to go to NRPA's Congress in Tampa? That's what four postgraduate students recently won as recipients of the 2002 Lucille and Derby Dustin Future Scholars. Sponsored by the Academy of Leisure Sciences and the Society of Park and Recreation Educators, the program encourages outstanding students to pursue doctoral study and careers in higher education.

This year's scholars were selected from among 18 applicants. Kindal Hunt, who is pursuing a master of science in recreation and park administration at Texas A&M University, is a Merit Fellowship recipient and a Rhodes Scholar nominee. Her research interests include the relationship of constraints and recreation need. Hunt's sponsors for the Future Scholars program are David Scott and Peter Witt. Andrew Kaczynski, who also is pursuing a master of science in recreation at Texas A&M, is doing research into the relationship between how market position can affect citizens' and politicians' perceptions of parks and recreation programs' ability to solve community problems. Kaczynski received the University of Waterloo Departmental Award for Academic Excellence for the highest graduating average, and is a recipient of the Texas A&M's Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences Scholarship. His sponsor for the program is John Crompton.

Daniel Laven is pursuing a master of science in natural resource planning at the University of Vermont, and is a member of the Park Studies Laboratory. As an employee of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, Laven worked closely with the Alaskan Yupiaq Eskimo community on management issues associated with recreational and subsistence resource use on the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge. He plans to pursue Ph.D. research in subsistence and recreational use in protected areas. His sponsor for the Future Scholars program is Robert Manning.

Finally, Lisa Machnik is pursuing a master of science in recreation at Arizona State University. She is involved in a survey project being conducted in conjunction with the Bureau of Land Management. In 2001, she assisted in a project collecting survey research data for a U.S. Forest Services Study in Sedona, Ariz. Machnik is the recipient of numerous scholarships, and has traveled across the Australian outback as a volunteer for the Trust for Conservation collecting seed samples and removing nonindigenous plants. Malchnik's sponsor for the Future Scholars program is Randy Virden.