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Abby Peterson Wins Ryan Environmental Prize for Excellence in Research

Inaugural symposium was supported by longtime VWU friends and benefactors Prudence and Louis Ryan

University News | April 27, 2023

At the inaugural Louis and Prudence Ryan Environmental Research Symposium held Thursday, April 27, Batten Honors College student Abby Peterson was awarded the Ryan Environmental Prize for Excellence in Research.

During the symposium, students from the fall and spring Batten Honors College senior seminars presented research on innovative approaches to addressing issues of the environment and sustainability. The event featured a poster session of all the participating students, as well as presentations from the three finalists: Abby Mahoney who presented “Reducing Campus Food Waste”; Brooke Morris who presented “Combating Fraudulent Pharmaceuticals in Kenya”; and Abby Peterson who presented “Urban-Tree Planting: Outlining How to Diminish Urban Stormwater Runoff Utilizing Community Partnerships.”

As winner of the top award, Peterson received a $750 cash prize and a $750 donation in her name to the nonprofit environmental organization of her choosing.

Peterson's research involved working with Virginia Beach's Chimney Hill community on all the steps involved in a tree-planting project, including applying for a grant to fund it. Her research was selected as the winner by a panel of three judges: Christy Everett, Hampton Roads director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation; Marjorie Mayfield Jackson, founding executive director of the Elizabeth River Project; and Joel Rubin, founder and president of Rubin Communications Group. They evaluated the students' research on four criteria: potential impact of the project; addressing environmental complexities; strength of evidence; and communication. 

"When I came to Virginia Wesleyan four years ago," Peterson said, "I wasn't even sure climate change was a real thing. Now I'm so thankful to be part of this symposium's history. And I'm grateful to my professors and everyone involved in the Batten Honors College for helping me learn how to conduct this research and utilize community partnerships." 

Before the awards were presented, VWU President Dr. Scott D. Miller reminded students of guidance he offered when they were accepted into the Batten Honors College. "I knew that their education and experience here would prepare them to solve problems creatively, think globally, make connections and work toward a better world."

To that end, he explained that the evening's symposium and prize helped realize the vision of philanthropist Jane Batten for an honors college with a global mission. "We are so grateful that the Ryans believed in Mrs. Batten's vision," he said, "and generously created an endowment to fund this symposium and the Ryan Prize."

Dr. Miller was referring to longtime Virginia Wesleyan friends and benefactors Prudence and Louis Ryan. Along with serving on the VWU Board of Trustees since 2007, Louis Ryan has served since 2006 on the board of directors of the Elizabeth River Project, an important partner of VWU and the Batten Honors College. In his opening remarks presented via video, Ryan explained why he and his wife, whose share the philanthropic passions of education and the environment, chose to create a $150,000 endowment to support the research symposium and fund its prizes.

“What a good education does,” Ryan said, “is teach you how to think. And what I mean is learning to think critically, creatively and holistically. Doing that is really necessary to guarantee the survival and thriving of humanity.” Environmental research, he said, is the perfect place to both learn those skills and to practice them.

“This symposium creates a natural opportunity for students—and faculty, for that matter—to engage in this kind of thinking and to hopefully do meaningful research that will add to our knowledge of the issues we face with our environment and how we should go about dealing with those issues.”