Florida Tech Graduate Student Earns Grant for Montserrat

Florida Tech graduate student Carole McCauley, who oversees the development of the master plan for the first national park on the Caribbean island of
Montserrat, wrote a successful grant application for £22,000, the approximate equivalent of $38,550. The grant, from the UK Overseas Territories
Environment Program, supports the development of legislation for managing protected areas and biodiversity conservation in Montserrat.

Currently completing a master’s degree in environmental education and conducting a general public survey on Montserrat, McCauley has been a Peace Corps
Fellow at the university since 2003. Appointed as director for the development of a management plan for the park, she began her 18-month assignment in
September, 2005.

The new park, representing about 20 percent of Montserrat’s total area, will protect endangered species, some of which are found only on the
teardrop-shaped island. Since 1995, the British island has lost about half its former population of 12,000 due to eruptions of the volcano, Chance’s Peak.
Former inhabitants, however, are now beginning to return.

McCauley earned a bachelor’s degree from Fordham University in New York and a master’s degree from the Columbia University Teacher’s College.

The coordinator of Florida Tech’s Peace Corps Fellows Program is Dr.Thomas Marcinkowski. The program offers master’s and doctoral degrees to returned Peace
Corps volunteers.