Dylan N. Striek, a graduate of Hopkinton High School, will be entering college this autumn as a Thoreau Scholar. The scholarship, named for the 19th-century naturalist and author Henry David Thoreau, is a prestigious award given annually to only eight Massachusetts high school seniors.
The son of Tejal Patel and Jeffrey Striek, Dylan believes that solving climate change demands innovation. Although he has just entered college, Dylan is already working, through his inventions, to bridge the gap between effective solutions and societal change. Growing up in Boston, Dylan thought it was normal for water to be dark and polluted, but a visit to Nova Scotia changed his view of water. There, water was flourishing with life. In response to his discovery of what water should be like, Dylan developed a procedure to perform electrolysis on the ocean water, extracting carbon dioxide and reducing overall pollution. For a significant port city like Boston, this device, if attached to thousands of cargo ships entering and exiting each day, could also help its water flourish. Dylan continues to innovate for a cleaner, more sustainable future.
This fall, Dylan is attending Dartmouth College and plans to major in environmental engineering and economics while continuing to look for innovative ways to save the environment.
The Henry David Thoreau Scholarship is a four-year tuition scholarship awarded to eight students graduating from high schools in Massachusetts. High school seniors awarded the Thoreau Scholarship can enroll in any college or university in the world while they major or minor in an environmentally related field. Thoreau Scholars are encouraged to enroll in internships or study abroad to broaden their awareness and understanding of environmental issues.
The Thoreau Foundation further assists its scholarship winners by identifying environmentally related internships, offering internship stipends, and providing networking opportunities. A sign of success of the Thoreau Foundation’s mission to foster environmental leadership is the support past scholarship winners provide to present scholarship winners.
To learn more about the Henry David Thoreau Foundation and the Thoreau Scholarship, please visit thoreauscholar.org. The online scholarship application opens October 15 at thoreauscholar.org with a February 1 deadline.
