SEEDS is honored to administer the annual Jake Burkhardt Memorial Scholarship. This scholarship is made to honor the memory of Michael “Jake” Burkhardt, Western Wayne Class of 2015, who loved life, his family, his community and the environment and worked with SEEDS as a high school student. He was attending Keystone College majoring in wildlife biology when he was a passenger in a fatal car accident at the age of nineteen. He was a fun, kind, and generous person with an amazing smile. He loved hiking, campfires, being outdoors, his brother, Ben, and his two beagles.

The Burkhardt family and friends continue to honor Jake via the Jake Burkhardt Memorial Scholarship Fund. The fund provides a scholarship for a local High School senior planning to obtain a degree in the science field through an annual essay writing contest on an environmentally focused topic.

2016 Jake Burkhardt Scholarship Winner SEEDS Blog Post

2017 Jake Burkhardt Scholarship Winner SEEDS Blog Post

2018 Jake Burkhardt Scholarship Winner SRRDS Blog Post

2019 Jake Burkhardt Scholarship Winner SEEDS Blog Post

2021 Jake Burkhardt Scholarship Winner article PA Environment Digest Blog

The 2023 Jake Burkhardt SEEDS Scholarship committee of selected to support a group of local students enrolled in the Conservation Leadership Academy, part of Lacawac Sanctuary Environmental Summer Camp program.  The Conversation Leadership Academy is a weeklong residential camp for middle and high school students ages 13-17, where participants are immersed in Conservation activities at the beautiful and historic Lacawac Sanctuary and Field Station, and experience hands-on science programs along-side local conservation professionals and resident university researchers.  For more information about Lacawac Sanctuary, see their website.