(JACKSONVILLE, Fla.; March 9, 2009) Crowley continues to foster education in maritime studies through its recent scholarship grant to a deserving student at the Maritime Studies Program of Williams College and Mystic Seaport.
Laura Boyle was selected as the spring 2009 Thomas Crowley Sr. Memorial Scholarship recipient at Williams-Mystic. She received a $5,000 scholarship to attend the 17-week maritime studies program in Mystic, Conn.
An English major at Bryn Mawr College, Boyle has displayed her strengths through team work and community efforts in roles such as camp counselor, service trip leader, and peer mentor. In her admissions essay, Boyle also discussed her experience growing up in Madison, Conn., and how her decision to attend a landlocked school in Pennsylvania has separated her from her beloved Long Island Sound.
“When you are born and raised near the sea, it opens your mind, changes your sense, and challenges your view of self and your view of the world. Once the ocean gets in your blood, you are never quite the same,” Boyle wrote.
Elizabeth Berilla, Assistant Director of Alumni Relations and the Annual Fund Williams-Mystic, thanked Crowley for their continued support to the Maritime Studies Program.
“We are delighted to have Laura as part of the Williams-Mystic community for the spring 2009 semester. We are sure that Laura’s passion for the sea rings strongly with the crew at Crowley. On behalf of Laura and the Williams-Mystic program, I would like to thank Crowley for the opportunity the scholarship provides for our students – past, present, and future,” Berilla said.
Williams-Mystic, www.williams.edu/williamsmystic, is a one-semester interdisciplinary ocean and coastal studies program integrating marine science, maritime history, marine policy, and literature of the sea. Earlier this year, Crowley announced its plans to enhance scholarship grants with the Maritime Studies Program of Williams College and Mystic Seaport beginning in the fall by increasing its donation from $10,000 to $20,000 a year for deserving and need-based students in the program.
Over the years, Crowley Chairman, President and CEO, Tom Crowley Jr., has continued to give scholarship dollars to deserving students at the maritime academies and other select institutions in the U.S., Alaska and Puerto Rico in the name of his father Thomas B. Crowley Sr., who guided the company to extraordinary heights before passing away in 1994.
Since 1984, Crowley has provided more than half-a-million dollars in scholarship funding for nearly 200 students studying at maritime academies and other select institutions. In 2006, the program expanded to Central America and to date has provided financial assistance to 15 students in that region.
Jacksonville-based Crowley Holdings Inc., a holding company of the 117-year-old Crowley Maritime Corporation, is a privately held family and employee-owned company that provides diversified transportation and logistics services in domestic and international markets by means of six operating lines of business: Puerto Rico/Caribbean Liner Services, Latin America Liner Services, Logistics Services, Petroleum Services, Marine Services and Technical Services. Offered within these operating lines of business are the following services: liner container shipping, logistics, contract towing and transportation; ship assist and escort; energy support; salvage and emergency response; vessel management; vessel construction and naval architecture; government services, and petroleum and chemical transportation, distribution and sales. Additional information about Crowley its subsidiaries and business units may be found on the Internet at www.crowley.com.Â
