UDATED: Photo added.

Sonoma Valley High graduate Gerrit Van Sickle has been awarded the first ever Bouverie Scholarship from the Audubon Canyon Ranch.

Van Sickle has volunteered at the Bouverie Preserve of Audubon Canyon Ranch since the fifth grade. He graduated from Sonoma High last spring.

The $1,500 scholarship will help support his pursuit of a degree of a degree in environmental studies, according to the ACR.

“I can think of no more worthy young man than Gerrit to receive the first David Bouverie Scholarship,” Jeanne Wirka, resident biologist at the preserve, said in a statement. “He not only helped us with our nature walks and research projects, he also mentored and motivated younger students.”

Since graduating from Sonoma last spring, Van Sickle has completed an environmental internship at Echo Hill Outdoor School in Maryland where he served as an instructional assistant. He also plans on participating in a Wildlands Studies program in New Zealand before school starts at Santa Rosa Junior College this fall, according to people at the preserve.

The scholarship was established in honor of Phyllis Ellman, a longtime ranch board member and “founding mother” of the Bouverie Preserve Environmental Education Program. Ellman died in June.

Audubon Canyon Ranch is not affiliated with the National Audubon Society, but is an independent non-profit organization that oversees the Cypress Grove Research Center on Tomales Bay, the 535-acre Bouverie Preserve near Glen Ellen and the 1,000-acre Bolinas Lagoon Preserve near Stinson Beach.