Name: 2025 JFETF Environmental Guardian Student Award

Year Awarded: 2025

Type Awarded: Scholarship

Details: Today’s youth will face terrible consequences if we continue ignoring the effects of climate change. The future needs young activists who will become the next generation of environmental leaders. Year-after-year, the world’s climate is heating up and people need to take action to reverse this. All nominations should discuss what the candidate did, including describing the project, its results, and its recommendations.

Status: Ms. Summer Orledge's passion for seeking out knowledge on how pollutants influence Earth’s systems and her devotion to protecting Earth’s species radiates through the research that she has conducted throughout her college career. As a student at the University of Mary Washington, Ms. Orledge has conducted several research studies on pollution in local water bodies. One of her most notable experiments tested the water quality of the James River, which runs by the coal-fired Bremo Power Station. The study maps the levels of sixteen different trace metals in various locations along the river and found high amounts of aluminum, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, and nickel in the tissue of snails that reside near the coal plant. Additional experiments Ms. Orledge has collaborated on involved testing a new technique for measuring boron isotope ratios in sediment and determining how the pH and dissolved calcium levels of the Potomac River influence metal mobility. Ms. Orledge coauthored a publication in the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry journal. This study measured trace metals in the James River from the Chesterfield Power Station. Ms. Orledge has presented her research on several occasions, two of which were at the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry symposium. Ms. Orledge also spent a week volunteering for Reef Renewal Foundation Bonaire, where she scuba dived to collect coral fragments that UMW students are using to create a timeline of sea surface temperatures and outplanted coral fragments in an effort to help restore the reef. Ms. Orledge will continue her research next year at American University. The first project she plans to collaborate on entails measuring the toxicity of organic chemicals in both the Anacostia and Potomac River. Ms. Orledge’s various research studies prove her fidelity to the scientific field and to preserving the environment, making her most deserving of the 2025 Environmental Guardian Award.