Wow! Where do I begin? The past month has been incredibly exciting and, in a lot of ways, entirely overwhelming! In the flurry of events, introductions and celebrations it’s not hard to temporarily lose sight of the incredible year I have in store and get lost in the excitement of present events, but it’s shaping up to be quite a year. More on that in a bit – I ought to start by introducing myself.

My name is Josh Stewart. I was born and raised in New York City and, as you may have guessed, I am completely infatuated with the ocean. With Coney Island being the only coastal outlet in sight (and not a very impressive one, at that), how could a kid get so excited about the ocean? Well honestly I can’t tell you when it started, because I’ve loved the ocean my entire life! I can only assume that my first grade teacher had a hand in it, substituting story time with ‘whale time’ once or twice a week during those formative years. The earliest signs show up in 3rd grade, when my career poster was a picture of a gigantic shark and a very small scuba diver. From there the clues are easier to spot – about a hundred children’s books on whales and dolphins, ocean-related science projects, summers in the Caribbean learning to dive, sail and snorkel, and even marine conservation work in Costa Rica during high school.

My love, excitement and passion for the ocean really flourished in college. Whenever I tell someone that I’m studying marine biology at Indiana University, I get the same puzzled look – a look you would have seen on my face four years ago, too. Believe it or not, IU has one of the oldest academic diving programs in the country! While the research focuses of the Office of Underwater Science are primarily underwater archaeology and marine park development, I managed to slip in as a biologist studying coral recruitment on submerged cultural resources (shipwrecks, for short). For four years now I’ve been working with the Office, conducting research around the Caribbean and training a new generation of scientific divers back here at IU, and in a few weeks time I’ll be graduating with IU’s first degree in Marine Biology.

So now that you know who I am, let’s talk about this incredibly exciting scholarship. If I have any advice for all of you high school students and college undergrads who are on the fence about whether or not to apply, it’s to apply already! Well, maybe wait until you graduate. I’m sure that I was in your shoes one year ago thinking ‘it just looks too good to be true – it must be incredibly competitive, how could I possibly have a chance?’ Sure, it’s competitive, but as long as we’re being candid, this was my too-good-not-to-apply, may-as-well-give-it-a-try option! So I buckled down, gave the essays and the application everything I had, sat sick with anticipation through each round of the selection process, and in late March I got a congratulatory phone call which has changed my life! So now here I am, writing to all of you as the 2010 North American Rolex Scholar of the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society!

While I didn’t officially receive this title until the annual Explorers Club event in April, the adventure started that same day in March when I was instructed to get in touch with my ‘Mermom’ for the next year, Robin Parish. Since then, Robin’s been helping me plan what is promising to be an incredible year. The idea is to explore potential career paths by working with an incredibly broad range of professionals and, hopefully, hone in on what I consider the best fit by the end of the year. I’m going into the year with my primary focus as marine conservation and (or perhaps through) documentary filmmaking, but who knows if that will be true 12 months from now!

The year kicked off with a trip to Beneath the Sea in New Jersey, just across the river from my hometown. On the way to the convention center we had a great view of the skyline, but, believe it or not, the weekend was so busy I didn’t set one foot inside New York’s city limits! We started off right away as ‘experts’ on a panel for a marine careers workshop on applying for scholarships. Jamie Brisbin, the 2008 North American Rolex Scholar, drove in as well to sit on the panel and to give me his older mer-sibling advice. It was great to see so many young people who were so interested in the underwater world. In fact, their feedback was consistently that there wasn’t enough time in the workshops!

After the workshops we walked around the show for a bit, bumping into friends, hosts and sponsors all over the place! Robin introduced me to Dan Orr of Divers Alert Network, who was on a mission to introduce me to as many people as possible. I had a great time walking around the floor meeting the legends of diving and some of the newest innovators in the diving industry. We stopped in at the Halcyon booth where Jarrod Jablonski had me try on the new Infinity BC system that Halcyon generously donates to the scholarship. We had to postpone our visit to the DUI booth until Sunday due to the massive influx of DUI fans getting fitted for their spiffy new drysuits. We did get a chance to say hi to the friendly folks at Aqua Lung, Olympus, Light & Motion, and our newest sponsor, Reef Photo & Video. After an hour or two we scurried off to grab a shower and change before the Fish N’ Famous dinner that night.

The banquet was like something out of a dream. Dan introduced me to everyone from Sylvia Earle to Phil Nuytten, who had his likeness carved into limestone as the newest ‘Legend of the Sea.’ A big thanks to Zig & JoAnn for hosting the OWUSS crew! The next night at the awards dinner we had the great pleasure of watching Faith Ortins of DUI and another of our sponsors Annie Crawley be inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame! Huge congratulations, Faith and Annie! All in all, the weekend passed in a blur of excitement and tons of new names and faces.

I had two weeks to recuperate before the annual OWUSS event at the Explorers Club. The weekend was a blast! I got to spend one night at home with my parents before taking off to the hotel on Thursday night – the first time I’ve ever stayed in a hotel in NYC. I met last year’s scholars, Von, Filip and Matt, and finally met my European and Australasian counterparts, Ingrid and Will. After reading about these people (for a year, in the case of the 2009 scholars) it was bizarre to finally meet them! We caught up and became fast friends before heading off to meet, well, everyone. The weekend flew by even quicker than Beneath the Sea. Meetings and then the theater on Thursday, meetings and then dinner on Friday, and, of course, meetings and then the Explorers Club banquet on Saturday, finishing off with a wonderful brunch at the Emmerman’s house on Sunday.

On Thursday morning, Ingrid, Will and I took a very exciting trip to the Rolex office where we met John Flaherty and were fitted for our Submariner watches. It felt great to try them on but what a let down to see them go back into their boxes! Naturally, we were even more excited by Saturday to receive them.

At dinner on Friday night we were hosted by former scholar Ted Janulis and his wife Barbara at Byblos restaurant where we got to meet just about everyone involved with the scholarship, along with all of the sponsors and hosts who could make it. Andy Bausk from Olympus showed up with the new Olympus PEN camera to whet our appetites and snap a few shots. Brian Harper from DAN showed up and, proving that the dive industry is an incredibly small world, I recognized him as my sixth grade summer camp counselor. And of course shortly afterwards we were publicly embarrassed in front of them all when we were introduced and presented with gifts from the previous scholars: Sponge Bob Square Pants floaties, personalized Indiana Jones-style foam hats, and of course our ‘North America,’ ‘Europe,’ and ‘Australasia’ sashes.

Saturday morning’s seminars were an incredibly informative set of talks from the 2009 scholars, some hosts and sponsors such as the National Park Service and National Marine Sanctuaries, and former scholars sharing their current activities (I think we all know way too much about sea grass after Jamie’s talk). The Explorers Club banquet that night was a blast. We arrived early and took a tour of the Explorers Club, an incredibly cool spot. Sleds from the first Arctic expeditions, trophies from expeditions all over the world, and of course the famous Explorers Club flags which all have pretty extraordinary histories were hanging around the 6-story brownstone wedged in the middle of a couple of skyscrapers. Von, Filip and Matt presented their end-of-the-year videos, which got me even more excited about the upcoming year, if that’s possible. Ingrid, Will and I were introduced to everyone and had an opportunity to give a big thanks to all of our sponsors and everyone at the Scholarship Society, along with a quick word on what we’re hoping to accomplish this year. We were presented with our Rolex Submariners, along with some gear from DAN, our fantastic new video housings from Light & Motion, and our great plaques from Sport Diver!

After brunch at the Emmerman’s on Sunday, it was back to Indiana to hit the books and get ready for graduation before embarking on the next year of adventures. A few weeks later I did have a chance to hit the quarries for some training dives with our Scientific Diving students, where I got to try out my new Halcyon Infinity BCD and TLS Drysuit from DUI. I have to say I’ve never been so happy or perfectly horizontal in 40-degree water! Bring on the 32-degree stuff! I’m very much looking forward to the next year diving with their gear, and I never thought I’d be excited to go diving in cold water…