What a journey I’m about to embark upon! I was notified in March that I was selected to be the next North American Rolex Scholar for the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society (quite the mouthful!). I have been dreaming of this incredible opportunity ever since I heard about it during a scientific diving internship at the Shannon Point Marine Center in the summer of 2011 (save the pinto abalone!). This is the once-in-a-lifetime, mind blowing, I-would-gnaw-my-own-arm-off-to-be-selected scholarship. Needless to say, I am ridiculously excited.

In the last couple months since being notified, I’ve traveled to the East Coast twice and met some incredible people. My first trip took me to the Beneath the Sea dive show in Secaucus, New Jersey. I met my mermom for the year (well, I guess for life!), Robin Parish, who will be helping me out with a lot of the logistics and planning. I also met up with the 2012 NA Rolex scholar, Megan Cook, as well as the 2007 NA Rolex scholar, Brenna Mahoney. And who could forget Maureen Sweeney, quite the character as well as a member of the Board of Directors for the society. All of them did a fantastic job at showing me around, scheming ideas for my year ahead and introducing me to hosts and sponsors. I’ve got a great group supporting me!

 

Before I knew it, a month had passed and it was time to head back to New York for the 39th annual OWUSS meeting. It was an incredibly inspiring weekend. The OWUSS scholars and interns were on a whole different level from anything I have seen. Such fire, passion and determination. These amazing people are going to be the future of the dive industry, marine science and conservation. In fact, you can check out some Rolex Scholars’ videos by clicking on their names below.

Megan Cook– 2012 North American Scholar

Yolly Bosiger– 2012 Australasian Scholar

Oscar Svensson– 2012 European Scholar

 

Along with meeting the awesome and super friendly society folks, I got to hang out with the 2013 Australasian and European scholars, Stefan Andrews and Chloe Marechal (respectively). We were all pretty stoked for the weekend and our adventure ahead.  It was tough to contain the excitement (until the sleep deprivation set in).

 

One of the highlights of the weekend for me was the awards banquet at the New York Yacht Club where we were presented with a fitted and engraved Rolex watch (crazy!), a student membership to the Explorers Club, DAN travel gear and the charge to go out, explore and do great things to make this world a better place (possibly paraphrased).

 

Huge thanks to everyone who makes this scholarship possible (can you believe OWUSS is an all-volunteer organization?!) and especially Rolex who has supported leaders in the underwater world long before the scholarship’s inception. They are continually pushing the boundaries of exploration on their quest for excellence.

 

Follow along on my adventure by subscribing to the blog and by following me on instagram! Also, you can learn a little bit more about me in my Bio section. More to come as I kick off my year of traveling. I’d love to hear any comments or questions you’d have as well, so feel free to post below!

Cheers!

Jeff Hester

“What I want more than anything is a life rich with meaning and purpose.” From Breathing Underwater, a book by Dr. Joe MacInnis who is a founding member of the Rolex Scholarship.