Natural Leaders

hristopher Helms used to worry about the quality of young government recruits and their lack of interest in the environment and in public policy issues. Not anymore. Having met hundreds of college students over the last six years, the executive director of the Morris K. Udall Foundation for Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental Policy says he is no longer ambivalent about the future. In fact, he is optimistic.

"They are an exceptional group," Helms says of the more than 500 students who have been awarded scholarships, fellowships or internships by his agency. "We are looking for young people who share the same ideals as Mo Udall and who can make a difference in the world," Helms says, referring to the late congressman from Arizona who was committed to preserving the environment. "We are responsible for nurturing the future environmental leaders in this country. We take that responsibility very seriously."

As federal agencies go, the Udall Foundation, a small, little-known organization in Tucson, Ariz., 2,200 miles from the nation's capital, falls below the radar screen of most government officials and observers. But the foundation has an important mandate: Through its financial and academic support of students, it fosters a greater understanding of the environment, of public lands and natural resources, and of American Indian affairs.

"There is a disconnect between the scientific and technical people in government agencies and environmental advocates around the country," says Terrence Bracy, assistant secretary of Transportation under President Carter and chairman of the Udall Foundation's presidentially appointed board of trustees. "These two worlds need to communicate with each other. We try to get science students to take public policy courses and government students to at least get their toes wet in science."

Beyond building public understanding and providing scholarships, the foundation also helps federal agencies and other organizations resolve environmental disputes outside the political and judicial processes. It does so through the congressionally created Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution. The institute serves as a neutral third party that helps public and private groups "reach a common ground," says Kirk Emerson, the institute's director.

Congress established the Udall Foundation in 1992 in honor of the Arizona Democrat who served in Congress for 30 years before retiring in 1991. Udall died in 1998. As chairman of the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee (now the Resources Committee), Udall helped enact legislation to preserve natural and archeological resources and to promote self-governance by American Indians. He ran for the Democratic nomination for President in 1976, losing to Jimmy Carter.

The foundation and institute represent "a very fitting way to honor Mo's legacy," says Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who regarded the liberal Democrat as a mentor despite their political differences. "Mo was a great advocate who was the best I have seen at getting people to sit down and discuss their differences," McCain says. "This will continue his efforts."

In 1992, Congress promised the foundation an endowment of $40 million, but appropriated only about $20 million. Appropriations since 1996 have added another $6 million to the endowment. Interest on the endowment, which totals about $1.5 million a year, funds the scholarship, fellowship and internship programs. As for the foundation's mediation services, Congress provides $1.25 million annually in appropriations for the Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, which also expects to collect about $1 million in fees from the government agencies and private groups it represents.

Planting the Seeds

The foundation began awarding scholarships to undergraduates interested in environmental public policy in 1996. In its first year, the foundation received 293 applications and awarded 55 scholarships. The foundation now receives more than 500 applications and hands out about 80 scholarships a year. Each recipient gets up to $5,000 for one year.

That might not sound like much, but it was a welcome aid for Kristin Kelling, a 1997 Udall Scholar who attended Ohio Wesleyan University. "It allowed me to work on environmental issues in Ecuador for a semester during my junior year," says Kelling, who is now the Udall Foundation's education program manager.

The foundation also awards two one-year, $24,000 fellowships each year to Ph.D. students in environmental public policy or conflict resolution. "We want them to be able to concentrate on their work without having to worry about money," Helms says. In all, more than 130 students have applied and 10 fellowships have been awarded.

The foundation also brings a dozen American Indian college students to Washington each year to learn about government and politics firsthand. The internship program, the first of its kind for American Indians, involves undergraduates from a variety of academic majors. The interns work at the White House and congressional offices for three months during the summer. "They get a snapshot of how the system here operates," says board chairman Bracy, who heads the Washington lobbying firm of Bracy, Williams. Sixty-seven Udall interns have completed the program.

Yet another Udall program focuses on grade school kids, ages 9 to 12. The foundation's Parks-in-Focus Program takes a dozen disadvantaged children from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Tucson each summer to national and state parks in Arizona. Participants have visited such places as the Painted Desert National Wilderness Area, Canyon de Chelly and Montezuma's Castle national monuments, and Red Rock State Park. "Maybe some of these kids will consider careers in the environment or natural resources," says foundation board member Mark Schaefer, who suggested the program. Schaefer is a former deputy assistant secretary of Interior and is now the president of the Association for Biodiversity Information, an environmental information clearinghouse.

"We want to expand their horizons," Bracy adds. "A lot of these kids have never been out of their neighborhoods. We take them places most have never imagined. We give them a camera and film, take them hiking with park rangers and let them take pictures they can bring back to their neighborhoods." The pictures, taken with cameras supplied by Canon and film donated by Kodak, have been exhibited at the Tucson airport and the Tucson Children's Museum.

Sharing Knowledge

Student aid isn't the only way the foundation encourages public understanding of the environment. The Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, created by the University of Arizona in 1987, promotes the study of environmental, American Indian and U.S.-Mexican border issues. The foundation provides 20 percent of its endowment interest, or nearly $280,000 a year, to the center. The center hosts workshops on local environmental issues, sponsors symposiums on managing public disputes and compiles a database on academic programs in dispute resolution.

The foundation and center created the Native Nations Institute in January. The institute grew out of a Harvard University study of economic development on Indian reservations led partly by Stephen Cornell, director of the center and professor of sociology and public administration at the University of Arizona. The institute offers leadership and management training to senior officials of American Indian nations. Congress has promised to give the institute $12.5 million over five years, but has not yet appropriated the money.

Cream of the Crop

While the scholarship programs rarely generate the heated controversies often associated with government programs, getting the foundation's efforts off the ground proved anything but easy. "It is hard to give out money intelligently," Bracy says. "You need high standards and quality students or scholarship programs will not work." Helms agrees. "We want the Udall scholarships to be as prestigious as a Fulbright or a Truman scholarship," he says.

To that end, the foundation hired American College Testing, an educational services firm in Iowa City, Iowa, to ask more than 2,700 universities and colleges in the United States to identify qualified students and help them submit applications. The firm selects faculty members to review the applications and select the winners. "We have nothing to do with actually selecting any of our scholars, fellows or interns," Helms says.

Even with outside help, recruiting is a never-ending job for the foundation. Kelling calls as many faculty representatives as she can to remind them of the scholarship's existence. "They sometimes forget or give up if they nominate good students who do not get selected," she says. "We have to encourage them to keep trying." Moreover, to attract a more racially and ethnically diverse group, Kelling travels to Hispanic and American Indian educational conferences and calls college representatives in Puerto Rico. "I try to spread the word," she says.

The foundation's Native American internship program struggled at first. "We had trouble figuring out how to recruit Native Americans," Helms says. "We were a brand new program with a two-person staff and we had one year to find qualified interns." He considered going through tribal councils, but was told that would take too long. So Helms turned to Robert Williams, professor of law and American Indian studies at the University of Arizona, who helped the foundation find students from those two departments. Helm also sought help from Bill Anoatubby, governor of the Chickasaw Nation in Ada, Okla., in recruiting college students from his tribe. Now the foundation has an official application form, a Web site and an informal, but effective, word-of-mouth network.

The foundation is limited by its statute and funding, which is restricted largely to interest on its congressional endowment, but Helms and his staff would like to do more. One option is to make the Parks-in-Focus Program permanent and expand it to other parts of the country. "Just think what we could do with kids from the District [of Columbia] if we could get them out to some place like Assateague [Island National Seashore, Md.]," Schaefer says. Another option, Wheeler adds, is to increase the number of scholarships, fellowships and internships. But that will depend on appropriations, she says.

In the meantime, Kelling is amply satisfied doing what she does. "I don't feel like I am a bureaucrat working for a big government agency," she says. "I am involved in all of the foundation's programs and relationships with other agencies. I get to work with kids and to give away money. I love it. It's great."