Art Mitchell Scholarship Fund

Marine Resources Development Foundation owes much to its original MarineLab Education Director Art Mitchell. In 1986, he designed the programs that are presented to this day, and set the bar for the quality of his teaching and his devotion to the ocean. Art held a Master’s degree in science education and brought his passion and ability to connect with people of all ages to a fledgling marine environmental education center. Art’s favorite students came from underserved populations; he loved to see the amazement and interest sparked in children who had never looked below the ocean surface before.

Art passed away in October 2017 from complications from Parkinson's Disease. To honor his memory, we created the Art Mitchell Memorial Fund to provide financial assistance for students from Florida Title I schools to attend a MarineLab program.Art knew how the ocean could be used to teach, inspire, and change the lives of students of all ages. He passed that knowledge on to scores of MarineLab instructors, who continue to pass it on to thousands and thousands of students.

All donations to this fund will be used strictly to enable underserved students & teachers to experience a MarineLab program. We have expanded the scholarship to include scholarships for teachers from Title I schools to attend our summer teacher workshops and to make our virtual programs FREE for Florida Title I classrooms.

Are you a Florida teacher interested in finding out more about our scholarship funds? Learn more about our MarineLab programs and scholarship availability.