Dwinessa Pratt, from Nassau, Bahamas, was awarded the $10,000 Jerry Tishman scholarship for architecture by the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach.
The Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach has awarded its first Jerry A. Tishman $10,000 scholarship to an architecture student at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.
Dwinessa Pratt, 27, from Nassau, Bahamas, received the scholarship to go toward her graduate education in architecture at FAMU, where she is working on her master’s thesis. The thesis focuses on development of an eco-friendly tourist attraction in the Bahamas that displays the importance of the queen conch to Bahamian culture.
The queen conch, an endangered species, is a major part of the culture’s cuisine, Pratt said.
“Basically, I’m proposing a marine preservation facility that will help (conch) have a safe place to grow and reproduce, then be put back into its natural habitat,” Pratt said, “which will protect it from overfishing and extinction.”
Pratt was inspired to look into designing the eco-friendly attraction by a conch farm she visited as a child in the Turks and Caicos, she said.
The adviser for the FAMU School of Architecture and Engineering Technology, Ronald Lumpkin, sent out an email about the scholarship to students he thought would benefit, and after some initial hesitation from Pratt, he encouraged her to apply. When Pratt got the email from Katie Jacob, director of education for the foundation, that she had been chosen, she was “extremely surprised,” but they told her they valued her thesis idea.
“Given that I am an international student, I am always looking for scholarship opportunities to help me with my tuition,” Pratt said. “This scholarship was not only a way to show my passion for architecture and nature but a way for me to move further towards my goal of receiving my master’s degree here at FAMU.”
Jerry Tishman, who died in 2015, donated scholarships through the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach for architecture students.
The scholarship Pratt received was named for Tishman, a former Palm Beach resident who bequeathed the money to the foundation. Tishman, who died in 2015, had a love of architecture that was rooted in his family’s real estate holdings in New York, according to the Foundation.
Tishman, whose favorite Palm Beach organization was the Preservation Foundation, was a member of the New York Stock Exchange and worked with many charitable organizations throughout his career and retirement. His gift will fund two scholarships for architecture students.