Au Sable Institute announced today that the 2026 recipient of the Calvin B. DeWitt Leadership Fellowship is Maia Peterson of Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Maia is finishing her second year at Calvin, double-majoring in Environmental Science and Philosophy.

Maia has been very involved in Calvin’s student sustainability club, Earthkeepers and participated in an internship last summer with Plaster Creek Stewards. Reflecting on her work with Plaster Creek Stewards, Maia wrote in her application for the award, “Experiential learning about local ecosystems through Plaster Creek Stewards motivated me to protect and explore the natural world around me: collecting seeds in a haven of old-growth forest with our team and nurturing hundreds of seedling native plants truly excited me to see how biological knowledge could be applied. This experience showed me firsthand that sustainability leadership isn’t just about organization or sharing facts with people but welcoming them into personal experiences that create an intrinsic care for a place.”

The Calvin B. DeWitt Leadership Fellowship is the largest and most prestigious fellowship offered at the Au Sable Institute. Applicants must demonstrate academic excellence and a record of accomplishment with a high potential for continued leadership in Christian environmental stewardship, much like that of Dr. Calvin DeWitt, the Institute’s Founding Executive Director. Cal displayed visionary leadership as he led Au Sable for its first two decades and engaged with the wider Christian community to care for God’s earth out of joy for the good gift of creation and out of our responsibility as earth keepers to serve and protect it.

Congratulations Maia! We look forward to having you with us.