Two graduate students named N.C. Sea Grant/ECU Maritime Heritage Fellows

Two North Carolina scholars are serving as the first Maritime Heritage Fellows supported under the North Carolina Sea Grant/East Carolina University Maritime Heritage Fellowship Program.

East Carolina University graduate students Jeremy Eamick and Valerie Grussing will serve as fellows in 2007.

North Carolina Sea Grant provides stipends for the joint fellowship effort that aims to advance graduate research and education in the maritime heritage field. It is open to students in various majors at East Carolina University.

“People are largely unaware of the extent that maritime enterprise has contributed to North Carolina’s development,” says Sara Mirabilio, North Carolina Sea Grant fisheries specialist and member of the fellowship committee. “The work of these fellows will help to reveal the importance of maritime enterprise in our state’s history.”

Eamick, who is from Lucama, received a bachelor’s degree from ECU, and is now working on a master’s in maritime studies from ECU. Eamick will be studying the historic landscape of Union Point in New Bern and how the maritime trading culture has changed over the years.

Grussing, who is from Ayden, received a bachelor’s degree from North Carolina State University and a master’s degree from the University of Iowa. Now, she is working on a doctoral degree in coastal resources management from ECU. Grussing will be conducting a policy analysis of the role of shipwrecks on heritage tourism development in North Carolina shipwrecks.

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