SCSU senior biology major wins $27k scholarship with her blue crab research

If Melody Jackson is not accepted to the top graduate school of her choice, the University of Hawaii, she has other excellent options.

If all else fails, there is always Stanford or Harvard, said the South Carolina State University senior biology major.

Jackson is a precocious young lady, a confident self-starter who is not afraid to be different.

She was the only S.C. State student out of a pool of hundreds across the nation to receive the 2014 S.C. TRIO McNair Research Scholarship.

The grant competition, named after Lake City native Ronald E. McNair, awards institutions of higher education funds to prepare eligible participants for doctoral studies through involvement in research and other scholarly activities.

The goal is to increase the attainment of Ph.D. degrees from under-represented segments of society.

Jacksons research, titled Threat to the Blue Crab Population, earned her a $27,000 scholarship toward her post-undergraduate degree.

There is no other little animal that is more South Carolinian than the blue crab, she said.

For example, there is the Blue Crab Festival, which not only helps the economy but is also a huge part of the states ecology, Jackson said.

Her research, complied using current literature about threats to the blue crab population along the United States Mid-Atlantic and Gulf coasts showed that over the past decade, blue crabs have declined by as much as 51 percent, depending on the region.

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SCSU senior biology major wins $27k scholarship with her blue crab research