Marlie said, “I was born vegan, so I really had no option. However, many of my friends that were also vegan since birth are no longer vegan which deeply saddens me … I chose to stay vegan because my grandma is a holocaust survivor and the images she has described parallels with what happens to animals for “food.” I see the sadness in my grandmother’s eyes when she tells the stories.”

     Growing up Marlie attended dozens of protests. At 6-years-old, she brought vegan snacks to a school events for the kids to try. Marlie was The Ravens Corps first “Lead Raven” in Florida. Following the onset of the pandemic, and activities were forced online, Marlie stepped up to be a guiding force for their virtual community, launching ‘The Animal Protection Corner,’ a space for youth to convene collaborate, and organize over a shared interest in animal rights and activism.

     Marlie used her video skills to produce videos for Jonathan Balcombe (author of What A Fish Knows), Crustacean Liberation, and promotion for vegan restaurant Umami Gorilla. She’s a mentor for Vegan Outreach, brings students to stores, shows them vegan options, and gives them ideas for meals. She has written a book about fish for young children, and is now working on the illustrations.

     In the future Marlie hopes to use a degree in film to make people more aware of the horrors that billions of animals go through for people to eat. Her perfect life in 5 years would be … to start working on expose film of the animal agriculture industry and where everyone is kind, compassionate, and vegan (of course).

For information on other winners and applying for the next Vegetarian Resource Group college scholarship contest with $20,000 in awards, see: https://www.vrg.org/student/scholar.htm

Next year’s deadline is February 20, 2022.

To support additional VRG scholarships and internships, donate at vrg.org/donate, call (410) 366-8343, or mail contribution to The Vegetarian Resource Group, P.O. Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203.