Mingma Norbu Sherpa Memorial Scholarship

Mingma Norbu Sherpa was one of the first students to graduate from the Hillary Khumjung School - the first of many schools developed for Sherpa children with the assistance of Sir Edmund Hillary. Besides, he worked as a park warden for Sagarmatha National Park and had worked initially as a principle investigator for the feasibility study of the Annapurna area, and later as the director of the project itself. Mingma held this position for three years prior to joining WWF as the director of the Himalayan program for WWF's Nepal, Bhutan and Himalayan Program.

In this capacity, Mingma was responsible for the development and oversight for a variety of projects, including ACAP, as well as the management of Shey Phoksundo National Park in Nepal and Royal Manas National Park in Bhutan. Mingma went on to become the country representative of WWF's Bhutan and Nepal Program for the six years prior to his move to the United States in 1998. In this role, he handled the program development, supervision, and coordination of all WWF program interests in Nepal and Bhutan.

To honor the late Mingma Norbu Sherpa’s life-long commitment and to help Nepal’s rural poor to improve their livelihoods while living in harmony with nature, WWF has established a Memorial Scholarship Fund that will provide financial assistance to students from remote regions of Nepal who intend to pursue careers in nature conservation. Recognizing the tremendous loss of leadership with Mingma’s untimely and tragic death, through this fund WWF will help build a new generation of conservation leaders to take on the many challenges facing Nepal in preserving its rich natural heritage.

Each year WWF will award the Mingma Norbu Sherpa Memorial Scholarship to a student to pursue Bachelor’s Degree in the field of environment and biodiversity conservation in Nepal. The scholarship aims to encourage bright and promising students from Nepal’s rural mountain areas preferably those from Sagarmatha, Kangchenjunga, Langtang, Manaslu, Makalu Barun, Gaurishankar, Annapurna (Manang and Mustang districts), Rara, Dolpo and Api Nampa to pursue careers in biodiversity conservation. The scholarship is available to Nepali citizens only, with priority given to socio-economically disadvantaged applicants, who have either applied or secured admission, or have started classes at a university in Nepal.

WWF has awarded Mingma Norbu Sherpa Memorial Scholarship to following outstanding Nepalese students who showed need, extraordinary talent and interest in conservation field.

Recipients of Mingma Norbu Sherpa Memorial Scholarship