Construction of the 27-foot wooden boat Arundel 27 was part of a project undergone in Maine by this year's Sykes Award winner Susan Zaluski, a Tulane alumna.

After Susan Zaluski received a master's degree in international development from Tulane University in 2006, she decided to turn her offbeat ideas into an unexpected career involving boat-building. The 2007 winner of the Timothy Sykes Daytrading Award for the Talented, Zaluski is pursuing her dream of combining maritime preservation and boat-building as a vocational training tool for youth.

The award was established in 2002 by Timothy S. Sykes, then a junior at Tulane. While in school, Sykes was successful as an Internet daytrader on the stock market, and he wanted to do something to encourage others to pursue their own unusual abilities. He currently is managing partner of Cilantro Fund Partners LP in New York and frequently appears on CNBC as a stock market commentator.

"This unique award is designed to encourage those with talents that are not normally recognized by common academic and athletic scholarships," says Sykes. "There are many ways to be 'successful' in today's society and this award acknowledges young people with unique interests and passions."

Zaluski says she fell in love with the Nydia when she first discovered it on the Tulane uptown campus. The wooden sailing vessel brought back memories of her childhood sailing in Bristol, R.I.

"I learned lessons from sailing that every human should know," Zaluski says. "Fresh water is a precious commodity not to be wasted, human beings create too much garbage and, of course, duct tape can fix nearly anything. Sailing taught me how to be more independent, self-reliant and how to creatively solve problems."

With the Sykes award, Zaluski hopes to bring those lessons to youth in a developing country.

"I hope to use boat-building to make a positive contribution to the field of sustainable development while I simultaneously use sustainable development to make a positive contribution to boat-building and restoration," Zaluski says.

In September 2006, Zaluski enrolled in a one-year vocational program in wooden boat-building at the Landing School of Boatbuilding and Design in coastal Maine, and has been building a 27-foot wooden picnic boat, the Arundel 27.

This fall, she will begin work at the Jost van Dykes Preservation Society, a Caribbean nonprofit organization promoting grassroots sustainable development through environmental and cultural heritage projects. The organization is building a traditional island sailing sloop, using the project to promote maritime heritage while providing educational opportunities for island youth who are involved in the building process, Zaluski says.

Past winners of the Sykes Award include 2004 co-winners Henry Fitzhugh, selected for his dedication to the arts, and Dimitri Papadopoulus, an award-winning karate champion and instructor. The 2006 winner, Brian Pierson, was honored for bringing scientific accuracy to his work creating special effects for film.