Thom Rumberger’s passion for preserving the environment and his dedication to saving the Everglades lives on in the law students who receive fellowships in his name each year. The University of Florida, through the Center for Governmental Responsibility, set up The E. Thom Rumberger Everglades Foundation Fellowship Program to support law school graduate fellows who will work with the Center for study and research in the areas of environmental law and public policy in partnership with the Everglades Foundation. Two law school students are chosen each year.

The 2016 E. Thom Rumberger Everglades Foundation Fellows spent their summers working for the law offices of the US Environmental Protection Agency in Washington D.C. and Atlanta. The 2015 Rumberger Fellows graduated in May 2016 and have passed the Bar.

One of the students has been selected to represent Florida in Washington D.C. as one of the National Sea Grant Knauss Fellows. Knauss fellowships allow recently graduated students from graduate and professional schools to spend one year with a paid internship in Washington D.C. working in marine and coastal policy in either Congress or the Executive Branch.

The second fellow from 2015 has been hired as part of a new partnership between the Clinic, Alachua Conservation Trust (ACT), the UF Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research, and the Gainesville-based Sea Turtle Conservancy. The newly minted attorney will split time at the Clinic, as Director of Special Projects, and ACT as a staff attorney.