Ocean City Girl Wins Fishing Club Scholarship, Follows Dreams

OCEAN CITY, NJ — Ocean City high schooler Abby Armstrong, the 2022 winner of Ocean City Fishing Club's annual scholarship, plans on following her passions as she heads to college in the fall.

“I was taught from when I was a young girl to study what you’re passionate about,” Armstrong, a lifelong resident of Seaville in Upper Township, said during a recent visit to the OCFC Fishing Pier, according to OCFC. “And that if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”

The annual scholarship program awards $500 to a graduating Ocean City High School senior who plans to study biology, environmental sciences, oceanography or a related field in college, OCFC said.

Armstrong is heading to West Virginia University to study environmental resource management, which offers specialization in its economics, sciences and entrepreneurship.

Armstrong originally had no interest in attending WVU, but visited after family friends encouraged her to check it out, and fell in love with the campus, OCFC said.

“It’s a big school with a great school spirit, while also maintaining that small-town, close- knit feel in the student body,” she said. The college has about 25,000 students at the Morgantown campus. “Plus it’s just far enough to be away from home yet close enough to get home in a day. It checked off all the boxes.”

Armstrong will stay at home until Aug. 11, when she leaves for college. Until then, she keeps herself busy working as a server for Dino's Seaville Diner and giving surfing lesson at Ocean City NJ Surf School.

“In the summertime, I get paid to work on the beach—what could be better!” Armstrong said.

Next summer could be different, as WVU arranges summer internships for its students. And though Armstrong has not decided on a specialization, she's open to options, OCFC said.

“Who knows what I’ll be doing this time next year,” she said. “It will be interesting, no matter what I decide. And I’m so grateful to the Ocean City Fishing Club for this scholarship. It’s an honor to receive it.”

Founded in 1913, the Ocean City Fishing Club is the oldest, continually operating
fishing club in the United States.