Fifteen Island individuals and one nonprofit initiative have been named 2021 Vineyard Vision Fellows, receiving financial support to continue their studies, pursue careers and develop projects that benefit the Island community.

This year’s recipients include a documentary filmmaker and an aspiring immigration lawyer, as well as social workers, scientists and the Island Food Waste Composting Project.

While more than half are first-time fellows, others are receiving continued or renewed support from the Vineyard Vision Fellowship, which since 2006 has provided grants to help Islanders acquire professional skills and education they can use in the Martha’s Vineyard community.

Island paralegal Marcella Alves, who earned her bachelor’s degree with help from a 2016 fellowship, will use this year’s award to continue her education with the goal of becoming an immigration attorney, according to an announcement Tuesday from Vineyard Vision Fellowship program director Melissa McKee Hackney.

Another 2016 fellow, Brian Morris, the mental health and substance use disorder coordinator at Island Health Care, will follow his master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling with studies toward a doctorate in social work, supported by his 2021 fellowship.

Four current college students received their second two-year fellowships, to help continue their undergraduate work.

Alley Estrella is pursuing a bachelor’s in social work at Western New England University, with plans to become a school adjustment counselor. Curtis Fisher is earning his bachelor’s in computer science and business administration at Northeastern University. Victoria Scott majors in environmental studies at Bates College and Mark Turner is working towards his bachelor’s in chemistry at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Three high school seniors and one recent graduate are receiving fellowships to begin their college careers.

Jenaleigh Griffin, a teacher’s assistant at the Oak Bluffs School Project Headway who graduated from the regional high school last June, is pursuing a health science degree on her way to becoming a nurse.

Lydia Carlos, a past volunteer at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, Windemere Nursing & Rehabilitation and Islanders Help who graduates from the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School this June, plans to study pre-med at Bates College in Lewiston, Me.

Regional high school classmate Jacob Gurney plans to study marine science and biology at college after a summer as environmental educator and camp counselor at Mass Audubon Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary’s Fern and Feather Day Camp.

Molly Menton, also a senior at MVRHS, plans to study nursing with a goal of becoming a maternity nurse, beginning this summer with her second mentorship under Martha’s Vineyard Hospital maternity nurse Joyce Capobianco.

The Vineyard Vision Fellowship also awarded a grant to Cecilia Brennan, who is pursuing a master’s degree in mental health counseling at William James College in Newton. One of the original volunteer steering team members for the Island Disability Coalition, Ms. Brennan serves on the board of the Cape Cod and the Islands chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Newly-named fellow Kelly McCarron, program coordinator for the Martha’s Vineyard Peer Recovery Support Center — a Martha’s Vineyard Community Services program located on the hospital grounds — will seek her master’s in social work from Simmons University in Boston.

Sheryl Taylor, the Islandwide health curriculum coordinator and grants coordinator for Martha’s Vineyard Public Schools, received a two-year fellowship award to scale up the Community Ambassador Partnership (CAP), which she co-founded at the start of the pandemic to bridge the communication gap with non-English-fluent Islanders.

Angela Luckey’s two-year fellowship award will enable her to advance the Vineyard’s backyard habitat movement through the Natural Neighbors program, a partnership between BiodiversityWorks and the Village and Wilderness Project to address the need for private property stewardship of the Island’s wildlife.

Ollie Becker, director of the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival’s MVVF Productions, has been awarded a two-year fellowship to continue making his documentary series on the Island’s Great Ponds and their journey to better environmental health.

The Island Food Waste Composting Project has received a two-year fellowship to engage a project manager and a project intern, to be hosted by the Vineyard Conservation Society.

This award begins the final phase of the fellowship’s food waste composting project, Ms. Hackney wrote. Started in 2015 when the fellowship created and funded a committee to study the Island’s food waste problem, the project now moves to its public policy phase, including engagement with local officials and voters through 2023.

More information about the Vineyard Vision Fellowship, including profiles of many of its more than 100 past fellows, is posted on the organization’s website.