Alumnus receives prestigious award

Thermopolis native Matthew Bowen, a second year student at the University of Maine School of Law, was recently awarded the 2018 Shur-Frinsko Award for Municipal and Local Governance.

A graduate of the Hot Springs County High School Class of 2007, Bowen is the son of Pam Stevens and Mike Bowen. He said he was humbled and honored to be selected by the faculty for the award, and it came as a surprise since it was not something students can apply for.

The award goes annually to a Maine Law student, who has demonstrated academic excellence and accomplishment in the area of municipal law, land use, or local governance, with a commitment to and capacity for further contribution to the field. It was established in 2005 with core support from the law firm of Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer and Nelson, the family of the late Barnett I. Shur, and the Nelson & Small corporate family. The award honors Barnett I. Shur and F. Paul Frinsko, in recognition of their achievements in the practice of law and their leadership in municipal law.

Bowen has served in the Air National Guard for the past 10 years. He received his B.S. in Applied Social Sciences from Colorado State University Global Campus, and his A.S. in Electronic Systems Technology and Information Systems Technology from the Community College of the Air Force.

At Maine Law, he has served as a staff editor on the Ocean and Coastal Law Journal, a member of Maine Law Democrats, and the Clerk for the Finch Society. He also recently presented at Maine Law's 2018 Student Impact Summit on his policy proposals to utilize the federal crop insurance program to stabilize the aquaculture industry.

Matthew is a Wyoming native with an interest in property, municipal, and land use law. This summer he will be interning at WEX, Inc. and the fall will see him as a judicial clerk extern - an intern for academic credit - for federal Magistrate Judge John Rich III, U.S. District Court, District of Maine.

The award also comes with a $1,000 cash value. Bowen said it's nice to get a monetary award rather than something that would go toward tuition, as that is covered by the post 9-11 GI bill he's on. Instead, the money will help pay for the fees associated with the adoption of Bowen's new dog.

Bowen has done a research paper on how crop insurance can act as a stabilizing agent for the inherent risks of the aquaculture industry, which is inherently risky.

"My paper focused on the evolution of the program and how the goal has been to continually open up the program to more commodities," Bowen stated, "but the program falls short of that goal with aquaculture due to the actuarial risk associated with the husbandry of aquaculture, compared to terrestrial agriculture."

While in high school, he was in FFA and first learned about crop insurance through a guest speaker in Britton Van Heule's ag class. The two actually raised shrimp - and subsequently ate them - and now 10 years later Bowen has written a paper about crop insurance and the industry.