Scholarships give agriculture and horticulture students a hand up

The exceptional, and often times financially strapped, agriculture and horticulture students of Massey University have had a helping hand from industry and private donors on Wednesday night at the University’s annual Applied Academic Programmes Scholarships Evening.

Held on Massey’s Manawatū campus, the evening celebrates the success of agricultural and horticultural students with a number of highly-competitive undergraduate and postgraduate level scholarships awarded. Over 120 students received scholarships or prizes throughout the evening ranging from $250 to $37,000 provided by industry, alumni and the University.

Scholarships committee chairman Dr Kerry Harrington says that for a lot of these students every cent helps.

“Having an evening where the students meet the people who are investing in their study is vital for us. When we are selecting who will receive them, it’s a difficult task as the standard of submissions is very high and a lot of the students could really benefit. From a student perspective, they have worked very hard to produce the results needed to gain a scholarship and the funding they receive, whether it be large or small, makes studying a little easier as there is less focus on how to pay bills.

“Equally, the evening is about shining a light on the organisations and donors that provide the investment in the futures of these students. We have a number of sponsors who have generously supported students over many years and who continue to provide more scholarships for students where they see a need or opportunity to help those students.

We are glad that we have been able to introduce some new scholarships this year, such as the Norwood Undergraduate Scholarships and the Peter Densem Scholarships.”

Some of the scholarship winners

Shani Eisenmann received the Charles W R Smith Memorial Scholarship worth $10,000. The scholarship is in memory of the late Charles William Robert Smith, who farmed at Whangaehu, and is given out based on academic achievement, financial need, or a demonstration of hard work. Mr Hunt also picked up the Ingleby Scholarship.

Federico Duranovich and Elham Shokri received the AgriOne Centre of Excellence Farm Business Management Doctoral Scholarships.

Emma Pettigrew, Mattes Groenendijk and Jacobus Kok received the prestigious C. Alma Baker Postgraduate Scholarship.

The Lois Postgraduate Turnbull scholarship was awarded to Sarah Ross. This scholarship is funded annually by Dr Lois Turnbull, a former student of Massey University who was encouraged to undertake postgraduate study because of scholarships available and now wishes to support female students into postgraduate study of agriculture or horticulture.