Scholarships at the collegiate level are incredibly important to students, and Land O’Lakes is proud to announce the call for applications for our Direct Member Scholarship program. It’s a benefit of your membership that you can extend to your children and grandchildren, for them to pursue careers in agriculture and beyond.

Three $5,000 scholarships will be awarded each year. The Direct Member Scholarship program is open to all children and grandchildren of Land O’Lakes’ direct producer members. Students applying must currently be a high school senior entering either a two- or four-year school.

The application process

Applications are now open, and the Direct Member Scholarship application form can be found on the Member website under the Community Involvement section. Applications must be postmarked by March 15 to be considered.

The application form includes a space for the direct member (Class B) to sign, a section for the scholarship applicant’s information, and three short-answer questions for the applicant. In addition to the application form, a high school transcript and at least one letter of recommendation are required.

The completed application and accompanying documents can be mailed to the Land O’Lakes Foundation (address can be found on application form) or to landolakesfoundation@landolakes.com.

Supporting students through scholarships

In modern agriculture, we need talented individuals with a wide range of skills in all areas across the spectrum — from those involved directly in agriculture, to those in production and those behind-the-scenes in science and health.

Last year, we had an incredibly strong pool of candidates, and ultimately chose four students to receive scholarships:

• Peyton Fernandes – Tipton, California. Peyton is pursuing Ag System Management at Cal Poly State. He is affiliated with Fernoaks Farms.

• Mary Hintz – Flasher, North Dakota. Mary is pursuing Nursing at the University of Mary in North Dakota. She is affiliated with Robert Hintz farm.

• Jared Schrader – Earlville, Maryland. Jared is pursuing Molecular Biology at McDaniel College. He is affiliated with Wil-O-Mar Farms, LLC.

• Andrew Wilwerding – Freeport, Minnesota. Andrew is pursuing Dairy Production at South Dakota State University. He is affiliated with Wilwerding Dairy Inc.

This is not the first scholarship of its kind from the Land O’Lakes Foundation, but it is the first scholarship open nationwide exclusively for children and grandchildren of direct members. The Land O’Lakes Foundation also supports two specific scholarships for students pursuing agriculture careers, the Winfield Careers in Agriculture and the John Brandt Memorial Scholarship, in addition to supporting scholarships at Iowa State University, the University of Minnesota and Purdue University.

Encourage your children and grandchildren to consider applying. If you have any questions about the scholarship or application process, please contact the Foundation at landolakesfoundation@landolakes.com.