Supporting the next generation of farmers and ag professionals
How scholarships from Minnesota Corn, county corn associations help students
Written by Jonathan Eisenthal
Each year, as part of its mission to increase opportunities while enhancing quality of life, Minnesota Corn awards $5,000 scholarships to young-adult members pursuing careers and degrees in agriculture. Additionally, some of Minnesota’s 52 organized county corn grower associations award scholarships to college students.
In total, Minnesota Corn has awarded $80,000 in scholarships to 16 students, and county grower associations have awarded thousands more to scores of students.
Minnesota Corn Growers Association (MCGA) First Vice President Jim Kanten said he’s consistently impressed with the quality of scholarship applicants. “Their academics, their involvement in school activities, and the things they do to help their community—they are impressive, all around, as people,” he said. “The thing I really connect to is how involved they are in their community, how they go the extra mile to help people. That really gives me a good feeling about the future of rural life and agriculture.”
Kanten said Minnesota Corn awards scholarships to students pursuing a range of careers within agriculture. Given rapid advancements in the field, he said it’s critical that future generations of farmers and agriculture professions have diverse skillsets.
“We’re counting on the young adults we are supporting with scholarships to be part of figuring out the next things, the new things, that food production will need,” he said.
For 2024, the deadline to apply for the Minnesota Corn scholarship is Jan. 5. To qualify, applicants must be MCGA members. A young adult membership is $20.
The list of county grower associations that offer scholarships, and the deadlines for those programs, is available at mncorn.org/scholarships. Be sure to check that page throughout the winter or contact the Minnesota Corn district field manager (DFM) in your area for the latest information. You can see which DFM covers your county and get their contact information at mncorn.org/contact/staff.
The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) also offers specific scholarships for undergraduate students, technical school/community college students, and graduate students. The deadline for NCGA’s 2024 scholarships is Jan. 31. Learn more and apply at ncga.com/scholarships.
As 2024 scholarship deadlines approach, Minnesota Corn briefly checked in with four past state and county scholarship recipients to see what they’re up to now.
Luke Carr
Luke Carr, a 2020 Minnesota Corn scholarship recipient, recently graduated from South Dakota State University with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture business and a minor in ag marketing. He said the scholarship was a huge help for him.
After graduating, Carr began a career as a grain originator with StateLine Cooperative near Blue Earth. Grain originators purchase grain from farmers to sell to commodity markets, making them a key link between farmers and end users.
Carr plans to join his family farm operation and said his grain marketing skills are already benefiting the farm.
Heidi Hoffman Hauser
“For me personally, it paid off my last semester of college,” said Heidi Hoffman Hauser, who received both the Minnesota Corn scholarship and a scholarship from Brown County Corn and Soybean Growers Association. Hauser graduated from the University of Minnesota this year with a double major in animal science and agricultural communication and marketing and a minor in ag business.
“The scholarship was huge for me, because it was such a large financial burden lifted off my shoulders,” Hauser said. “It really allowed me to spend the time and to focus on my last semester of studies, and to focus on my next steps after college—all the job interviews or networking. Having that financial burden lifted off at that moment was one of the greatest things I could ask for.”
Now, Hauser works as a digital advertising operations specialist for Farm Journal’s Precision Reach online advertising program, which specializes in connecting advertisers with target audiences.
“I really love what I’m doing right now,” Hauser said. “I could definitely see myself staying in the digital advertising and digital marketing space long term. Especially at Farm Journal.”
Nathan Huot
Scholarships also help students who plan from the start to be farm operators. That includes students like Nathan Huot, who currently farms with his dad while he studies agronomy at the University of Minnesota Crookston.
“My education has already helped me as a farmer,” Huot said. “One of my first courses was ‘Crop and Weed Identification,’ so that has helped me identify different weed species when I am out scouting our fields. When I talk to the agronomist that we work with, he can come up with recommendations based on that scouting.”
Huot has spent his whole life on the family farm and would like to eventually farm full time. He’s currently responsible for some of his own acres on the farm and is working toward ownership at some point.
After graduation, Huot plans to get a full-time job as an agronomist, which he hopes to keep for five to seven years, just to get experience.
“That job will help me cover expenses, and the money I make from farming during that time, I will try to keep in the farming operation, so I can grow it and work towards my goal of farming full time,” he said.
Anna Prchal
Anna Prchal, who represents the fifth generation of her family farm in New Prague, has always wanted to pursue a career in science and engineering. Her scholarship from Minnesota Corn helped her through South Dakota State.
“A four-year degree is definitely expensive, so the scholarship really alleviated some financial pressure. I was very thankful to be able to apply that scholarship to my schooling,” Prchal said.
At SDSU, Prchal majored in agricultural and biosystems engineering with an emphasis in natural resources engineering, and she minored in sustainability. In June, she began working as a water resources technician with the worldwide engineering consulting company Stantec. In the role, she goes to different construction sites to inspect for environmental concerns like water and drainage issues.
“I look at best management practices to make sure that soil and water is being properly managed on the sites,” she said.
Prchal said she believes her current job will be a steppingstone to a career that focuses on engineering projects in the agricultural sphere. Today, and going forward, engineering at farm sites is a critical part of managing soil, water, and other natural resources.
