Young Agricultural Entrepreneurs get Largest Funding Boost to Date: $29,300 to 39 students
The Wisconsin FFA Foundation selected 39 students to share a record-setting $29,300 in SAE Grants. “It’s phenomenal. I can just imagine how those students react to the news,” said Nicole Nelson, executive director. “In fact, this year the process took a little longer to complete and announce the results. Before long I had several emails from advisors and students themselves. They were very eager to find out if they were selected.”
Isaiah Tretsven of the Luck FFA received a $725 grant for his Dairy SAE Project.
All of the funds were donated by agribusinesses and donors to the Wisconsin FFA Foundation Annual Fund. The businesses supporting the dairy grants include Saputo, Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, Foremost Farms USA, We Energies-Agriculture Services Program, and NASCO. The Wisconsin Aquaculture Association supported the aquaculture grant and Organic Valley supported the organic agriculture grants. The start-up grants were provided from the Wisconsin FFA Foundation’s Annual Fund, which is made up of unrestricted contributions from individuals and companies. The grants were awarded in four different SAE categories: aquaculture, dairy, organic agriculture and start-up. To compete for funding, students completed a five-page application that explained their SAE program to date, how much funding they were requesting, the anticipated use of the funds, future goals for their SAE program and other FFA and school-related activities. They also had the chance to explain any circumstances of financial need and their FFA advisor wrote a statement about the student.
Successful candidates were chosen mostly based on the level and scope of their SAE in accordance with their age, their future goals and plans for the program and financial need.
“We saw a really great pool of applicants this year,” said Nelson. “The judges were impressed with their thoughtful, high-aiming plans. They could tell by the writing that the students are passionate about their projects.”
