FFA Foundation gives out $21,000 for ND student ag projects

North Dakota FFA State Officers present two students with a $1,000 grant the North Dakota FFA Foundation. From left area Mikayla Wolfe (Tioga), Anna Stoppleworth (Kindred), Ethan Schaffner (Napoleon), Trenton Erbele (Napoleon) and Ben Van Berkom (Des Lacs-Burlington). Twenty-one students across N.D. received a $1,000 grant to help start and support their agricultural projects and businesses.

By Agweek Wire Reports and Jenny Schlecht

April 01, 2020 at 9:17 AM

BISMARCK, N.D. — The North Dakota FFA Foundation has awarded 21 North Dakota students each a $1,000 grant to aid in their agricultural business and/or projects.

The Bakk Farm Supervised Agricultural Experience Grant is a program that has given hundreds of thousands to North Dakota FFA members and students through the course of its existence. To be eligible for the grant, a student must be an active North Dakota FFA member and have a business or project in the field of agriculture to apply the grant towards. The applications are received and judged based on whether a member is beginning or expanding their agricultural project or business. This year nine recipients were awarded a beginning grant and twelve were awarded an expansion grant.

“These grants are very meaningful to a high school student in North Dakota,” says Cameron Young, Edgeley-Kulm High School’s agricultural educator. “The $1,000 that is awarded to a student allows them to turn what might be a hobby or passion for agriculture into a business or tangible experience.”

The 21 members who received these funds represent 14 different chapters and towns in N.D. The grants are made possible from rental income produced by land gifted to the North Dakota FFA Foundation by Fridjov Bakk in 1980.

“After reading the applications from this year’s applicants, it’s rewarding to know our $1,000 grants are going to students who are working hard to turn their passion into a possible lifelong career,” says Thomas Winders, sponsor and program coordinator of the North Dakota FFA Foundation. “The incredible things our youth in North Dakota are doing in the field of agriculture is absolutely impressive.”

The applications received show a wide range of diversity, from aquaculture to equine science, and crop to beef production, illustrating the continued importance of agriculture here in North Dakota.

North Dakota students who received a $1,000 grant:

Trenton Erbele, Napoleon;

Kaje Gudmestad, Medina;

Kaylee Kinsey, Bowman County;

Jacob Kramer, Max;

Lara Lane, Stanley;

Karlee Sailer, Beulah;

Joseph Schaefer, Oakes;

Halle Sorenson, Stanley;

Tyler Thompson, Oakes;

Kaitlyn Bartholmy, Scranton;

Allee Boyer, Edgeley-Kulm;