Rotary Club and Scholarship Committee member Wayne Lindwall at an announcement event on Thursday, Nov. 7 2019 (Lethbridge News Now)

By Justin Goulet

Exhibition Park and Rotary expand $10,000 Ag Scholarship program

Nov 7, 2019 | 11:45 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Two of Lethbridge’s top agricultural students will be rewarded for their hard work.

Exhibition Park and the Rotary Club of Lethbridge East announced the second annual $10,000 Agricultural Scholarship Award today, Nov. 7.

This past school year, only one award was handed out, but thanks to donations from sponsors, the two organizations announced that two awards will be given out for this school season.

Students who apply must have completed at least three years of college or university at a recognized institution and must have demonstrated high academic achievement and leadership qualities in an agriculture-related field.

Last year’s scholarship award winner was Taber’s Lauren Machacek.

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“The scholarship definitely gave me a lot of confidence, I guess, at how much the community really supports students and how much they really believe we hold the future and we have agriculture in our hands,” Machacek said at an announcement event.

She went on to offer some advice for potential applicants.

“I was talking to a local producer who actually owns a feed lot and he was telling me about when he was in business school and we started talking about some of our classes and some of the things we were learning,” she said.

Lauren Machacek at Thursday’s announcement of the scholarship program expansion (Lethbridge News Now)

“He talked about how he learned [everything] at school and it kind of really struck me [that] sometimes school can seem really boring and like it’s not super important or what you’re learning might not relate back to the big picture, but seeing him talking about lessons that he had learned in his school and relating it back to the real world definitely hit home and it made me start to look at education [in] a different way and see how it could really benefit bigger problems.”

The applications will be available online as of Monday, Nov. 18 at www.exhibitionpark.ca and www.rotarylethbridgeeast.ca. Interested learners must apply before January 24, 2020.

Applicants must be a legal resident of the any of the following areas to apply: City of Lethbridge, County of Lethbridge, County of Taber, County of Warner, County of Forty Mile, County of Cardston, County of Pincher Creek, County of Ranchlands, County of Willow Creek, County of Vulcan, Blood (Kainai) First Nations, Piikani First Nation, or the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass.

Wayne Lindwall, a member of the Rotary Club and the scholarship committee, said there were 12 applicants for the 2019 award, but he expects more to come in for the 2020 honours.

Applications for the scholarship will be made available on November 18, 2019 (Lethbridge News Now)

He noted that the scholarship isn’t restricted to schools in southern Alberta.

If, for example, a student at the University of Saskatchewan wants to apply, they can as long as there from the above-mentioned areas. Not only is Rotary looking for students with strong academic achievements, they’re also going to be taking a look at their leadership skills.

“What have they done in their community? What have they done in the university environment, working with clubs to demonstrate their leadership – 50 percent of our evaluation is based on their personal leadership skills and what they’ve done in terms of community service because Rotary is focused on community service,” Lindwall stated.

“That’s one of our principles that we want to have applicants that will be good ambassadors not just for agriculture but for Rotary.”

The awards will be presented at a special dinner at Exhibition Park’s Heritage Hall on February 27, 2020.

A keynote speech will be provided by Robert D Saik.

Saik is a professional agrologist with over 40 years experience, an entrepreneur and consultant who has worked with a mix of individuals from Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture to Bill Gates.