Annie's Sustainable Agriculture Scholarships

Jennifer Gardner

$10,000 recipient

Cornell University

Crop and Soil Sciences

Jennifer Gardner is working toward her PhD in Crops and Soil Science at Cornell University.  Currently, she is tackling environmental problems with global consequences, specifically aimed at mitigating the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. She is president of the New World Agriculture and Ecology Group (NWAEG), and a founding member of the Cornell Dining Local Foods Advisory Council, where she has helped to increase the amount of local produce Cornell purchases.  The local foods council has created an annual "Fall Harvest Dinner" event, which is prepared completely from local food.

“Sustainable agriculture should not be conceived as a specific, or universal, end point.  Instead, it should be an evolving process constructed by multiple stakeholders with multiple perspectives rooted in particular places.”

Meryl Olson

$10,000 recipient

University of Vermont

Agroecology and Rural Livelihoods

Meryl Olson is a graduate student at the University of Vermont.  Currently, she is a research assistant in the Department of Plant and Soil Science, conducting field research in Central America focused on food security, farmer livelihoods, and conservation in small-scale coffee agroecosystems.  Meryl is also involved in activities to support the communities where she conducts her research.  Thus far, she has organized public events to raise awareness about the coffee price crisis and the difficult situation it has caused for coffee farmers, along with a coffee-tasting benefit event to raise funds for the coffee growers in El Salvador. 

“Sustainable agriculture must incorporate both the ecological aspects of farming and the well-being of the people who farm.”
 

Sarah Broughton

$2,500 recipient

University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Plant Sciences

Sarah Broughton is a graduate student at the University of Tennessee studying organic and sustainable agriculture and horticulture therapy.  Sarah works in the university’s organic crop production lab assisting with the analysis of post-harvest quality vegetables from their trials.  Sarah is the primary designer of a demonstration vegetable plot at the university’s botanic garden and she will soon begin planning a kitchen garden for the Culinary Institute.

“As a philosophy, and a movement, sustainable agriculture aims to meet present needs in a manner that poses the least compromise to future generation and agricultural pursuits.  It represents the concern of farmers, policy makers and citizens for the stewardship of our human and natural resources by establishing self-sustaining methods of food production.”
 

Timothy Krupnik

$2,500 recipient

University of California, Santa Cruz

Environmental Studies Agroecology

Timothy Krupnik is a PhD candidate at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Currently, Timothy is evaluating low-input and resource-conserving rice cropping systems in collaboration with farmers in the West African Sahel.  Timothy has engaged rice farmers in the Senegal River Valley on sustainable agricultural technology development, evaluated the ability of alternate farming systems, examined how rice farmers can still obtain high yields with reduced amounts of irrigation water and analyzed the potential for farmer adoption of sustainable agriculture systems.

“In contrast to the high-input oil driven economy of conventional agriculture, sustainable farming systems promote food, fiber and energy production that is informed by natural ecological processes and inherently regenerative.”
 

Suzanne Sweetnam

$10,000 recipient

Vassar College

Earth Science & Society

Suzanne Sweetnam is a sophomore at Vassar College working toward a degree in Earth Science and Society.  As a Cooperative Living intern at Vassar, Suzanne assists in coordinating a community garden for the campus.  The garden will give students access to herbs, berries and seasonable vegetables.  She hopes that the school dining facility will also benefit from the garden by using the fresh produce in preparing meals for students.  This past year, Suzanne taught farming techniques to high school students in a community garden through Green Teens, an agricultural education and gang prevention program for at-risk youth in Poughkeepsie.

“Sustainable food is food which sustains the planet and the creatures living on it; this means food grown without ecosystem damaging pesticides, a soil-enriching manner which is grown close to its site of consumption and is accessible to all classes of people.”
 

Madison Vander Hill

$10,000 recipient

Current high school student, college TBD

Madison Vander Hill is a high school senior from Madison, WI, with plans to pursue an Environmental Studies degree at a university this fall.  As an intern in the Farm and Field program at Troy Community Gardens, Madison aided in the production and harvest of over 40 types of organic vegetable crops.  She also maintained the garden’s restored prairie, herb garden and woodland areas, and mentored children in the children’s garden.

“My vision of what the phrase “sustainable agriculture” means begins with an understanding of our environment and ends with a community that relates to the environment in a mutually beneficial way.”
 

Maggie Lickter

$2,500 recipient

University of California, Davis

Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems

Maggie Lickter is a junior at the University of California, Davis working toward a degree in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems.  Maggie works at the UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute, assisting in preparing curriculum for a new sustainable agriculture and food systems major to be offered at UC Davis in the coming years. She is also involved with the Real Food Challenge, where she works to increase “real food” in campus dining halls.  Maggie is collaborating with UC Davis faculty to focus on how the curriculum being implemented at UC Davis can be beneficial to educators across the country.
 

“In my definition of sustainability I am tempted to add a fourth tier of enjoyment, which I find particularly useful when pairing sustainability with agriculture.  Joy around the evening meal, personal fulfillment in growing food, and pleasure in sharing food are all components of sustainability.”
 

Megan Schnur

$2,500 recipient

Purdue University

Biochemistry (Pre Vet)

Megan Schnur is a sophomore at Purdue University majoring in biochemistry.  She credits working on her family farm as contributing to her devotion to a life of sustainable agriculture.   At a summer research fellowship at Purdue’s School of Veterinary medicine, Megan conducted a study on the isolation and genetic analysis of borne viral diarrhea virus from infected cattle in Indiana.  She has also worked as a veterinary assistant at a local veterinary clinic, learning about a veterinarian’s role in agriculture and livestock. 

 
“My vision of the phrase ‘sustainable agriculture’ is the responsibility  of farmers, veterinarians, and other stewards of agriculture to manage and provide the safety and supply of food and other organic derivatives demanded globally in a manner that encourages environmental stability and procurement.”