Farm Bureau honors scholarship winners

Posted by ChaddsFordLive on July 5, 2015

As the sun shined brightly last weekend, the Chester Delaware County Farm Bureau’s Annual Picnic, held at Nottingham County Park, honored some rising stars.

Alyssa Kaupas (standing, left to right), Megan Brown, Rachel Stoltzfus, Dan Miller (CDCFB president), Macy Baumgarten and Kirtus Houting, show off their honors. They are joined by Erin Klingensmith (front, from left) and Andrew Barikian. Scholarship winners Heather Sciubba and Claudia Brady are not pictured. — Alyssa Kaupas (standing, left to right), Megan Brown, Rachel Stoltzfus, Dan Miller (Farm Bureau president), Macy Baumgarten and Kirtus Houting, show off their honors. They are joined by Erin Klingensmith (front, from left) and Andrew Barikian. Scholarship winners Heather Sciubba and Claudia Brady are not pictured.

Each year the local Farm Bureau Board selects students who are committed to studying agriculture at college. This year animal science proved to be the most popular area of study for seven of the nine $1,000 scholarships awarded, a bureau press release said.

According to national employment data, jobs for agricultural graduates are plentiful, and the pay is comparable to other science disciplines, the release said.

Commissioner Terence Farrell and longtime Congressman Arthur Hershey and his wife Joyce joined more than 140 Farm Bureau members and their families, who enjoyed a feast that included barbecued brisket, new potatoes, baked beans and desserts as well as musical entertainment from Leon Spencer’s Syde 2 Group. They played many old favorites, encouraging a few couples to dance.

For the first time, two scholarships were awarded to university students continuing their agricultural studies. Erin Klingensmith graduated from Virginia Tech and will be completing her studies at Cornell University to be a large animal veterinarian. Alyssa Kaupas will be using her scholarship for continuing studies in poultry and avian science at Penn State.

The high school honorees were Macy Baumgarten from Owen Roberts High School. She is focusing on equine studies at Houghton College in New York and hopes to be a horse trainer, ideally one who grooms a Kentucky Derby winner one day.

Rachel Stoltzfus has been homeschooled and will be continuing her education at Penn State Brandywine; she has not yet determined which veterinary college she’d like to attend. She has always been involved with animals and participated in the local Octorara Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter for many years, serving last year as its president.

Megan Brown from Octorara High School is going to Wilson College at Chambersburg so she can become a veterinary technician. She used to like the idea of looking after tigers, but admits that smaller animals might be easier to nurture.

The other high school winners are Andrew Barikian, who will attend Rhode Island University; Claudia Brady, Delaware Valley University; Heather Sciubba, Penn State University; and Kirtus Houting, South Dakota State University.

Affiliated with the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau and the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Chester-Delaware County Farm Bureau is a voluntary organization that works to advance the interests of agriculture and rural communities by working with policy makers at state and federal levels. At the local county level it carries out such programs as Farmers Care Day to provide food to the hungry and uses the Food Wheel at local events to educate youth on food and farming. It offers numerous benefits and services to over its 7,800 members.