Meet American Floral Endowment’s Latest Scholarship Winners
The American Floral Endowment (AFE) has awarded 21 students with scholarships totaling $54,500. In this 2021 scholarship cycle, 57 applications were received and reviewed.
With the floral industry facing significant challenges to our labor force, these programs are imperative now more than ever in helping support new professionals enter the industry and launch a successful career.
“With the pool of high-quality candidates that AFE receives every year, it is inspiring to see the passion these scholars demonstrate in their work, study, and research,” says Greg Royer, AFE Treasurer/Secretary and Education Committee Chair. “AFE takes great pride in providing scholarships for these promising industry members, and we look forward to seeing where they will lead us.”
Here’s a brief look at three of this year’s scholarship winners; click here to learn more about all the winners, and the companies and organizations providing scholarship funding.
American Florists’ Exchange Scholarship: Erin Dobbe, California Polytechnic State University
Entering her senior year at California Polytechnic State University, Dobbe is majoring in Agricultural Communications with a minor in Agribusiness. “My crop focus is mainly what I grew up farming with my family; peonies, tulips, freesia, ranunculus, lilies, and assorted greens,” Dobbe says. She is active in Cal Poly Crops Club and, since 2014, has worked in a variety of positions at her family’s business, Holland America Flowers in Arroyo Grande, CA. She has acquired two different sales positions in the agribusiness world, taking over her father, the head of sales at her family farm. Dobbe also was a sales intern in the horticulture division of Driscoll’s Berries last year.
Julio and Sarah Armellini Scholarship: Virginia McChesney, Huntington University
McChesney is a Sophomore at Huntington University in Huntington, IN, seeking a degree in Agri-Business Management. She is most interested in greenhouse production, specifically ornamental horticulture, and has held leadership positions in FFA and the Collegiate Farm Bureau. She was a greenhouse worker/farmhand at Sweet Hill Farms in Gales Ferry, CT, and volunteered at the high school greenhouse and coordinated the seed library. This past summer, McChesney worked at Agape Fields in Nicholasville, KY, where she was responsible for bed maintenance, including weeding, mulching, watering, and pest care. Her career goal is to own a greenhouse production system that is community oriented.
Richard T. Meister Scholarship: Rebekah Maynard, University of Georgia
Maynard completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry at the University of Georgia in 2019. She is now pursuing a master’s degree in Horticulture, also at the University of Georgia. Over the past three years, her research interest has been breeding ornamental plants that are also beneficial to pollinators. Maynard is now working with the genus Salvia and has previously worked with the genus Asclepias. She was selected for the HortScholar program through American Hort and attended the 2020 Cultivate conference. Additionally, she has served as a teaching assistant for eight undergraduate classes, creating course materials, delivering lectures, designing laboratory exercises, writing exam questions, and grading student assignments.
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