National Cattlemen’s Foundation Announces Scholarship Winners

Twenty outstanding students pursuing careers in the beef industry have each been awarded a $1,250 scholarship provided by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Inc. (CME) and the National Cattlemen’s Foundation (NCF).  The CME has sponsored this scholarship program for 13 years.

Each scholarship winner wrote a 750-word essay that identified key issues confronting the beef industry and suggested possible ways of dealing with those issues.

The overall scholarship winner, Alyssa Irlbeck, was awarded an all-expense paid trip to the 2003 Beef Industry Convention in Nashville and her essay will be printed in a 2003 issue of the National Cattlemen magazine. 

Irlbeck is attending Texas Tech University with a major in Interdisciplinary Agriculture and double minors in Agri-Business and Biology.  As a student, majoring in Interdisciplinary Agriculture, this will allow her to take advantage of every opportunity that is possible to gain a better and broader understanding of the industry.

She looks forward to becoming more involved in the agriculture industry. In the future she hopes to take part in Commodities trading, beef research and possibly industry public relations.

Another 19 scholarship recipients also received $1,250 scholarships:

Garrett Anderson                    Texas A&M University

Milo Andrus                             Utah State University 

Virgil Bremer                           University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign    

Melissa Colgan                       Kansas State University        

John Dillard                             Virginia Tech  

Ryan Donnelly                         University of Minnesota

Amy Faulkenberry                   Oklahoma State University    

Lucy Gibson                            Middle Tennessee State University   

Jared Heid                               Archie High School    

Crystal Mathews                     University of Missouri 

Shelly Meyers                          Kansas State University        

Brock Miller                             Texas Tech University           

Aaron Nelson                          Iowa State University 

Jeffrey Nelson                         University of Minnesota          

Dresden Petty                         Cottey College           

Kathryn Strom                         South Dakota State University           

Tommy Tabler                                    University of Arkansas           

Timothy Ulrich                         Colorado State University      

Lance Zimmerman                 Kansas State University 

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has been a leader in the live cattle market since 1964 and the Beef Industry Scholarship Program exemplifies CME’s commitment to the beef industry.  CME is a diversified marketplace offering futures and options contracts on livestock, lumber, stock indexes, interest rates and currencies.

The National Cattlemen’s Foundation serves the beef industry as a charitable institution whose mission is to preserve the rich heritage and promote the future of the industry through research and education.