One of the foundation principles Fontanelle Hybrids, Fontanelle, Nebraska is understanding that seed is a ‘people’ business. The Company stays true to this principle, in part, by supporting agriculture’s future leaders through the sponsorship of two FFA scholarships.

“This is our 16^th year as a sponsor,” Steve Pike, sales manager said. “In part we provide these scholarships to help the award winners with college expenses, but more importantly, we do it with the hope that these future leaders will consider the seed business as a future career path.”

This year’s award winners of the $1,000 scholarships are Kristi Lorenzen, Sutton, Nebraska and Jacob Schneider, Warrenton, Missouri. “This sponsorship is a great opportunity to interact with the future leaders of agriculture,” Pike said. “We feel it’s part of our responsibility to create awareness in students of the importance of the seed business to a successful future for agriculture. Interacting with the FFA students is one way we can accomplish this.”

Each year the National FFA Organization awards more than $2 million in scholarships to members. There are many types of scholarships to fit the many types of FFA members. Scholarships are given for a wide variety of experiences, career goals and higher education plans. Different awards may be used at colleges, universities and postsecondary agricultural programs. “The FFA does a good job with its scholarship program. We appreciate being able to direct funds to the types of awards that make sense for us, then the FFA has a process in place for the application and selection process,” Pike said. “This allows us to get the Fontanelle name in front of a lot of students and others in the ag industry. In addition, we can encourage our dealers’ and customers’ kids to apply for the scholarships.”

Fontanelle Hybrids is a 69 year old employee-owned seed company marketing corn, soybeans, grain sorghum, alfalfa and sunflowers in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Colorado, Missouri and portions of Illinois, Minnesota, South Dakota and Texas. Fontanelle Hybrids is one of the five owners and members of the Core Group that markets value added products under the High Cycle^® Seed Systems brand of products.

High Cycle is a registered trademark of the CORE Group.