WORTHINGTON, Ohio — The Ohio Soybean Council Foundation (OSCF) is pleased to announce the scholarship recipients of the OSCF Scholarship Program for the 2012-2013 academic year. 

Undergraduate scholarships of $3,000 each were awarded to Mike Hannewald, Andrew Klopfenstein, Derek McCracken and Brent Stammen. The second annual $3,000 Farmer, Lumpe + McClelland (FLM) Scholarship, a scholarship awarded to a student studying agriculture communications or business, was awarded to Stacie Seger. The annual $5,000 Bhima Vijayendran Scholarship, a scholarship named in honor of a Battelle research scientist who has made tremendous contributions to the soybean industry, was awarded to Stephanie Verhoff. 

A $5,000 graduate scholarship was awarded to Brittany Nauth and two $2,500 graduate scholarships were awarded to Dee Marty and Jessica Schwartz. 

Mike Hannewald of Waterville, Ohio, is majoring in agronomy with a concentration in the area of sustainable plant systems at The Ohio State University (OSU) and will be a junior in the fall of 2012. Mike is active in the OSU College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) as a campus ambassador. He has been very active with the Ohio FFA and also served on the National FFA Officer Nominating Committee.  

Andrew Klopfenstein of Haviland, Ohio, is majoring in agriculture engineering with a concentration of power and machinery at OSU and will be a senior in the fall of 2012.  Andrew has worked for Case New Holland as a hay and forage field-test intern and is returning for a second summer with the company as a hydraulics-lab intern. He is a member of the OSU Quarter Scale Tractor Design Team where he has served as captain and webmaster. 

Derek McCracken of Anna, Ohio, is majoring in agriculture and extension education with a teaching specialization at OSU and will be a senior in the fall of 2012. Derek is currently the president of the CFAES Student Council as a liaison between the university and CFAES. He has worked as an intern with the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation and has studied abroad in Brazil. 

Brent Stammen of Rossburg, Ohio, is majoring in agricultural communications with a concentration in marketing and graphic design at OSU and will be a junior in the fall of 2012. He is currently the Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow’s student council representative and is the Ohio FFA State Vice President.
 

Stacie Seger of Minster, Ohio, is majoring in agricultural communications with a concentration in TV/radio broadcasting and print media at OSU and will be a sophomore in the fall of 2012. She has worked with the Ohio Ag Net as a reporter at the Ohio FFA convention and studied abroad in Ecuador.
 

Stephanie Verhoff of Columbus Grove, Ohio, is majoring in crop science with a concentration in breeding and genetics at OSU and will be a junior in the fall of 2012. She currently works with an OSU researcher as an undergraduate research assistant in a plant pathology laboratory. She is involved in many activities at OSU including Alpha Zeta, serving as a student ambassador, and Scarlet and Gray Ag Day. Verhoff aspires to work in the agriculture field in the area of plant research. 

Dee Marty of Smithville, Ohio, is pursuing a master’s degree in plant pathology at OSU.  She currently is working with scientists at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. Marty is concentrating her work in soybean genetics.   

Brittany Nauth of Wooster, Ohio, is pursuing a master’s degree in plant pathology at OSU. She is currently a research associate in the OSU Department of Plant Pathology. She is working in the areas of soybean nematodes and oomycetes. Nauth will do research work with soybean DNA to help solve problems that can cause millions of dollars of damage every year to the Ohio soybean crop.  

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Following the successful live broadcast of its 2011 National FFA Convention, the National FFA Organization has decided to take up permanent residence on the iHigh.com platform with its own channel. 

The FFA Channel, which will be powered by Alltech and iHigh, will capitalize on the latest in Web technology to bring greater unity to their membership base, which is more than a half-million students strong throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The ability of a Web channel to provide such a platform was exemplified in the October live broadcast of 2011 National FFA Convention, which was attended by more than 53,000 attendees and joined live on the Internet by an additional 550,000 viewers who would have otherwise missed the experience.

“We are very excited about the opportunity that this channel will afford our members,” said Dwight Armstrong, chief executive officer of the National FFA Organization. “Having an FFA iHigh channel will create another vehicle for us to share the FFA message of premier leadership, personal growth and career success.”

In a nod to social web trends, FFA has entered into a licensing agreement with Alltech, which will allow an element of personalization for state and local chapters. Each state chapter will have their own site, which may be used to highlight awards banquets and other special events. Likewise, each local chapter will be integrated into their high school’s site, creating a platform for the promotion of agriculture with a distinct community-focused tone.  Because of the unique business model, all sites have the ability to generate revenue for their organization.

Considered the Global Youth Network, iHigh.com is designed to provide free feature-rich Web services to schools, students and youth organizations, and enables live broadcast of events, mobile broadcasting, unlimited photo uploads and more. Using iHigh.com’s unique feature-rich Web and broadcast platform, high schools and organizations such as the FFA, the National High School Rodeo Assoc., USA Swimming, iHoops and many others are able to share their events in real time with a global audience that can access the streaming video on any computer or mobile device.