Terry Wanzek, Cleveland, N.D., was selected to represent North Dakota on the America's Farmer Grow Rural Education Advisory Council, a board to determine the rural school district recipients of the America's Farmers Grow Rural Education grants. This two-year assignment allows farmers on the council to help decide which school districts are most deserving of the grants of up to $25,000.
The America's Farmers Grow Rural Education program, sponsored by the Monsanto Fund, is a new project that was piloted in Minnesota and Illinois to give farmers the opportunity to nominate their school districts to compete for grants up to $25,000.
The grants required school districts to be creative and develop unique ideas and projects to enhance education in the areas of math and/or science in their school. Through the pilot, there are 165 eligible counties in Illinois and Minnesota. The Monsanto Fund expects to donate more than $225,000 in total to local school districts in nine Crop Reporting Districts in Illinois and seven CRDs in Minnesota in 2011.
The council, made up of 26 farmers, will be responsible for reviewing the top grant applications in each of the targeted CRDs and will select the winning school districts to go before the Monsanto Fund Board for final approval.
Grant winners will be announced at the Farm Progress Show this September.
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"The America's Farmers Grow Rural Education program is a way to grow school districts in rural communities through farmers with the America's Farmer Grow Rural Education Advisory Council," said John Raines, vice president of Monsanto customer advocacy. "Farmers from these rural communities will help decide how to distribute the funds to the most deserving projects submitted by school districts across the country."
Wanzek was chosen for his experience with the Senate Agriculture Committee, North Dakota House of Representatives and as a fourth-generation farmer.
Wanzek is also a former Farm Bureau county president and a past president of the Stutsman County Ag Improvement Association and the North Dakota Grain Growers Association.
