FFA Scholarships in Agriculture
FFA Scholarships
If you are a member of Future Farmers of America, you may be eligible for their national FFA scholarships in agriculture. The FFA has about two million dollars in scholarship money available every year. These national FFA scholarship awards are spread out over multiple agriculture scholarships awarded by the FFA annually. The FFA has a variety of ag scholarships available, with different eligibility requirements for each.
Many of the FFA scholarships in agriculture that are available do not come directly from the FAA. Instead, they are awarded by private businesses and major corporations, to members of the FFA. Scholarships are available from Ford, Cargill, The National Association of Farm Broadcasters, AGCO, AGDATA, Wilbur-Ellis, Alpha Gamma Rho, Agrium, American Family Insurance, the American Veterinary Medical Association and many others.
To help students and members of the FFA to find out about FAA scholarships that are available, the FFA makes a agricultural scholarship guide available for download, free of charge, from their website. All students who are members of the FAA and their parents are encouraged to download and view this guide by the student’s junior year of high school, so that they have time to see which agriculture scholarships they are eligible for, and so that they can get their applications filled out and submitted by the deadline.
These ag scholarships may only be granted if you are majoring in a specific agricultural related field. Many of them use a wide range of criteria in awarding the national FFA scholarships, and most will include your involvement with the FFA, and may possibly include leadership skills and community service, as well as your grades and ACT and SAT scores. Again, there are different requirements for each scholarship that is offered in association with the FFA.
Through the FFA website, FFA members can apply for more than one thousand of these agricultural scholarships, with just one application. However, some of the scholarship programs require their own separate application as well. The applications are available in November of each year, and winners are selected and notified by May of the following year. These awards are for the school year that begins either in August or September of the same year. If you win one of these FFA scholarships, you will receive information about how to claim your ag scholarship by May before you start school in the fall.
Along with the agricultural scholarships guide that is available to students and parents from the FFA website, you should also be aware that you must fill out and submit your application online, as hard copy applications are not accepted. Information that you will need for your FFA scholarships application include your FFA chapter number and membership number, your FFA advisor’s contact information, your class rank and GPA, and of course, your ACT or SAT scores.
As you can see, being a member of the FFA has more benefits that you first imagined. The FFA is a wonderful organization for students, but just being a member of the organization also enables you to pay for your college education more easily. Aside from the experience and learning opportunities that the organization provides, this is why many students join the FFA during their freshman year of high school so they may apply and hopefully land a few of these national FFA scholarships in agriculture to help pay for college.
