 Alyssa Irlbeck of Texas Tech University was chosen as this year's top winner of the CME/NCF Beef Industry Scholarship Program. She was one of the 20 $1,250 scholarship winners chosen from more than 180 applicants. Along with the scholarship she also received an all expense paid trip to the 2003 Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show. |
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.
For more information, please write Marvin Kokes, National Cattlemen’s Foundation, P.O. Box 3469, Englewood, Colorado 80155 or call him at 303-850-3339.