NMPF Scholarship Supports Dairy’s Future

Holiday giving season is under way, and NMPF's National Dairy Leadership Scholarship Program is a worthy beneficiary for anyone who cares about a better industry future, explains Nicole Ayache, who leads the program at NMPF, in the latest Dairy Defined podcast. The scholarship supports graduate students, enrolled in master's or doctoral programs, who are actively pursuing dairy related fields of research that directly benefit milk marketing cooperatives and the U.S. dairy industry at large. To learn more about it or to donate, just go to NMPF’s home page, nmpf.org, and click on the blue bar. 

“As we look at the last 10 years or so of recipients, all of those recipients have stayed within agriculture,”  said Ayache, who also serves as NMPF’s vice president for environmental stewardship and sustainability and leads the FARM Program's Environmental Stewardship initiative. “In research, academia, allied industry, whatever it might be, those individuals have stayed within agriculture, and the majority within dairy itself. So we do believe that the scholarships we are awarding are really fulfilling our goal, which is to support the future of dairy.”

Transcript

Alan Bjerga, NMPF: Hello, and welcome to Dairy Defined. The holiday season is a season of giving, and of the many solicitations you may be receiving this time of year, here's one worth taking special notice. NMPF's National Dairy Leadership Scholarship Program. The program supports graduate students, enrolled in master's or PhD programs, who are actively pursuing dairy related fields of research that directly benefit milk marketing cooperatives and the US dairy industry at large. It's critical assistance to the industry's future, it's seeking donations. And joining us today is the NMPF staffer who oversees the program, Nicole Ayache. Nicole, by the way, is NMPF's vice president for environmental stewardship and sustainability, and the leader of the FARM Program's Environmental Stewardship initiative. So she's very busy, and the scholarship is a labor of love. Nicole, we love having you here today. Thank you for joining us to talk about this important program.

Nicole Ayache, NMPF: Yeah, thank you, Alan, so much for having me on.

Alan Bjerga, NMPF: So tell us about the scholarship. Who does it help and how does it help in terms of advancing dairy?

Nicole Ayache, NMPF: As you mentioned, the scholarship program is for graduate students in any dairy related field of work. So that can be animal science, it could be food science, ruminant nutrition, anything that would benefit the dairy industry. Farm level, processing level, whatever it might be. Usually we have two or three recipients each year, and they are selected by the NMPF Board of Directors through recommendations of our scholarship committee, which is made up also of NMPF board members as well as staff of NMPF members. And really what they're looking at when they select a scholarship awardee is it's looking at the holistic picture of that student. Looking at their leadership, their service quality, their research quality and write-up, trying to identify those future leaders in academia, in industry sectors, those future leaders who will advance the dairy industry.

I would say too, as we look at the last 10 years or so of recipients, all of those recipients have stayed within agriculture. In research, academia, allied industry, whatever it might be, those individuals have stayed within agriculture, and the majority within dairy itself. So we do believe that the scholarships we are awarding are really fulfilling our goal, which is to support the future of dairy.

And just something I'll say to you that I love about our program is it has the flexibility in it to support the student in whatever way they feel would benefit their studies. So some scholarships go directly to the school and must be used only for their research. Our scholarship goes to the student, so they can use it for their research costs, or it can be travel to conferences, it could be supplies, it could be tuition, whatever would help them advance in the way that makes sense for them

Alan Bjerga, NMPF: So tell us about some of the students who are supported by the program. What sort of research do they work on?

Nicole Ayache, NMPF: There's a big mix. I think one of my favorite parts, you mentioned it's a labor of love, and I think one of my favorite parts of working on this program is I get to see all these really interesting research write-ups. Not just our recipients, but really everyone that applies has an interesting background and an interesting focus. In terms of who's actually been awarded a scholarship, we've had everything from most recently someone looking at machine learning as it applies to precision dairy software, how to get good information from it, to many students focusing on animal science or ruminant nutrition. Things like tissue mobilization in transition cows, genetic tools targeted at lameness, at reducing lameness. We've had economic students, so identifying factors that influence resilient farms, looking at dairy profitability modeling, and then many more that I probably can't even remember off the top of my head in the fields of food science and environmental science as well. We've had a whole fun mix of different research projects.

Alan Bjerga, NMPF: What sort of range of applications do you get for this? Is there a lot of good dairy work going on out there?

Nicole Ayache, NMPF: My favorite is reading about ice cream research. So there is, I guess, a whole field, and I should know this, but a whole field devoted to how best to make ice cream, which I love. I don't think it's been any of our recent award winners, but I so desperately want to give one of them an award so I can have an excuse to go meet them and sample some of their products. And that's more on the processing. But we have, at the farm level, just so many interesting research projects that you wish you could award even more. It would be delightful to be able to give scholarships to everyone that applies.

Alan Bjerga, NMPF: You're talking about ice cream, you probably sent half of our listeners to the refrigerator right now. They're no longer listening to this, but this is an important part. Someone is listening to you and they're thinking, "Okay, this is something that I would like to support." How does a person contribute to this program?

Nicole Ayache, NMPF: I mean, I would say thank you to everyone who has an interest in that, because generous individuals and organizations is how we keep this program going. It makes it possible for us to continue supporting students. And we've just recently made it possible to donate directly through our website. So that's nmpf.org, and navigating to programs and resources, and then the National Dairy Leadership Scholarship page. Our scholarship fund is a 501(c)(3), It's tax deductible. It's a great way, I think, to contribute to the future of dairy.

Alan Bjerga, NMPF: And I would add too, Nicole, just if we want to do a shortcut for people who want to give, for the rest of the year, we're going to have on our homepage, nmpf.org, a button in the middle of the page that will direct you to the scholarship page, which will get you the information when you want to give to a donation. Also, the direct URL would be nmpf.org/program/scholarship. You can't miss it. People get a lot of end-of-year solicitations. This is a giving time of year. People, frankly, are also looking at their taxes. Is this something that would be tax deductible, Nicole?

Nicole Ayache, NMPF: The scholarship fund is its own 501(c)(3), so that would generally be a tax deductible donation.

Alan Bjerga, NMPF: So, quickly, the elevator pitch, Nicole. Why would someone choose to support the National Dairy Leadership Scholarship Program over all the other solicitations that they would be getting in their inboxes this time of year?

Nicole Ayache, NMPF: My elevator pitch would be, if you care about the future of dairy and you want to continue to see high quality professionals supporting our industry, consider making a donation to the scholarship program. Our recipients stay in ag and stay in dairy and contribute to our future.

Alan Bjerga, NMPF: What else should people know about and remember about these scholarships?

Nicole Ayache, NMPF: I think the only thing we haven't covered is, if anyone listening is an actual grad student in these fields or knows someone that is, I think they should be aware that our application period opens next year in January. It'll be on that same website where you can donate. There will be information about how to apply.

Alan Bjerga, NMPF: That was Nicole Ayache, who leads efforts to support NMPF's National Dairy Scholarship Leadership Program, which in turn supports all of us by encouraging innovation and progress in dairy. Nicole, thank you so much for joining us today.

Nicole Ayache, NMPF: Thanks, Alan.

Alan Bjerga, NMPF: And that's it for today's podcast. So drop everything and visit that donate button at nmpf.org/program/scholarship, or make it easy on yourself, and just go to our homepage, nmpf.org, and press the button in the middle, which we will have up for the holiday season. For more of the Dairy Defined Podcast, you can find and subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Amazon Music under the podcast name Dairy Defined. Thanks for joining us. Happy holidays, and don't forget to give.