Study grants recognise students' aspiration

Both are in their final year of a Bachelor of Agricultural Science at Lincoln University, completing their honours projects. They have each received $2,000 from Perrin Ag to put towards the final year of studies.

Van Uffelen grew up in urban Palmerston North but worked on nearby farms during her high school years. During this time, she discovered a passion for supporting farmers to navigate environmental changes and help bridge the gap between rural and urban New Zealand.

"As I approached the end of high school, I became aware of the significant future challenges farmers were expected to face, particularly in the area of environmental management, public perception and changing consumer demands.

"This inspired me to study a combination of agricultural science and environmental management at Lincoln University."

Her project is researching how environmental policy and regulation affects farmer land-use change decisions in the Selwyn District.

She hopes her findings will help inform policymakers when directing land-use decisions with an understanding of how environmental regulation interacts with factors in a farm system.

"I want to help provide pathways for increased farmer buy-in by better understanding the interaction between farmers and regulation, thereby improving environmental outcomes while maintaining farmer passion and farm profitability," says Ashleigh.

"I've always been interested in bridging that gap between rural and urban communities and this project is also part of facilitating that conversation."

Abbey Dowd grew up surrounded by dairy farms in a close-knit community in the South Waikato. She saw first-hand how local farmers supported her community, which is what inspired her to study at Lincoln.

Abbey Dowd

"Growing up in a rural community I have always been impressed by how much local farmers contribute to the community," she says.

"They were always there to lend a hand, whether it be coaching the local rugby team or organising community fundraisers. I wanted to help give back to the industry and play my part in helping our primary sector coming to produce quality food in a sustainable way."

Dowd spent last summer as an intern on New Zealand's first commercial deer milking operation. Her project is researching deer milk alongside other more traditional milking operations and assessing the deer milking industry's future production possibilities.

"Growing up, I didn't live on a farm, but I always wanted to work in the farming sector," says Dowd.

The Scholarship

The John Perrin Scholarship is one of two awards Perrin Ag offers each year to promising individuals to continue (second year or later) agriculture and horticulture science studies at undergraduate, postgraduate diploma or honours level at either Lincoln, Massey or Waikato Universities.

Perrin Ag directors John Perrin and Trudy Laan were impressed by van Uffelen and Dowd's passion for New Zealand's primary industries and their drive to support its farmers. "It's exciting to see young people coming into the industry with real enthusiasm for supporting our primary sector, particularly young women who were not boarn and bred on a farm," says Laan.

"As well as demonstrating exceptional academic performance, both Ashleigh and Abbey model the very values our firm embodies and are heavily involved in sports, community groups and clubs.”