06/22/07 Apple Scholarships

Apple Scholarships. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Each year the cost of a good education continues to go up and each year students in Washington State have the opportunity of acquiring scholarships to help offset those costs. Jennifer Witherbee with the Washington Apple Education Foundation or WAEF says quite a number of students benefited this year. WITHERBEE: We achieved with awarding students over 100 scholarships and in total these awards equaled over 175-thousand dollars and that just goes such a long way to ensuring that kids raised in tree fruit districts have the opportunity to attend college. According to Witherbee there are a number of scholarships available through WAEF. WITHERBEE: Most of our scholarships are about one thousand dollars each. They range however, from 500 dollar awards to full ride scholarships that the students have the opportunity to renew for up to four years. Since this year's scholarships have just been awarded you have a bit of time before applying for next years awards. But don't wait too long. The monies come from the industry Witherbee says. WITHERBEE: Washington Apple Education Foundation serves in a sense as a clearing house for all of the industry scholarships and there are many awards that students can qualify for. All of the money that comes from the Washington Apple Education Foundation scholarships is generously donated by tree fruit industry members. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.