County Farm Bureau AIDS Ag Students in Louisiana

By Lorell Fleming, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.

Feb. 20–NORTH COUNTY — Three college students from hurricane-ravaged Louisiana have gotten a little help with their school bill from the San Diego County Farm Bureau.

The county farm bureau awarded each student a $3,500 scholarship. All three, Louisiana State University sophomore Kathy Jo Thompson, McNeese State University senior John Compton, and McNeese State University junior Dusty Zaunbrecher are agriculture majors.

“It seemed like a natural way for us to reach out to those who might have been forgotten,” Janet Kister, chairwoman of the county farm bureau’s scholarship committee, said in an interview Friday.

“Money and donations were sent out there for basic needs, like food and shelter,” Kister said. “And in a situation like that, education is not in the top tier of needs. And it fits into our committee’s mission of helping students continue their passion to learn about agriculture and work towards a career in agriculture.”

The San Diego County Farm Bureau worked with the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation to find students for the scholarships.

Twenty-year-old Kathy Jo Thompson is majoring in dairy science and kinesiology —- the study of anatomy and the mechanics of body movement.

Agriculture has been part of Thompson’s life for a long time, she noted in the written statement that was part of her application. Her family owns a 163-acre farm in Folsom, La. The family makes and sells hay, and raise beef and dairy cattle.

Thompson said the scholarship would lessen the financial strain her family is going through in the aftermath of the damage caused to the family farm by Hurricane Katrina.

“The trees that my father and I planted for most of my college tuition fell along with the older trees that were going to harvest for college money,” Thompson wrote.

“I know we are very fortunate,” she wrote. “We still have our house and land. I am, however, saying that it is going to be harder for me to depend on my parents’ help in paying for college, when I know that they need the money for the farm.”

McNeese State University senior John Compton is majoring in agriculture business and animal science.

Compton grew up on a rice, crawfish, and soybean farm in Hathaway, La., he noted in his written statement. His father and uncle farm about 2,000 acres in Hathaway.

“Luckily, on our home farm, no devastating physical damages were incurred,” Compton wrote. “However, the lingering effects of the hurricane will definitely have a negative effect on the farming industry.”

Rice markets became volatile because rice mills and ports were down for an extended period of time during the aftermath of the storms, he wrote, and his father and uncle incurred lots of unexpected expenses.

Compton said he is no stranger to financial hardship, and that his upbringing was centered around family values rather than material luxuries. When it came time for him to go to college, he took part-time jobs and earned scholarships.

McNeese State University junior Dusty Zaunbrecher is majoring in agriculture business.

Zaunbrecher’s family farms 500 acres in rice and cattle, so farming and ranching always have been a part of his life, he noted in his written statement.

Zaunbrecher has been paying his way through college with school loans, he stated.

His family’s home and cowpen/barn area were damaged. Still, Zaunbrecher helped those around him within his community and rescued surviving cattle and a few horses. But he wasn’t prepared to see the sick and injured animals left behind after the hurricanes cut through the region, he stated.

“It was a sight that I hope to never see again in my life,” Zaunbrecher wrote. “All of those poor, sick animals still appear in my mind.”

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Copyright (c) 2006, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.

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