Florida Farm Bureau was recently awarded the New Horizon Award. The award came from the American Farm Bureau Organization to recognize the innovations made by the Florida Farm Bureau in creating unmanned aerial vehicle training and certification program meant for high school students. The program was developed in partnership with Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and Florida Department of Education.
Florida Farm Bureau was also honoured with awards of excellence due to its demonstration of exemplary achievements in other program areas such as leadership development, education and outreach, membership initiatives, policy development, member services and public relations and communications.
The training and certification program is geared towards equipping high school students with the skills necessary to learn how to fly uav’s. Those who graduate from the program will be in a better position to use crop protection and irrigation materials. Cameras with high resolution which have been installed on these devices will enable certified crop advisers and agronomists to improve their services. According to research, farmers who adopt this technology have the potential of cutting down their production costs by more than 30%.
In honouring research and research integration to teaching students, the National Science Foundation gave Christine miller a grant of $822,000 valid for five years. Through the grant, Miller will have opportunities in investigating diversification and evolution of elaborate animal weapons including horns and spurs, and antlers used by males to compete for females. She will establish how diversification of these weapons have been contributed by fighting behaviour. Moreover, she will undertake this study together with hundreds of students.
There was also the AT&T Aspire Mentoring Academy that provide mentoring for more than 1 million hours in order to help students realize their potential and passions. This was done in less than four years. The company’s philanthropic gesture is geared towards the success of children both in school and beyond. The company believes that if students are given the right skills and mentorship, then they can go on to transform the society. It is no longer a case of which school the student attended but which skills they possess after finishing school.
The Gator Collegiate Cattlewomen in Florida won a cash prize award of $2500 in an online scholarship competition held by College Aggies. This award recognizes outstanding use of community involvement and social media in promoting agriculture. It is open to all college students interested in agriculture. It was launched in 2009 and since then, more than 175 colleges and universities represented by 4000 students have competed in the program.