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Three students from the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences have made a clean sweep of the regional scholarships awarded by the Australian Council of Agricultural Societies (ACAS) and Coca-Cola.

The scholarships were won by Charissa Wright, Joanna Lang and Georgia Pugh.

Charissa Wright, from Boyup Brook, has just completed her second year studying a Science degree in Natural Resource Management and has lived on a number of farms.

“My dad works as a farm manager and although our family has moved around a bit, I have always lived on farms and am loving it,” she says.

For the past several years her father, Michael Wright, has been managing an 8,000-acre farm with livestock and mixed cropping, which reinforced Charissa’s interest in resource management.

Charissa has been a regular volunteer at her local agricultural show – the Upper Blackwood Show – and, after her studies, hopes to commence a career in natural resource management in the region. She spent part of her $2,000 scholarship prize money to attend the WA Natural Resource Management conference last September, and the remainder will help with the costs of her studies.

Joanna Lang, who is about to complete her studies in Agricultural Science and Commerce, grew up on a 6,000-acre wheat and cattle farm near Moora and although she moved to Claremont to be close to university during her studies, she is a frequent visitor back home to practise her equestrian skills and exercise her horse.

Joanna has been competing in show jumping and stock horse events both in regional agricultural shows and also at the Perth Royal Show for many years. “For as long as I can remember, I have been out and on horseback on the farm, chasing cattle and mucking around. I just love farm-life and being in the country,” she says.

Besides pursuing her studies and horse riding, Joanna also works part-time for a grain marketing company, Emerald Group in Subiaco. The company has taken an interest in her studies at UWA and, with their encouragement, Joanna  plans to do her honours project next year on the viability of on-farm grain storage in Western Australia.

Joanna plans to spend her scholarship money on a quality laptop, which will be a vital tool for her honours project, and plans to pursue a career in Agribusiness.

Georgia Pugh is about to commence her third year studying Agricultural Science and Commerce. “My family owns a cattle stud at Narrikup, 30km north of Albany, and I am an old hand helping out at the Royal Show where we show our cattle,” she explains.

“In this day and age, I think you need to be business-savvy in most jobs, and my course at UWA will develop my business knowledge and at the same time allow me to follow my passion in agriculture,” she says.

Georgia’s dream job would be to work for a big agricultural company in South America – “they have lots of cattle there” is how she puts it. But for the moment, she is content that her scholarship money will enable her to cut back on her part-time work during semester as a hockey coach at her former high school, St Hilda’s.

The purpose of the scholarships is to support rural youth to complete their tertiary studies in courses that will benefit regional Australia.

ACAS and Coca-Cola have been supporting Australian students studying in agriculture and related fields for the past five years. Since 2005, almost 200 scholarships to the value of $2,000 each have been given to some of Australia’s
most talented young people to help them develop careers in agriculture.

“One of the core aims of the Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) is education,” says Martin Molony, the society’s CEO, “and these scholarships help foster a passion for agriculture and encourage the next generation’s ambitions and visions for agriculture – and this in turn will ensure that the industry will remain in capable hands.”

Photo: WA Governor Malcolm McCusker and wife Tonya congratulate UWA’s scholarship winners (l-r) Charissa White, Georgia Pugh and Joanna Lang at the Perth Royal Agricultural Show.