Apr 20, 2017
AFE Awards Scholarships

The American Floral Endowment (AFE) has named the recipients of several of this year’s scholarship winners.

Kaylee South, a Ph.D. student at The Ohio State University – OARDC is the recipient of the 2017 Paul Ecke, Jr. Scholarship. South has been awarded a $10,000 scholarship ($5,000 for two consecutive years).

South is pursuing her Ph.D. in agriculture and is researching botrytis in floriculture crops. Her focus is isolating bacteria that has beneficial qualities in floriculture crops that can be successfully applied to control botrytis. Her career goal is to work at a land-grant university teaching and working in research with floriculture crops.

The 2016 Ecke recipient, Kellie Walters of Michigan State University (MSU), will receive her second year of funding this year. She is working toward her Ph.D. in the Department of Horticulture at MSU, and her career goals include becoming a professor and providing research-based solutions to floriculture problems.

Three students have been named as recipients of the 2017 Altman Family Scholarship: Travis Higginbotham, Virginia Tech; Nathan Jahnke, North Carolina State University; and Emily Teng, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Each student will receive $5,000 in funding from this scholarship.

Travis Higginbotham is currently pursuing a master’s degree in horticulture, and will subsequently obtain his Ph.D., at Virginia Tech. In addition, he is working full time as the research and development manager at Battlefield Farms. His future goal is to help environmentally influence the industry in a positive, progressive and practical way. He is also a member of GPN 40 Under 40 Class of 2016.

Nathan Jahnke is a graduate student at North Carolina State University working toward a master’s degree in horticultural science. He will concentrate on botrytis and postharvest handling of floriculture crops as he obtains his Ph.D., and once he graduates, he plans on becoming a university professor.

Emily Teng is pursuing her Ph.D. in Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Her doctoral research will focus on analyzing anthocyanins in poinsettias. After completing her degree, she wants to work in the private sector at a floriculture breeding company.