WKU Agriculture Department
Receives $75,000 For Scholarships

April 15, 2004

Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University's Agriculture Department has received $75,000 in scholarship funding from U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company.

In the past seven years, the company has provided more than $544,000 to WKU as part of more than $1.5 million donated to area universities for scholarships for sons and daughters of dark-tobacco producers in Kentucky and Tennessee.

"The recipients of these scholarships are the young leaders of our rural communities," said Dr. Jenks Britt, head of WKU's Agriculture Department. "After graduation, most of them will return to these communities to become involved in agribusiness and leadership."

At Western, 96 percent of the USSTC scholarship recipients have graduated or are still in school.

"These scholarships provide the opportunity for men and women to develop and strengthen their skills as they prepare to be more efficient and productive in facing the challenges ahead," said Danny Kingins, plant manager of USSTC in Hopkinsville. "USSTC continues to be dedicated to the agricultural community in both Kentucky and Tennessee."

For more information, contact the Agriculture Department at (270) 745-3151. More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via E-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

-WKU-