Nuffield Scholars, come forward

In her column for the October 19 Grainews, Elaine Froese talks about a New Zealand Nuffield Scholar who came a spent a week at the Froese farm during this fall's harvest. In my Manitoba Co-operator days, Les Kletke, also a Nuffield Scholar, wrote a few times about his studies in New Zealand. It got me thinking that I should put reports from Nuffield Scholars into Grainews.

I don't know much about Nuffield scholarships, so I went to the website.

Details

The objective of the Nuffield Canada Farming Scholarship is to develop leadership from within Canada's rural industries, communities and from the practices of agriculture. To be eligible, you must be between 25 and 45 and be working in agriculture. "We look for people with very special qualities," the website says. "Since there is no prior academic level of achievement required, a scholarship is far more achievable than you may think. The rewards are tremendous for those who are selected and the industry within which each one will work benefits greatly."

The Canadian Selection Committee grants one or two scholarships per year. The study program last 10 weeks and is usually in another country. I don't know the exact size of the scholarships, but it doesn't sound like they're very big. You have to foot a lot of the travel bill yourself, or get a sponsor.

Nuffield Canada was a project originally introduced and financed by the Nuffield Foundation in England. This Foundation was created by Lord Nuffield, the British manufacturer of Morris cars. In 1943, Lord Nuffield created the Nuffield Foundation for the "advancement of health and social well-being and the care and comfort of the aged poor," as the website says.   Advancement of agriculture was added to the mandate in 1947. Nuffield Canada became its own entity in 1976.

Scholars, please email me

If you're a recent (past three years) Nuffield scholar who'd be interested in writing about your research, please email me. I'd like to focus on findings that would be of interest to grain farmers in Western Canada.