Cypress, CA (6/3/2009) -Yamaha
Motor Corp., U.S.A., has named the recipients
of its inaugural Yamaha-ACT Scholarship Program.
The University of Florida Chapter of the National
Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT)
will receive the chapter award, and Whitney
Siegfried and Katherine Kuykendall, both ACT
members from Purdue University, earned the individual
scholarships. As recipients of the individual
scholarships, both Siegfried and Kuykendall
will also have the opportunity to serve as interns
for Yamaha during the 2009 Ag Media
Summit.
Yamaha's new scholarship program was launched
this year to provide financial assistance to
members of the ACT, a national college student
association with 354 registered members located
on 17 college and university campuses across
the country. ACT's mission of fostering professional
development is at the core of the new Yamaha-ACT
Scholarship Program.
As part of the application process, students
were asked to incorporate important ATV and
Side-by-Side (SxS) safety messages into practical
communications pieces such as a feature story,
brochure or press release. This part of the
application was meant to show an example of
the students' quality of work, and also to seed
safety messages that they can carry throughout
their careers as professional communicators.
"Yamaha congratulates each of the recipients
of our 2009 Yamaha-ACT Scholarship program,
and we are proud to assist them in their pursuit
of a career in agricultural communications,"
said Steve Nessl, Yamaha's ATV and SxS group
marketing manager. "We hope that our application
process allowed these ACT students to learn
new lessons about safe, responsible off-road
vehicle use. This is valuable information they
can use throughout the professional and personal
lives."
"ACT is about providing students with
practical opportunities to grow as future professional
communicators, and Yamaha's scholarship program
fits right in with that purpose. To win, the
students have to apply their communications
skills-writing, design, and public relations.
This year's winners really showed some skill
and talent, " said Jeff Miller, professor
of agricultural communications at the University
of Arkansas and national adviser of ACT.
The Yamaha-ACT Scholarship Program is broken
out into two individual student scholarships
and one chapter scholarship. All three scholarships
are aimed at helping students attend the annual
Agricultural Media Summit (AMS). As the largest
gathering of crop and livestock media professionals
in the country hosted by the Agricultural Editors'
Association (AAEA) and the Livestock Publications
Council (LPC), the AMS is the ACT's primary
career development networking
opportunity for these students each year.
Applicants were judged based on merit, need
and quality of submission materials by a review
committee consisting of Yamaha employees; ACT
faculty adviser and Associate Professor for
Agricultural Communications at the University
of Arkansas, Dr. Jefferson D. Miller; AAEA President
Elect and Director of Communications at Iowa
Soybean Association, Karen Simon; and Livestock
Publications Council President and Senior Director
at The American Quarter Horse Journal, Jim Bret
Campbell
