By Kevin Schulz
The Land Editor
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This year's recipients of The Land's scholarships have a lot to offer. Each in their own way is looking to make their mark on the state's agriculture industry.
Kelsey Gunderson
Every high school senior has a busy last year of high school.
Kelsey Gunderson's senior year is no exception. Only she and her classmates at MACCRAY High School have to cram in all of their efforts into a four-day school week. A couple of years ago the MACCRAY school board opted for a shorter school week to save costs. MACCRAY is the school district for Maynard, Clara City and Raymond.Gunderson has made the most of her shortened school weeks.
"Mondays have become my favorite days of the week," said the daughter of Dean and Barb Gunderson of Raymond. This time of year and in the fall, the Gunderson family really likes the free Mondays. "It's really nice during planting and harvesting that we can help Dad one more day. ... we truly are a family farm, without us helping out it would be hard to get things done." The Gunderson farm consists of farrow-to-finish hogs, 44-head dairy herd and field crops.
Kelsey is the middle child, with an older sister completing her masters degree this spring at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and a brother who is a MACCRAY sophomore.
Gunderson also enjoys the Mondays as a way to recuperate from her activities. For example, on May 9 she returned home from the National Leadership Conference of the Business Professionals of America in Anaheim, Calif. "I explain BPA as a non-ag FFA," she said. "I don't know how I did yet, but it was a great experience."
Gunderson knows all about the real FFA, as she has been involved all four years of her high school career, working her way up the officer ladder from reporter to treasurer to vice president and ultimately to chapter president. This past year, she simultaneously served as chapter president and Region V FFA president. "This has been a busy year, but it was a great experience. I applied for the region office, just wondering if I could do it. ... as region president I worked behind the scenes at state events, working with the other regional presidents and the state officers."
That was a real eye-opener for her, giving her a glimpse into whether she should pursue a state FFA office next year. "I thought about running this year, but I wanted to just dedicate myself to my first year of college."
Gunderson plans on attending the U of M-TC to major in agricultural education, with plans on being an agricultural advocate.
As she wrote in her application essay, "Agriculture has many rewards and I want to share this important message through the radio, or be a part of a company's communications team or serve as an agricultural advocate."
Returning to the home farm is a possibility, but if not she knows she wants to live on a farm. "It may not be this farm, but I know I want to live in a rural area on a farm."
Grant Moorse
Grant Moorse, the oldest son of Greg and Becky Moorse of Minneota, knows all about challenges.
In the spring of 2009, about a week before planting was to begin, Greg fell and broke five lower vertebrae in his back.
That thrust the younger Moorse more so into action on the family's dairy, beef, wheat, oats, alfalfa, corn and soybean farm.
Before Greg's fall, Grant knew he'd come back to the farm, "thought I'd only do dairy, but now I'm looking at the feedlot as well." That change of thinking is reflected in his change of concentration when he attends Ridgewater College in the fall. Initially planning on majoring in ag business, he has now changed his major to farm operation management.
An older sister is attending South Dakota State University in Brookings, S.D., majoring in dairy production, "I think she wants to come back to the farm."
There are also four younger siblings, three of them boys. "If they'd want to come back to farm that would be great. Then we could expand to make room for them."
Dairy expansion had actually been in the plans, to upgrade from the family's current tie-stall barn where they milk 90 cows. "We were on, like, a 10-year plan, but maybe Dad getting hurt jumped that up a bit."
The family's feedlot runs 1,200 cattle and they also run about 1,200 acres.
Grant takes pride in his leadership, and that shone through this past year in Minneota High School FFA Chapter's inaugural year. He took the role of chapter president, and some of the challenge was just to make people understand what FFA was all about.
To find out for himself, he relied on his friends and contacts through his 4-H involvement. "I have a lot of friends through 4-H who are in FFA in other schools, so I talked to a lot of them about FFA."
That hard work paid off as the Minneota chapter received a national superior rating and seven of the chapter's 20 members attended the recent state FFA convention.
"I feel a little cheated (not having FFA throughout high school), but I'm glad to have at least one year."
His leadership isn't going to stop after high school. "I've told the kids who will still be here that if they need anything I'll be there to help."
