At the first annual WROF, Inc. Premier and Board Scholar Award Celebration Luncheon, we had the great pleasure of meeting some of the
honored award recipients before they headed off to school this fall. Starting with this year's WROF Premier Scholarship recipient, we caught up with Tanner Pedretti. This talented student is settling on the UW-Madison campus to follow a pre-physical therapy track. Growing up on a beef cattle farm in Ferryville, Wisconsin, Tanner knows firsthand the physical challenges farmers face on a daily basis. Inspired by a doctor he had as a child when his femur was fractured in a sledding accident, Tanner
hopes to become a physical therapist and to serve Wisconsin's agricultural community by keeping its front-line workers healthy.
Presented with the Joan Behr WROF Board Scholar Award,
Abagail Diehl is pursuing a degree in Civil Engineering at UW-Platteville. Abagail envisions a future for rural Wisconsin filled with well-designed infrastructure to keep rural communities functioning and staying connected. Over the summer, Abagail served as an intern at the Vernon County Zoning and Sanitation Department where she was given opportunities to see designs for bridges and culverts up close. She is eager to combine her love for designing structures with an aesthetic eye for
art.
Clare Fritsche was also presented with the Joan Behr WROF Board Scholar Award. To preserve the unique environment she grew up in Prairie du Chien, Clare will begin her life's
ambition by earning a degree in Environmental Science at UW-Madison. Clare aspires to make agriculture more sustainable and capable of feeding more people with fewer resources. After graduation, Clare hopes to travel to gain knowledge firsthand about how other countries protect their lands and to instill their perspectives when she returns to rural Wisconsin.
The WROF Board Scholar program offers a unique opportunity for the WROF, Inc. Board of Directors to invest directly in promising and talented rural students from Wisconsin. "Through research and educational offerings, Wisconsin's academic institutions are advancing our state's rural communities,"
says WROF President Joan Behr. "That's why it makes sense for the WROF, Inc. to invest in students whose goal is to attend a Wisconsin college or university and then bring their knowledge back to rural Wisconsin through a viable career."
We are amazed by the skills, talents, and aspirations of rural Wisconsin's next generation of scholars. Thank you to the WROF Board of Directors for their generosity in creating the Board Scholar Award program to help rural communities in Wisconsin thrive. Please stay tuned to meet more WROF Board Scholars in future issues of this newsletter.