The 2023 Elroy Webster Cooperative Studies Scholarship recipients have been awarded. The recipients were announced at the 20th Annual Tom Lyon Family Leadership Symposium which was held during the Annual Meeting of Cooperative Network in Rochester, Minnesota, on November 15, 2023.
The following two scholarships are funded by the CHS Foundation:
Behnam Hassanizadeh PhD student in agricultural economics
Ferguson College of Agriculture at Oklahoma State University
Behnam Hassanizadeh's life journey began in Iran. He attended elementary and high school at the National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents (NODET), where he discovered his passion for mathematics. This early fascination set the stage for his academic pursuit of a degree in Petroleum Engineering at Iran's prestigious Sharif University of Technology (SUT).
As Behnam advanced through his bachelor's program at SUT, his engineering insights expanded, and he began to explore the realms of organizations, management, and computer programming. To further expand his horizons, Behnam pursued an MBA specializing in strategy at another esteemed institution in Iran. This program introduced him to the intricacies of supply chain management, and it was here that his diverse background bore its first fruit—a meticulously designed supply chain system for distributing COVID-19 vaccines in Melbourne, Australia.
Inspired by his international experience, Behnam sought opportunities abroad and is now a Ph.D. student in agricultural economics at Ferguson College of Agriculture at Oklahoma State University. His research focus revolves around cooperative companies, particularly cooperative grain elevators. Cooperative environments provide him with the ideal platform to drive transformative changes, ultimately enhancing the efficiency of agricultural operations with his robust educational background in management, complemented by his mathematical insight.
Katrina Klett
PhD student in Natural Resources Scientific Management
University of Minnesota
Katrina Klett is a lifelong beekeeper and Sioux Honey Coop member. She comes from a family beekeeping operation and grew up traveling between Jamestown, North Dakota to produce honey and Sour Lake, Texas to breed queen bees.
Katrina is currently a PhD student at the University of Minnesota, where she researches honey bee health and how to improve federal agricultural policy to help producers transition to the climate smart agriculture of the future. She runs a social enterprise in the Himalayas, helping beekeepers to reach better markets and is interested in better supply chains as a way to help farmers further improve their incomes and diversify their operations.
Katrina will continue her studies after finishing her PhD and is keen to work with others on improving legislation for producers in the next Farm Bill.
An additional award recipient this year has been funded by donor support:
Celina Georges
Visiting PhD researcher; Dept. of Applied Social Sciences
University of Missouri
Celina Georges is a PhD student in Agribusiness and Organizations Management at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. She is originally from Campo Grande, a city in the Midwest of Brazil, and in 2023 had the opportunity to be a visiting researcher at the University of Missouri in the Department of Applied Social Sciences. Since 2022, Celina is also a member of Cooperativa de Trabalho em Desenvolvimento Rural e Agronegócio - a worker cooperative located in Brazil, where she teaches financial management and math in a technical online course in agribusiness and sometimes provides project consultancy.
In 2015 she completed her bachelor's degree in Business Administration. After two years working in the tourism area, Celina started her master’s in Business in Brazil, which was also her first year in contact with her object of studies, agricultural cooperatives. Since then, she has been researching governance in agricultural cooperatives. Her studies and research with agricultural cooperatives have been supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – CAPES.
Celina intends to continue developing research with agricultural cooperatives after finishing her studies and to teach classes on the financial management of rural organizations.
Congratulations to all of the 2023 Recipients!
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