If you’re here as an applicant for the Bradley Heil Memorial Advancing Agriculture Scholarship, then by all means feel free to read this post which talks all about it, but mainly you’ll want to click here to get to the dedicated scholarship page. The application opens at 1 a.m. Feb. 1 and closes at midnight April 4. (Please follow the instructions. It’s easy. There are no tricks. Also, not following the instructions makes the committee members wry and scornful amongst themselves — fair warning.)
This post is unequivocally the right place if you’re here just because you’re reading This Prairie Life. — to which I say, welcome back, and I’m only a little bit sorry that I’ve been spending all my spare time on Town Square, and please feel free to become a subscriber or (ideally) a sponsor.
I am, however, going to talk about the scholarship in memory of my brother. I feel like there’s a slim segment of the population who’s interested in the nuts and bolts of the scholarship side of things, but honestly, it’s important.
Why agriculture? Why rural America? Why education?
The scholarship committee is made up of friends and family of my brother. We are people in all stages of life, from my parents to my little nephew, but mostly people my brother’s age. Generally, these people are ag people, and generally, we are rural. Generally, we are fairly well educated.
One of the perceptions of rural and farm people that drives me the most crazy is the stereotypical aw-shucks image of cartoons — straw in the mouth, slouchy posture, bad grammar, zero sophistication or manners, no idea of current events or technology.
Uh, no. Agriculture and rural culture are absolutely not that. There are outliers, as with any group of people, but the scholarship committee members — we are not the outliers.
Ag and rural people are all the things — tech wizards who can GPS locate practically anything to within an inch, evaluators of seed characteristics and multiple species’ expected progeny differences, travelers to conferences and conventions worldwide, state and national ag lobbyists, connoisseurs and producers of excellent arithmetic, manufacturers and mechanics, voracious consumers of written and recorded material across all disciplines, super risk-tolerant investors, mitigators of risk through planning, optimists, creators, deciders.
And, we’re parents, sons and daughters, grandparents, school board and town council and church board members, fence builders and wall tearer-downers, people who pour themselves into their communities hand in hand (not literally!) with their neighbors and with people everywhere.
Ag and rural people value themselves, their families, and their communities and, whether by personality or belief or both, work to better their operations, families and the places they live through learning and putting forth the effort to make things happen.
That brings us to the scholarship.
The priority for the scholarship is advancing agriculture. It’s right there in the name. Agriculture is farming and custom harvesting and livestock production, but it’s also welding, accounting, groceries and auto parts. It’s the tractor tech and the machine shop, and it’s the school teacher and the large-animal vet. It’s the nurse practitioner, the canal system operator, the lineman, the news reporter, the sheriff’s deputy and the mail carrier. All of these things are vital to agriculture and rural community.
So, this scholarship supports that.
In years prior to 2025, the committee operated the Brad Scholarship ad hoc. We had a bank account, we solicited donations from the committee members, we had a Google form, we made a poster for a couple schools to hang, we sorted through and chose recipients, and we handed out or mailed checks. In each of the first two years we awarded two scholarships, with one student being a repeat in the second year, so three kids were assisted in their goals.
It was fine. Lofty ideals. Some help for students.
But now! Beginning with 2025 and the particular initiative of my brother’s friend Aaron, the scholarship has been formalized as a fund of the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado. This is a good home for the scholarship fund for several reasons. One is donor benefits. The NoCo Foundation is a 501(c)(3), meaning donors to the Brad Scholarship are allowed tax benefits. Another is accountability. Funds are deposited and scholarship recipient checks requested through the NoCo system, so we don’t have to independently handle or track the money. A third is the enhanced opportunity for growth. The money in the Brad Scholarship fund is joined with the other money in all 600 other NoCo funds and invested for reasonable growth. (We all know how well checking accounts grow. Which is to say, not at all. So this is a major step up.)
The last advantage of specific note, and my particular favorite, is the perpetuity. Establishing a fund with a foundation ensures that the scholarship can provide assistance for young people whose interest is advancing agriculture forever, or until the foundation dissolves. We don’t have to fund-raise every year (thank the Lord) or let the scholarship initiative slowly peter out. Nope. We are good to go, in perpetuity.
That takes it from fine to really neato. It’s lofty ideals on steroids. With a Google form.
So if you’ve made it this far, good job reading all those lists. I have some suggestions for you — another list with a couple bonus embedded lists.
First, support your operation, your family, your hometown, your community’s young people and businesses.
Second, if ag and rural America is your thing, donate to the Brad Scholarship fund. I also urge you to contribute to your own hometown’s community fund for the continued health of rural communities. (If you don’t have a hometown community fund, first let me recommend mine, and second, let me recommend starting one.)
Third, if you know young people who ought to apply for this scholarship, send them the link thisprairielife.com/brad-scholarship and urge them to consider a future in agriculture and in a rural community that supports the ag economy. And if you need a poster, here’s a poster, too.
This Prairie Life. 