Brad Scholarship Recipients

Today I have the distinct pleasure of announcing and publicly congratulating the three recipients of the Brad Scholarship:

• Charley Maranville of Ramah, Colorado, a freshman at Texas Tech University

• Shirley Jo Thompson of Limon, Colorado, a prospective graduate of Limon High School

• Brooklyn Lee of Dolores, Colorado, a sophomore at Fort Hays State University

This year the committee received applications from 26 students with a wide range of interests across the ag spectrum, and nine of our 22 committee members sat as voters to select our three recipients.

The quality shown in the applications was fantastic. It is so heartening to read about the hopes and dreams of the next generation of people working in agriculture and ag-adjacent careers. Truly, I wish we could have given money to everyone.

There is no restriction on the number of times a person can apply for or receive the scholarship. The new application will open Feb. 1, 2026. I hope to see the names of many of these applicants again next year!

We work with the Northern Colorado Community Foundation, which sets the guidelines for distribution amounts. If the recipients’ checks were written today, they would each be $558, and barring catastrophe in the national markets, that ought to be pretty close.

If you think that supporting people beginning ag and ag-adjacent careers sounds like a pretty good idea, please consider a gift to our foundation fund. And thank you!