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SARASOTA, Fla. – Online Amish furniture retailer DutchCrafters has selected two recipients for its Amish Furniture Heritage Scholarship for the 2020 year.
The recipients are Addy Battel, of Cass City, Mich., and Faith Laughlin, of Stewart, Ohio. They were among the 500 applications the company received for this year’s scholarship program. During the three-part application process, participants were asked to prepare an essay answering how they will draw upon their cultural heritage “to shape their vocational aspirations, offer creative value and serve their community.”
Battel, who is planning to major in environmental studies and sustainability at Michigan State University in the fall, is a member of a sixth-generation farming family and the granddaughter of A1 Stuever. She said she is committed to “helping keep family farms strong” through soil conservation.
“We’re a family of overachievers; apparently I get it from him,” Battel said of her grandfather. “Although growing sugarbeets and milking cows won’t be how I’ll carry on my family’s traditions, agriculture, a sense of community and a compulsion to make everything I do big are part of me.”
Among her accomplishments thus far are co-founding a nationally recognized hunger relief organization after her small town’s grocery store closed and she learned that 17% of her community was food insecure.
Laughlin plans to pursue a bachelor’s degree from Ohio University in food and nutrition science. Having grown up in rural Appalachia, she has experienced first-hand how “the majority of rural Appalachians go hungry as they live in food deserts, or places where it is difficult to find fresh and affordable foods, and lack the financial resources to properly feed themselves.” Laughlin said she would like to “ensure that all in rural areas are properly nourished through nutrition education and food access.”
Through the scholarship program, Battel and Laughlin will each receive $500 to assist with college expenses.
Created in 2012, the Heritage Scholarship is awarded annually to students planning to attend or who are enrolled in four-year universities in the U.S. They are chosen based on financial need, grade point average and an essay that explains how their heritage has shaped them and their aspirations. Now in its eighth year, the program has awarded $12,500 to 25 students.
