The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign recently received a $6,000 student recruitment grant from the USPOULTRY Foundation. The grant was made possible in part by an endowing Foundation gift from Koch Foods. The check was presented by Barbara Jenkins, executive director of the USPOULTRY Foundation, to Dr. Jason Emmert, Dr. Ken Koelkebeck and Dr. Carl Parsons. Joining in the presentation were several animal science students.
The funds will be used for outreach to youth interested in poultry, primarily through poultry judging. The funds will also be used in the development of five video poultry judging modules.
The USPOULTRY Foundation awarded recruiting grants totaling $328,300 for the 2018-19 school year to 34 colleges and universities across the United States with either a poultry science department or a poultry studies program. The student recruiting program dates to 1994 when the USPOULTRY board of directors established the Foundation to provide annual recruiting funds to attract students to poultry studies and ultimately into careers in the poultry industry.