Foster High School senior Kennedye Miller is a finalist for U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) 1890 National Scholars Program.
Miller is one of only 160 finalists in the nation and is vying for a full ride (tuition, fees, room, board, books, laptop and paid summer internships) for college. The program awards scholarships to students attending one of the 1890 Historically Black Land-Grant Universities and pursuing a bachelor’s degree in agriculture, food, natural resource sciences, or related academic disciplines.
Miller plans to attend Tennessee State University.
Scholarship winners are employed with the USDA upon graduation and commit to four years of service.
The goal of the USDA/1890 National Scholars Program is to increase the number of minorities studying agriculture, food, natural resource sciences and other related disciplines.
Land-grant universities (also called land-grant college or land-grant institution) were created by the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890.
The Morrill Acts funded educational institutions by granting federally-controlled land to the states for them to sell, to raise funds, to establish and endow "land-grant" colleges. The mission of these institutions as set forth in the 1862 Act is to focus on the teaching of practical agriculture, science, military science and engineering. This mission was in contrast to the historic practice of higher education to focus on an abstract liberal arts curriculum.