2023 Scholarship Recipients

Arkansas Women in Agriculture (AWIA) has named Kaylee Shoemaker and Noralee Townsend as 2023 scholarship recipients. Each received $1,000 for educational tuition expenses.

Shoemaker, from Conway, said her involvement in agriculture began at the age of five. Shoemaker was an active 4-H and FFA member while in high school. While in FFA, she showed livestock and competed in the nursery and landscape career development event. Today, she is still involved in her family’s beef cattle operation. Shoemaker is an agricultural education major at the University of Arkansas with plans to become an agriculture teacher.

Townsend grew up on a cow-calf and hay operation in Rose Bud, AR, where she helped with her family’s farm and established her own herd, using heifers she exhibited in livestock shows. Today she manages a herd of roughly 30 Angus and Brangus cattle. Townsend is studying agricultural communications and agricultural leadership at the University of Arkansas with aspirations of pursuing a communications career in the beef industry. She is a member of the Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association and National Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow.

“Each year, we have been fortunate enough to provide scholarships to help students further their education in the agriculture field. These scholarships are made available from the funds received at silent auctions during our annual conference,” said AWIA President Evette Browning. “The Arkansas Women in Agriculture Board will continue prioritizing this effort during our future conferences. We congratulate our 2023 scholarship winners and look forward to hearing their success stories.”

Arkansas Women in Agriculture, Inc. is a private non-profit whose primary goals are to provide educational programming and a network of support for women involved in agriculture. For more information about AWIA, visit arwomeninag.org.