By Rebekah Hall
U of A System Division of Agriculture
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas high school seniors interested in pursuing a plant sciences degree may benefit from a scholarship opportunity available through the Arkansas Master Gardener program.
THE FUTURE OF HORTICULTURE — The Janet B. Carson Master Gardener Scholarship is named for noted extension horticulturist Janet Carson, who served the Cooperative Extension Service for nearly four decades. The scholarship is available to high school seniors planning to pursue a plant sciences degree at an Arkansas college or university. (Division of Agriculture photo.)
The Janet B. Carson Master Gardener Scholarship is available to high school seniors planning to attend an Arkansas college or university and major in a plant science related-field, including horticulture, botany, agronomy, forestry, landscape architecture and more.
The Arkansas Master Gardener program funds the $1,000 scholarship. Randy Forst, extension consumer horticulture educator and Master Gardener program coordinator for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said the scholarship is part of the program’s investment in the future of horticulture.
“The Janet B. Carson Scholarship was set up in 2014 in honor of Janet Carson, who spent 38 years sharing her horticulture knowledge and love of gardening with many people across the state,” Forst said. “We are hoping that this will encourage more people to pursue a career involving plants. When it comes to horticulture, Master Gardeners are a big component of investing in the future generation of the plant industry.”
The deadline to apply is March 10, 2023, and the scholarship application is available at bit.ly/carson-scholarship-23. Scholarship applicants are required to submit two letters of recommendation and a short statement about their career goals, along with their high school transcripts and ACT (or equivalent) scores. For more information, contact mg@uada.edu or contact your county extension agent.
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk.