Rettig among MGGA and MGF 2020 scholarship recipients

Press release

The Montana Grain Growers Association and the Montana Grains Foundation have announced the recipients of their college scholarships for school year 2020-21, including a Hi-Line student.

Caden Rettig, a North Star High School student from Rudyard, is one of the recipients of the MGGA $1,000 scholarship winners.

Rettig is a high school senior planning to attend Montana State University in Bozeman and earn a degree in agriculture. His goal is to one day take over his family’s fourth generation farm.

Sophia Flikkema, a Belgrade High School senior, is the other MGGA scholarship recipient. She plans to attend Mississippi State University and double major in economics and international business with a minor in Mandarin. With an eye on influencing future trade deals, she hopes to work for either a government entity or within the private sector to be a voice for U.S. farmers and ranchers. 

The MGF awarded four $2,500 scholarships, two for undergraduate students selected by the MSU College of Agriculture, and two for graduate students selected by MGF, including one funded by CoBank. The graduate student winners are:

Laissa Cavallini is an MSU entomology master’s candidate who conducts her research in the wheat stem sawfly lab. She believes her studies will contribute to the conservation of natural resources while benefiting the grain industry of Montana, especially Montana wheat and barley producers.

  Aishwarya Kothari, an MSU plant genetics Ph.D. candidate, received the MGF scholarship funded by CoBank. She is specifically interested in sustainably growing crops with high nutritional quality which can cope with climate change without loss in yields by understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying plant responses to stress.