The eight-year-old program is open to juniors and seniors in college who plan to pursue a career in swine production management or a related field, or will be seeking to attend veterinary or graduate school and major in a discipline with an emphasis on swine.

This year, the National Pork Board will award up to 21 scholarships totaling $48,000. The top applicant will receive $5,000, the second-ranked applicant will receive $3,500 and all others will receive $2,000.

“We invite any student who meets the scholarship criteria to submit an application,” said Chris Hostetler, animal science director for the Pork Checkoff.

“This is an excellent opportunity for the next generation of young people studying in swine-related fields to get some needed recognition among their peers and get some financial assistance.”

The guidelines for the scholarship application and the online form can be found at www.pork.org/scholarship. The deadline for application submission is February 17, 2017. Recipients will be notified in April and the related funds will be available for the Fall 2017 semester.

“The pork industry is committed to continual improvement in producing safe, wholesome protein,” Hostetler said. “Key to achieving this goal is identifying and developing the next generation of leaders and decision-makers, which is the driving force behind this scholarship program.”

Approximately 80 per cent of previous pork industry scholarship winners have pursued advanced degrees as they prepared to serve the industry as veterinarians, nutritionists, reproductive biologists and management consultants.