A LOXTON High School graduate has had a jump start to her career after receiving one of Rural Bank’s annual scholarships.
As one of 19 recipients, Sabrina Lawrence will be awarded $5000 to assist in the commencement of her studies, including course costs, studying materials, tutoring and equipment.
Ms Lawrence said the scholarship would be “extremely” beneficial, and would enable her to thrive in her chosen field.
“Moving down to the city and going to university when (I’m) not able to work is financially hard,” she said.
“So that scholarship definitely comes in handy for that.”
Growing up in rural South Australia and studying agriculture at high school, Ms Lawrence found a strong passion for cereal cropping and livestock production.
The time she spent working at a research orchard for the Almond Board of Australia during her gap year, only spurred her interest, and thoughts of turning it into a career path.
“During high school I did agriculture every year and gradually found more and more passion for it,” she said.
“Then, in Year 12, I just absolutely loved it and thought, ‘Well, why not follow what I’m interested in and make a career out of it?’”
Ms Lawrence is currently enrolled in a Bachelor of Agriculture at the University of Adelaide, where she hopes to research ways to grow crops more sustainably in South Australia, allowing farmers to increase yields in tough times such as drought.
She said there is a need for agriculture to adapt to the challenges facing the industry, and believes research and development will provide viable and sustainable farming practices to support the future prosperity of rural Australia.
“The drought has been pretty prominent in the last few years, (in addition to) salinity issues,” she said.
“The genetic modification of crops is also pretty controversial at the moment in some states, and I want to do a bit of research into how that’s working, what can happen and what can come from that.
“The world is changing with climate change and all that, so more sustainable crops that are grown and getting a higher yield for less input is really important in the future across the agricultural industry, and in livestock (and) horticulture.”
CEO of Rural Bank Alexandra Gartmann said the next generation of regional and rural leaders are more important now than it has ever been, and these scholarships will provide support to students, like Ms Lawrence, to assist the rural sector.
“These scholarships are an important step towards easing the financial strain many families feel when a member of the family begins tertiary study,” Ms Gartmann said.
“These students are furthering their education in such a challenging environment, with many of them tasked with continuing their studies online due to the global pandemic and movement restrictions.
“I look forward to seeing how they will invest their capabilities to grow our agricultural sector.”