MCLEAN, Va. – The Meat Industry Suppliers Foundation, the philanthropic organization of the Food Processing Suppliers Association (FPSA) announced five recipients of the foundation’s scholarship program.

“It was an exceptional year for applicants”, said Craig Hess of Speco, Inc., chairman of the MISA Foundation. “We decided to award four scholarships of $5,000 instead of the traditional three scholarships that are awarded annually.

“How do you turn down an applicant with a perfect record?” he added.

A fifth scholarship of $10,000 is jointly sponsored by MISA and Siemens, Inc.

Rebecca Acheson, a Ph.D. candidate at Colorado State Univ. received the $10,000 MISA/Siemens scholarship. Acheson earned her M.S. at Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, Texas and her B.S. from Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, Kan. She has been an active member of 4-H and the Future Farmers of America organizations. Her goal is to become a registered dietician working in a meat company to promote meat products in a healthful diet.

The winners of the $5,000 MISA scholarship are:

• Harrison Bartlett, a junior at Georgia Tech, Atlanta in biomedical engineering;

• Ethan Blom, a senior studying animal science at South Dakota State Univ., Brookings, SD;

• Simon Kern, a candidate for the M.S. degree in animal science at South Dakota State; and

• Daniel Neely, a junior seeking a degree in animal science at Kansas State Univ. in Manhattan, Kan.

Four of the five recipients had a grade point average of 4.0 and the fifth weighed in with a 3.9, according to the foundation.