VERSAILLES – Taylor Winner of Versailles was a recipient of the Sunrise Cooperative Employee Scholarship.

Winner is attending the University of Northwestern Ohio to pursue a degree in accounting. Her eligibility comes from employee Dale Winner, her father.

Winner was one of 10 students to receive the $1,000 Sunrise Cooperative Employee Scholarship, which are given to employees’ children and grandchildren. Forty students earned $1,000 scholarships for common stockholder’s children and grandchildren.

A total of 282 students entered to compete for the 40 common stockholder scholarships while 20 competed for the 10 employee scholarships. All students awarded are or will be enrolled in a two or four-year college program. Over the past 10 years, Sunrise has awarded more than $200,000 in scholarships.

Applicants were required to compete in a scholarship essay contest, writing a minimum of one page on the topic of agriculture. Essays ranged from describing the use of various technologies on the farm to the importance of agriculture in our growing world. Although the essay topic was agriculture focused, the contest was open to students of any degree so long as they or a family member (parent or grandparent) is a member or employee of Sunrise Cooperative.

Terra State Community College in Fremont reviewed the written entries and narrowed them down to 64 finalists for the common stockholder scholarship, and 15 finalists for the employee scholarship. Each finalist was invited to an oral interview to discuss his or her interest in agriculture and future education plans. From these interviews 40 students were chosen for the common stockholder scholarships, and 10 were selected for the employee scholarship.

“We feel it’s important for Sunrise to be involved in our local communities – offering these scholarships are a way we can give back to our youth,” Sunrise Cooperative President and CEO George D. Secor said. “Our youth are the future, and it is our desire to invest in them and their education.”