The Agricultural College held its sixth annual fund-raising golf tournament Monday at the LSU University Club. The goal of the tournament was to raise money for agricultural scholarships and 4-H, a developmental program that exposes grade school students to agriculture, among other subjects.
More than 40 companies participated to support the Ag Center.
William Richardson, chancellor of the Ag Center, said Monday was a record high for corporate sponsorship for the six years that the tournament has been in existence.
“We usually net around $30,000 to $35,000 per year,” Richardson said. “This is our largest fund-raiser.”
Richardson said there are six agricultural scholarships worth $500 raised yearly from the tournament.
The program begins in 4th grade and goes up to students of age 21. All 64 parishes currently have at least one 4-H program.
Jamie Segar, assistant to the chancellor, said more schools now can be built with money they have raised.
“We want to expand building the academy for inner-city youth,” Segar said. “Kids in inner-city New Orleans and Baton Rouge don’t know what agriculture is all about, they need to know what it’s like.”
More than 87,000 Louisiana students currently are in the program. The four H’s stand for health, hands, heart and head, Richardson said.
“Corporate sponsors are very supportive of the Ag Center; they really get involved,” Richardson said.
Sponsors were both local and national, ranging from Dell Computers and Bank One to local businesses.
John Daniel from Bank One said his company is impressed with the work the LSU Ag Center does.
“They do critical research on crops and their productivity,” Daniel said. “That is what Bank One as a bank is looking for.”
Richardson said the 4-H program is not just for educating students about agriculture.
“It’s also a character-building program,” he said. “It teaches topics like teenage obesity, which is a major epidemic. They have public service projects that serve local communities, and they teach leadership and public speaking skills”
Richardson said he is impressed with the benefits the program has on students.
“4-H significantly improves LEAP scores,” he said. “Many students in their junior and senior year of high school go to 4-H. Historically a number of them do well.”
Chief financial officer of the Ag Center Mark Legendre said they want to reach out to students and expose them to what the LSU Ag Center has to offer.
“We want to expose them to LSU,” Legendre said. “We like to bring them out and expose them to the campus and the students.”