2023 Scholarships Awarded
From left to right:
Raygan Krey, Haley Dodge, Ryan Grussing, Peri Andras, Ray Duncan, Luke Bjorklund, Emma Ahrendesen, Morley Griffith, Natalie Evans
Morley Griffith, a recipient of a $2500 NAJRAE scholarship
Morley is the daughter of Matt and Twana Griffith of Shawnee, Oklahoma. Morley is attending Oklahoma State University and plans to double Major in Agriculture Leadership and Strategic Communications. She then plans to attend Law School after completing her degree. Morley is a goal setter. She writes them down to stay focused and on track to reach those goals. She attributes much of her early success and life lessons to the Ag and Livestock community and all the opportunities those industries have brought her way. She hopes to one-day give back by contributing financially and volunteering her time for the breed and youth development organizations such as 4H and FFA. Morley attributes much of her success and confidence as a speaker to the livestock industry and Ag advocacy. Morley showed several breeds until she found what she calls her “forever home.” In 2018, she got her first Red Angus heifer and immediately fell in love with the breed along with the people. Showing cattle has always been a passion of mine and I am blessed to do it with her family, but is especially blessed to do it in an organization with incredible support for its juniors. She not only enjoys the show cattle aspect but also plays a large role on the family’s cow calf operation. She has enjoyed growing up on a cattle operation and learning about the responsibility and dedication it takes to become a successful cattle woman. Her favorite part is being directly involved in the genetic and breeding decision part of their cattle operation. It is extremely rewarding to see a bred and owed heifer being competitive in the show ring at a national level.
Her passion for community involvement is reflected in involvement in over a dozen organizations and programs in her community. As a standout in her community at her young age, Morley has founded the Pottawatomie County Junior Fair Board and the First United Bank Student Pillar Academy. She saw a need, addressed the need by communicating with the appropriate adults, established a mission statement, by-laws/guidelines, made applications, recruited judges/committees helping with the Selection and served on both Inaugural organizations. Morley has given back to her community through agriculture based projects over 2799 hours. Good Luck at OSU!
Natalie Evans, recipient of a $2500 NAJRAE scholarship
Natalie is the daughter of Sean and Amy Evans of Jacksonville, Illinois. Natalie is attending Murray State with Pre veterinary medicine degree. Her goal is to practice in large animal medicine, specifically cattle. Ultimately her dream would be to a veterinary for a feed yard and attend to large cattle operations out west while continuing to raise Red Angus cattle. Her first Red Angus Event was in 2017 and has been attending ever since. Actively involved in 4H, Calloway County’s 4H Dog Club, Ag Leadership Council at Murray State, Block and Bridal, Swine, Pre-vet/vet-tech and collegiate 4H Club, Ag Ambassador at the School of Agriculture, member of Delta Zeta Sorority, Teacher’s Assistant for an Animal Technology Class, as well as numerous activities in high school have helped to shape Natalie into the young woman she is today.
Her involvement with the beef industry began back in 2017 when she purchased her very first show heifer and took her to the NAJRAE held in Stillwater. From there, her show career and involvement in the industry took off. She began showing different breeds (primarily Red Angus) at local, state, and national shows. Additionally, as she has grown in her knowledge of beef, Natalie has been able to mentor kids in my home county with their show career and also help them begin their start in the beef industry. Natalie now serves as an Agriculture Ambassador for Murray State, and will travel to different high schools to teach students about the agriculture industry and Murray State. She sees this as a vital opportunity to share her experience in the beef industry and teach what this industry has to offer. She hopes to influence students to become involved to be the best beef breeders they can possibly be. Last, Murray State has been starting to formulate a livestock judging team. This past semester Natalie took a livestock evaluation class and spoke to the future coach. I have made plans to attend workshops in the fall and hopefully be on the team. Have a great year at Murray State!
Emma Ahrendsen, recipient of a $2500 NAJRAE scholarship
Emma is the daughter of Brian and Karla Ahrendsen of Sioux Rapids, Iowa is majoring in Agricultural Business and a minor in Animal Science. Emma is currently working towards a career in the fair industry with a goal to be able to integrate public education with events such as livestock shows. She hopes to ultimately be able to bridge the gap between producers and consumers by using livestock shows as our platform. Also, it will give 4-H and FFA members a new market to sell their market projects to and consumers will have a more direct way to purchase their meat. Overall, it will support local agriculture and 4-H/FFA programs. By supporting these programs, she hopes that they will continue to give our youth opportunities outside of the classroom and careers within the agriculture industry. Emma believes that through the support of our youth and local economy we can increase the quality of living and decrease depression and poor mental health in our society, which has become an increasingly large issue.
In 2016 she served as the North American Junior Red Angus Event Princess, and served as the Queen in 2021-2022. These positions have allowed me to advocate for the livestock industry.
In her free time she is involved in Block and Bridle Club, The Classic show committee and the Agricultural Business Club, Iowa Junior Beef Breeds Association. NAJRAE wishes Emma much success!
Ray Duncan a Recipient of a $1000 NAJRAE scholarship
Ray is the son of David and Jill Duncan of Wingate, Indiana and is majoring in Agriculture Business. His future aspiration is to come back to the family cow calf and row crop operation. He plans to continue to further develop their herd and ET program after college. Ray plans on being involved in his community to ensure it remains the same great place he was fortunate enough to grow up in. High on his list is to continue to further advance the red angus breed both genotypically and phenotypically after my time in college. Ray’s involvement with the Red Angus breed began in the spring of 2019 when he purchased his first red from 3 Aces Cattle. Ever since that first heifer and first Jr National he fell in love with Red Angus Cattle. He grew up in a Hereford family as a younger kid, but as I have gotten older I have bought into the Red Angus breed as my favorite. The NAJRAE is always a highlight of our summer. It is our hands down favorite national. Ray have started to buy embryos and flush their own Red Angus donors to keep his herd growing. With a young donor battery he feels that in the next 5-10 years he will be able not only to retain what I raise, but sell them all across the country. While my time in the Red Angus breed has only been four years I feel as though it has already been a lifetime of great memories. Looking forward I plan to keep Red Angus as our family's focus and continue to grow as a young breeder in this great breed. With the help of Lydell and Holly I have been fortunate enough to have a great foundation of females to start our operation.
Ray’s community involvement extends from Feed the Farmers, canned food drives, making blankets, Kids against Hunger, blood drives and FFA volunteer keeping him busy as he pays back to his community. Ray is currently a director for the Indiana Junior Beef Cattle Association and was involved in livestock judging in high school and is currently a member of the Illinois Central College Livestock Judging Team. Good Luck and hoping NAJRAE had a little part in your future plans!
Peri Andras a recipient of a $1000 NAJRAE scholarship
Peri is the daughter of Will and Kim Andras of Manchester, Illinois. Peri’s plans are to major in Agriculture Communications and is undecided about a minor. You may see Peri leaving her mark on future promotions as she plans to use that degree in an advertising job/graphic design or possibly come back to her family’s farm and be part of that operation.
Peri has been attending NAJRAE for seven years. Growing up on her family farm, she has been involved with Red Angus for as long as she can remember. I proudly showed my Red Angus in our local 4-H/County Fair when she was 8 years old. Then at age 10, I had the opportunity to attend my first Red Angus National Show, NAJRAE. Volunteering and giving back to her community through 4H and food drives and organizing hometown trash clean up days are just a few ways Peri gives back to her community. Being involved in the beef industry through Illinois Junior Beef Association, FFA, 4H, LLCC Livestock Judging Team and JRA has kept her busy and involved. The future looks bright with Peri involved.
Haley Dodge a recipient of a $1000 NAJRAE scholarship
Haley is the daughter of Heath and Kelly Dodge of Terril, Iowa. Haley is Majoring in Agriculture Education with a Minor in Animal Science. Haley plans are to keep working on growing her herd, promoting it by showing at fairs and other local shows and some day showing on a national level such as the American Royal. Her plans include transferring to South Dakota State University to finish her degree. Increasing the size of her herd to 50 cows and work on the quality of her replacement heifers and bulls is one of her goals. Joining a production sale and selling her own genetics is an ultimate goal for Haley. We wish her the best. Haley said this is only her second year at NAJRAE. Her first show was in 2022 when she attended junior nationals in Oklahoma with a heifer that she had purchased. That heifer was named Champion Percentage Heifer and also was placed in the top five females at the Ak-Sar-Ben in Lincoln, Nebraska.
One of Haley’s favorite activities was making and delivering meals to local farmers and elevator employees during the harvest season. Just like hiding rocks during NAJRAE Haley enjoyed hiding Easter eggs for the children of Terril, Iowa. During Farm Safety Day at the elementary school in Terril and Okoboji, you could find Haley participating and sharing the dangers of working around livestock. Working on the row crop farm including a 1000 head feedlot and cow
Calf operation has given Haley to start her own herd. She is responsible fore printing barn sheets and all record keeping. All business for this future female ag production leader!
Ryann Grussing, recipient of a $1000 NAJRAE Scholarship
Ryann is the daughter of Mark and Paula Grussing of Platte, South Dakota. Ryann is planning on majoring in either Health Lab Science or Animal Science. She would love to help and inspire others, so that has always been a goal for her going forward into her future. After College she would love to work at a hospital lab near her hometown or work at a bull sire company. Home and community is important to Ryann and she would love to return to the area after she graduates from college. Being active on her family’s farm for the rest of her life is high on her list of life goals including taking over the operation some day.
This is Ryann’s second year attending NAJRAE. Her older siblings were role models and she followed in their footsteps showing Red Angus heifers in 4H and FFA. She made her first trip to the 2022 Event in Oklahoma. Brookings is her second event and much closer to home. Ryann is very active on the ranch. She registers all the cattle and when she is not working on the computer she can be found helping her dad with the cattle. Paying it forward is easy for Ryann. She has been involved in the beef industry her whole life. A couple of years ago she had an extra show heifer that she was not going to show. She helped a neighbor get started in showing beef cattle by letting one of they kids show they heifer. A couple years later they are going to shows together. It has been moving for Ryann to watch him grow up, loving and promoting the beef industry.
As previously stated Ryann would like to come back to her community and helping support her community she has volunteer making soup mixes for elders in her church congregation. You’ll find her serving at the local fish fry during lent and keeping the community and highways clean with hours of cleanup. You can also find her helping referee at the local youth basketball games.
Raygan Krey, recipient of a $1000 NAJRAE Scholarship
Raygan is the daughter of Doug and Crystal Krey of Rush Springs, Oklahoma. Raygan will be attending Oklahoma State University where she will be majoring in their brand new nursing program. She will receive her BSN and then her RN. Her plans include to work as a Neonatal Intensive Care nurse with the goal of becoming a Neonatal Intensive Care Nurse Practitioner. Raising cattle with her family is one of her favorite things and will continue to raise them. Raygan’s Papa Jim decided back in 2015 he wanted to get into a specific breed of cattle. They had talked a lot about the different breeds, and he finally decided Red Angus was the breed for them. They pulled heifers out of the herd to show at the local, county, and state shows. Around five years ago, they started branching out and buying registered heifers with better genetics. Buying a few at each sale we went to, and now our heard is about 80 registered Red Angus. This has allowed us to add many nice heifers and bulls to our herd. We would like to have a performance sale someday.
Giving back is at the core of Raygan. Life Choices - North American Junior Red Angus Event Bed Project, Operation Christmas Child -Put together Christmas Presents for children, Team Taos -Benefit Dinner, Pass the Bucket, Team Brodie -Benefit Dinner, Oklahoma Blood Drive-Sterling Student Council.
Raygan was the 2022 NAJRAE Queen, OJRAA Vice President, Treasure and Queen, FFA President, Treasure and Sentinel and was Student Council Vice President in 2021 and 2022. Have a great first year at OSU Raygan! You’ll be an amazing nurse.
