Entomology Graduate Student Receives Monsanto Scholarship

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Ashley Humphreys hopes to use some of the scholarship money for a tissue culturing start-up business.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Ashley Humphreys, a graduate student in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas, has earned a $25,000 Monsanto Graduate Student Scholarship designed to aid women, minorities and non-traditional students.

Humphreys earned her bachelor's in dietetics from the Bumpers College in 2011 and is working on a master's in entomology.

"I changed my focus to entomology because of my interest in agriculture when I returned to school after getting married and having a baby," Humphreys said. "I have completed my first year with Dr. Fiona Goggin, who is an amazing mentor and adviser. I'm studying plant-pest interactions with transgenic crops and root knot nematodes."

According to Monsanto's website, each year approximately 25,000 agricultural jobs are unfilled due to a lack of qualified applicants. The company says it is "committed to recognizing high achieving underrepresented students pursuing degrees in agriculture and STEM related fields through scholarship programs."

Humphreys, who is from Manito, Illinois, plans to pursue her doctorate, eventually work for a company such as Monsanto, Dow or Syngenta in plant-pest interactions and help on her family's eighth-generation farm. She also hopes to launch a tissue culturing business with husband Josh, a Springdale native who is a doctoral student in crop, soil and environmental sciences.

"My hope is that we will be allowed to use the scholarship as seed money for our start-up as well as for a research fund," Humphreys said.

Humphreys is the outreach coordinator for the Isely-Baerg Entomology Club at the U of A.

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.