Secondary education can be expensive, but scholarship opportunities are out there for youth considering agricultural fields of study.

Students and their families can be proactive in finding scholarships by taking these steps:

The following are just a couple of scholarships that are still accepting applications for the 2024-25 school year for students considering agricultural careers.

Kansas Wheat scholarships

High school seniors and current Kansas college students have until March 15 to apply for one of two $1,000 scholarships from Kansas Wheat, honoring industry leaders Herb Clutter and David Radenberg.

The $1,000 Herb Clutter Memorial Scholarship recognizes his influential role in the Kansas wheat industry. Clutter was a farmer from Holcomb, the first president of the National Association of Wheat Growers, and a driving voice in forming both the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers and Kansas Wheat Commission.

The scholarship is awarded to an incoming freshman full-time student from Kansas pursuing a career in agriculture, enrolled at any two- or four-year Kansas college or university. Find more information and the application at kswheat.com/clutter.

The $1,000 David Radenberg Memorial Scholarship honors the lifelong farmer from Claflin, Kan., who was a founding board member of the Kansas Wheat Commission Research Foundation. Radenberg had a strong commitment to wheat research that could help feed a hungry world.

The scholarship is awarded to a current undergraduate or graduate student, from Kansas, pursuing a career in the field of agriculture, with preference giving to those studying the improvement of wheat — including fields such as wheat genetics, wheat agronomics, wheat breeding, plant pathology, Extension and bioinformatics. Find more information and the application at kswheat.com/radenberg.

Kansas Grain and Feed Association

The Kansas Grain and Feed Association has 19 scholarships for graduating Kansas high school seniors who are planning to attend any Kansas four-year university, community college or technical school.

There are 18 KGFA Scholarships of $1,500 each, and one $500 Dub and Inez Johnson Memorial Scholarship application for the 2024-25 academic year. Applications will be accepted until 5 p.m. March 15. Find the application at ksgrainandfeed.org.

Growmark Foundation scholarships

The Growmark Foundation, an arm of the Growmark agricultural cooperative, offers 55 scholarships of $2,000 each to students pursuing agriculture and business-related degrees or certificates at colleges, universities and technical schools in the U.S. and Ontario, Canada.

Eligible applicants must be high school seniors or equivalent, enrolled in a secondary school for fall 2024, or already enrolled and in good standing at a secondary school. The online application can be found at jotform.com and is due April 15. Students will be notified May 15 if they are awarded a scholarship.

Juniors and younger students

Now is the time for high school juniors or younger to start planning through the summer and fall months for scholarship opportunities for the 2024-25 school year.

Several organizations have fall or winter scholarship deadlines that can fly by in the rush of the holidays. Take the time now for those younger students to start gathering materials for a scholarship application packet that they can use to make filling out scholarship applications easier and more efficient.