PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
The Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association will award $1,500 scholarships to three students enrolled in a college or university for the next academic year under the Albert James (Bert) Shoosmith Scholarship Fund, which was established in 2003 to help students working toward their first undergraduate degree in horticulture or related agricultural program.
To be eligible, applications must have at least a 3.0 cumulative grade point average and must be a graduating high school senior or equivalent or a college student taking at least nine credit hours per semester at an accredited college or university for the next academic year. Community college students are eligible, but graduate students are not.
Applicants must submit an official high school or college transcript, two copies or the scholarship application and a 500-word essay describing why this VNLA scholarship is important to them. Application information must be received by March 1st at VNLA Scholarship Administrator, 383 Coal Hollow Road, Christiansburg, VA 24073-6721. Applications are available by calling 540-382-0943 or 1-800-476-0055 or from high school guidance counselors or agriculture teachers. Decisions on awarding of scholarships will be made by the VNLA Board of Directors at their March meeting and applicants will be notified by mail.
Albert James (Bert) Shoosmith’s father, Fred, was one of the founding fathers of the VNLA in 1931, The Virginia Society of Landscape Designers in 1960 and the Middle Atlantic Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society. He began his career as a nurseryman and landscape architect at the age of five when he began sowing free vegetable seeds and then selling the plants to neighbors. He was part owner with his father of Southside Nurseries and later established Hillside Gardens at his home in Chester, Virginia. He was a grower of unusual cultivars of rhododendron and other evergreens, among them the Shoosmith Juniper, an evergreen cultivated by his father. It was his wish that part of his estate be used to fund three horticultural scholarships each year. Bert Shoosmith died in 2000 at the age of 93.
The Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association is the state trade association for garden centers, nursery growers, landscape designers, installation and maintenance contractors, greenhouses and horticultural suppliers.
For additional information, contact: info@vnla.org 540-382-0943
Info Brochure and Application in PDF format
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