The Murray Wise Associates Agriculture Entrepreneurship Scholarship has been awarded for the third consecutive year. 

Karl Kerns, senior in animal science, was selected to receive the 2013 Murray Wise Scholarship. 

The Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative program selected Kerns for the $10,000 scholarship this past summer. He was notified about receiving the scholarship when classes started in August.

“I always dreamed of being recognized by this award, but I was shocked when I found out I was selected for it,” Kerns said. “It is not a scholarship you can apply for.”

The Murray Wise Scholarship is endowed by Murray R. Wise and the Wise Family Foundation. It is designed to reward a senior in the Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative program.

The award aids the recipient in funding for further development of a business concept, and it recognizes their excellent contributions that have helped them achieve the scholarship.

“Standout students like [Kerns] have a way of making themselves known due to their accomplishments throughout their college careers,” said Stacey Noe, Initiative program coordinator. 

Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative is an opportunistic program for both students and faculty members. 

According to the initiative’s website, its vision is “to create the foremost program for training and developing high growth agricultural entrepreneurs in the United States.” 

The program’s mission is to increase the number of students and faculty involved in entrepreneurial activities, help develop entrepreneurial skills to build a portfolio and create an understanding of entrepreneurship among the faculty and students of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Kerns was selected for his interest in entrepreneurship, his experience as a member of the student advisory team in the Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative program and his overall participation in the Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative.

“I think all my experiences in life, up to this point, have helped me win the scholarship,” Kerns said.

Kerns was raised on a swine genetic seed stock farm in Clearfield, Iowa, instilling an understanding of raising pigs on less land. 

From then on, Kerns interned with Smithfield, the world’s largest pork producer, and took a trip with the U.S. Grains Council to Southeast Asia. He spent his summer there working with the USDA Agriculture Research Service.

“The accumulation of [those] experiences provided me with the knowledge I needed to see how the pig can be made more efficient and how to provide a source of animal protein with less resource-intensive input products, which is vital with the ever-increasing world population,” Kerns said. 

That knowledge led Kerns to create a business model in his Entrepreneurship in Agriculture class, which focused on reducing feeding costs while raising pigs.

“I plan on using the money [from the Murray Wise scholarship] to help pay for expenses that will be incurred to pursue my long-term goals in my business model,” Kerns said. 

After graduation, Kerns plans to attend graduate school with a focus on porcine reproductive physiology.