Ag college gets $1.5 million scholarship

By Maria Miranda
The Collegian

Agriculture majors looking for financial aid have a new opportunity—a $1.5 million scholarship fund given by a Fresno family.

The donation was given by the Dr. John M. and Cora G. Harvey estate. It is the largest cash donation in the history of the college of agriculture sciences and technology.

“We are very fortunate to have benefited from the Harvey family,” said Alcidia Freitas Gomes, executive director of the Ag One Foundation and development director of the college of agricultural sciences.

Fresno State will establish the fund in the Harveys’ name. Every year, $75,000 will be allocated to agricultural science and technology students.

The Harvey scholarship will be added to the $220,000 available from the Ag One Foundation, an organization which supplies scholarships in support of the school of agriculture.

The Harvey fund will mainly help graduate students, Gomes said. It will drive agricultural research.

“We at Fresno State have always prided ourselves on doing applied research, which has an immediate benefit to the agriculture community,” Gomes said. “We’re doing so much more in research—the need for graduate support has become more important.”

Gomes said it has been difficult in the past for Fresno State to recruit graduate students since it didn’t have the scholarship opportunities to temp them.

“Other universities across the U.S. can attract top grad students because they have the money,” Gomes said. “The Harvey scholarship helps us to become competitive in recruiting grad students.”

The added money will not only give Fresno State a competitive edge, but a means of lightening the load of graduate students.

“This financial support allows students to focus on their studies,” Gomes said.

Gour Choudhury, a graduate professor in the department of food sciences and interim chair for research and scholarly activity, agrees.

“The attention of the students can be focused on the project, not making money,” Choudhury said. “That way the project will get done faster and they will graduate early.”

Choudhury said the extra scholarship money will help alleviate stress for the agriculture students and give financial security.

John Harvey was an alumnus of Fresno State who graduated in 1942. He also received a master’s degree from Stanford University and a Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley. He worked for 37 years in Fresno with an emphasis in grape, peach and strawberry crops.

Cora Harvey grew up on a dairy farm in Hanford and worked as a bookkeeper in Fresno. She died in January 2005, nine years after her husband.

No members of the Harvey family were available for comment.

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