Other Educational Grants
Educational Grants – Building A Stronger Floriculture Industry
Since 1961, American Floral Endowment has been funding educational programs to promote the floriculture industry. The majority of the programs are wide-reaching and focus on attracting young people to the industry or educational endeavors to identify and solve industry needs and/or challenges.
All requests are reviewed on an annual basis, with funding dependent on the amount of funds available. The deadline for submission is June 1st.
Educational Grants must provide a benefit to a broad geographic area (preferably national in scope), and for a broad industry constituency within the United States.
The Educational Grant Application can be downloaded here.
Floricultural Career Brochure can be downloaded here.
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Pi Alpha Xi
The American Floral Endowment has a long rich history of sponsoring this national design competition. The program is sponsored in cooperation with Pi Alpha Xi National Honor Society for Floriculture, Landscape Horticulture, and Ornamental Horticulture. The National Intercollegiate Floriculture Floral Crop Evaluation and Design Competition Every April since 1937, university graduate horticultural students from across the U.S. have completed in the Pi Alpha Xi competition. The competition site is rotated annually. University teams participate in a crop evaluation contest by ranking the quality of 30 classes of cut and potted floral products. The floral design competition is comprised of both a novice and advanced students divisions in which their designs are evaluated and then scored by a team of floral designers.
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Supporting the Future – FFAIn a continuing effort to bring a focus on floriculture. The American Floral Endowment sponsors several programs for students already interested in agriculture as identified by their involvement and membership in the FFA (Formerly Future Farmers of America). |
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Floriculture Career Development Event
The national career development events are educational activities organized by the National FFA Organization implemented through local chapters with local, regional and national competitions. Classroom instruction is emphasized when students use their skills in a competitive event sitting. As FFA members participate in events, they grow and develop solid technical and business skills earn rewards for their hard work, and prepare for their chosen profession. Event participants develop technical knowledge in agriculture, judgment, reasoning ability, self-confidence, goal settings and sportsmanship. Each event has been developed and is continually revised to test a student’s skills and knowledge in particular area of agriculture and leadership.
Booth At the FFA Convention
The hundreds of booth’s at the FFA are designed to attract the young students and inform them of the excitement and opportunities available in the many agricultural career fields. For many years, the Endowment has funded the floriculture booth sponsored by the Society of American Florists (SAF).
National Floriculture Forum
The National Floriculture Forum (NFF) is an educational meeting of university professors, students, government scientists and industry leaders with the objective of bringing together members of these communities for a three-day meeting to: 1) address issues of importance to the floriculture industry, 2) form collaborative relationships, and 3) learn from each other. Virtually any topic of significance can be the focus any one year. In the past, such topics have included improvement of federal research funding, identification or research needs, and (most recently) recruitment of students into floriculture careers. This meeting is the only one of its kind and it bringing more and more members of the floriculture community together each year.
Jim Botsis Wholesale Program
The program was established in 2001 by a generous contribution from Jim and Yvonne Botsis and the estate of Jim Botsis. Jim was the founder of the Diamond Line Container Company, which shipped floral products domestically and internationally. He attributes much of the success of his company to the on going support of the floral Wholesalers and insisted that this educational program assist Wholesalers. This program will provide an annual contribution of $2,500 for the next 10 years to an educational program and/or project to benefit Wholesalers.
SAF Pest Management Conference
At SAF’s annual Pest Management Conference, SAF grower members learn proven, leading techniques to help fight insects and disease. Networking with growers from varying background helps attendees create the best strategies to adapt to their business. The conference features a tabletop trade show of the latest Integrated Pest Management (IPM) products, technical information on disease and insect management tools and an update on American Floral Endowment research funding.
