Pictured with essay winner Adam Kauh are (left to right) Sharon Martin, Ohio State Fair; the Conservation Crusader (aka Mark Bruce, Ohio Department of Agriculture); Janelle Mead, Ohio Department of Agriculture Deputy Director; Emerson Principal Christine Doolittle; David Rule, Ohio Farm Bureau Senior Director of Organizational Development; parents Edward and Beth Kauh; and Alicia Shoults, Ohio State Fair.
Adam Kauh, a fifth grade student at Emerson Elementary School, was one of four pupils in Ohio to receive a $500 scholarship in the “Agriculture is Cool” education program held during the Ohio State Fair in conjunction with the Ohio Department of Agriculture, Ohio Farm Bureau and Ohio’s agricultural commodity groups. Representatives from the sponsoring organizations visited Kauh’s classroom on November 1, when he read his essay aloud and received the giant check.
The Ag is Cool program, which celebrated its seventh year in 2017, provides free Fair admission for any exiting fourth grade student and a chaperone to visit the Ohio State Fair to learn about agriculture. Once at the Fair, the youngsters visit 10 different stations located in barns, education centers and livestock facilities. Then they return home to write an essay about what they learned during their visit. A panel of judges reviews those essays and selects just four to be recognized as Best in the State.