Freehold Resident Receives Master Gardeners Scholarship

The Master Gardeners of Monmouth County awarded two $1,000 scholarships in early September to Monmouth County residents pursuing careers or degrees in horticulture or an environment-related field at Rutgers University.

Aaron D’Addio, of Freehold, received a scholarship. D’Addio transferred from Brookdale Community College to Rutgers University to obtain a degree in environmental engineering. D’Addio consistently received academic honors at Brookdale since 2009 and was inducted into Alpha Theta Chapter of Pi Theta Kappa Honor Society. D’Addio is a member of Future Farmers of America (FFA) where he took first place honors in the state for Detailed Landscape Design in 2009.

A second scholarship as granted to Andre Evans of Marlboro, who is taking classes in landscape and turf management at Rutgers University. Evans graduated from Marlboro High School and the Career Center Landscape/Turf Management Program at the Monmouth Career Center. He recently took first place in the state FFA competition for Turf Management. He also placed second in the Landscape and Nursery Career Development. This October, Evans and with three other classmates, will represent New Jersey at the National FFA Convention.

Members of the 2011 Master Gardeners scholarship committee are Howard Bodner, Kent Fleming, Erika Hogan, Jim Laude, Carol Migrala and Karin Poorvin.

Applications for the next Monmouth County Master Gardener scholarship program will be available in March 2012 from the Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Monmouth County. The deadline for submittal of a complete application is June 30. For more information, contact the Master Gardeners at 732-431-7260 or by email at mgarden@visitmonmouth.com.