Biff McGhee Memorial Scholarship

Hi, my name is Thomas Case. I am entering my freshman year of college at Columbus State University. I am the fisrt male member of my family to graduate High School. I will be the first male member of my family to attend college for the past 7 generations. I will be studying Criminal Justice in the hopes to be Game Warden for the state of Georgia. I have been an avid outdoor lover since I was born. I have been camping, fishing, hunting, hiking and gardening for as long as I can remember. I have spent many years doing anything and everything outdoors. Outside is my happy place, my peaceful place. My family has camped in tents every summer for weeks at a time. It has been something the entire family has committed to. We would spend the days on the lake fishing, swimming, floating and the evenings around a camp fire. The outdoors are a reflection of my family and all our time together. I have played any sport that would keep me outside. I have played football, was in track and fields for all 4 years. Helped out in concessions for baseball and soccer. For the past 8 years I have helped plant, maintain and eat out of a vegetable garden. We have grown, harvested and froze vegetables for 4 families. The outdoors is not only a place to have fun but a way to provide nurishment. I want to be a Game Warden to help protect the outdoors that I love. To educate others on the importance of keeping the outdoors clean amd following the laws. I believe that the more everyone knows and understands about the outdoors, will make them a better person for the life of our planet. I want to learn all I can about the outdoors, animals, plants and bugs that help make outdoors such a wonderful place. The reasons behind the laws and regulations, the way everything outside works together. I am pursuing Criminal Justice not only as a way to become a Game Warden but also with the understanding that I may serve in the Sheriff's Department. I am a stickler for laws and regulations and look forward to my career in either field. Thank you for taking the time to read and learn about my passion for the outdoors. I hope this will help in the decision to consider me for this scholarship.

Ever since I was a young child I remember spending hours with my dad and brothers in the hunting stand munching on peanut butter crackers or traipsing through the woods with my eyes peeled for squirrels. Looking back, I now know why we never killed much when I went hunting. And though my interests have changed over the years from hunting squirrels to fishing and from sitting in a deer stand to working with my show cows, I always find myself drawn to the outdoors. Maybe it is because that is where I spent most of my childhood or maybe it’s for the simple fact that the outdoors are my peace on earth. My love for the outdoors has grown with me as I have gotten older and while there are a number of people who have encouraged me to look to agriculture and the outdoors for my future career, two very special people have influenced me the most. Starting my freshman year of high school I was placed in an Agriculture Foundations class in school. This is where I was introduced to my FFA advisor Mrs.Kay. Mrs.Kay constantly pushed me out of my comfort zone and into competitions and conferences that taught me about leadership and team work. One of these competitions was showing cattle and hogs. She introduced me to a side of agriculture I had never seen before and I instantly fell in love. While it can be challenging at times, I throughly enjoy the process of caring for and raising livestock. She introduced me to female agricultural producers in my area and she showed me that there are women who make a living farming and ranching. My step dad has been my second biggest influence. He came into my life at the age of nine. Together we bonded over our love for garden picked cucumbers and freshwater. He is an advocate for conservation and he spends most of his summer on a boat. He may be fishing but most commonly he can be found pulling my siblings and I on the tube and wakeboard on the lake. Through his guidance he showed me that there is no shame in working with your hands or wanting to have a career in something others might call you crazy for. His appreciation for the outdoors helped to teach me the value of the people in the agriculture industry. Through surrounding myself with people who love the outdoors I have found a deeper appreciation for my time spent in the Apalachicola National Forest and River Basin. I will forever cherish the memories I have made working cows for show season, hunting with my dad, and spending time on Lake Seminole with my stepdad. Had I not grown up surrounded by these things I truly believe I would not be pursuing an agricultural degree.

There was a time very early on in my life when I felt utterly hopeless and cast aside. For being only of the tender age of four, I had resigned myself to the possibility that my current circumstances would be a constant for the entire duration of my life. Perhaps the fear, anxiety, and cold pit in my stomach would be my normal. There seemed to be no visible escape from the misery I was experiencing every day. But there was. My escape came in the form of Colorado. Beautiful, vast, awe-inspiring Colorado. Being carted across the country to a new, strange place had been scary for my younger version, but Mom had seemed convicted in her decision to leave everything in Maryland behind. I trusted her judgment implicitly. How glad I was that I did. The sign read "Welcome to Colorful Colorado." I'd never heard of Colorado. Despite that, the further we drove into this new state, the less foreign it felt. I felt as if I could breathe freely for the first time in a long, long while. "Where are we?" Mom had smiled then. "Home now." I didn't question her because her answer felt true. I belonged here, in this place of clean air and untouched land stretching for miles. Home became a ranch in Stoneham, Colorado: a little white house, a big red barn, and 160 acres of prairie grassland. The man I now called Dad and the girls I now called sisters became my family. It was that man who taught me how to love the land we lived on and the land we explored on the weekends. He didn't hesitate to take me under his wing and teach me the arts of hunting, fishing, arrowhead hunting, river walking, storm chasing, and so much more. I quickly fell in love with being outdoors as a result of his time spent with me. Mom, who used to put me in sun dresses and tie my hair in bows, rapidly realized that my wardrobe needed to be exchanged for jeans, boots, and t-shirts as a result of all my new favorite activities. As I've grown up, my love for spending my everyday outdoors has only had time to grow and influence my career and lifestyle choices. My day starts before sunrise, saddling my horse to check cattle, and ends after the stars have come out, only heading in for dinner after checking over tractors and ATVs. Both of my parents have strongly encouraged this manner of living for me, nurturing my appreciation for the Western agriculturalist way of life in God's country. From livestock to crops, I've had the opportunity to dabble in everything through my community's support, 4-H, and FFA. Apart from organization and association-sanctioned activities, my hobbies remain closely connected to what my dad first introduced me to in the very beginning. Packing and camping trips up into the mountains remain some of my favorite ways to spend a holiday. Fun with my friends means spending the day fishing at our favorite honey holes. Bonding with my Dad means arrowhead hunting the South Platte in the afternoon when we've got a few free hours. Clearing my head means loading up my horse and driving out to the range to photograph Mustangs. I'm leaving home for college in a couple of months to pursue a major in Equine Industry Management and a minor in Agribusiness. My passion is to share my love of the outdoors and horses by training Mustangs and professionally guiding packing trips. Eventually, I would love to own and operate my own ranch.

My name is Riley Rumpza and I love the outdoors! I graduated from Magnolia West HS in 2024 and attending college at Norwich University, majoring in Environmental science. I will be doing month-long work studies through Norwich where I will be extracting sediment from the rivers, taking them to labs, and studying them. With this degree I want to become a Forest ranger, making my career what I love doing the most, being outside. As a Forest ranger, you can live on national forest land, make rounds around the parks/trails, and work in labs and experiment on the studies you've found. This sounds like the dream job for me. My favorite hobby is the sport of disc golf, which is a very outdoor sport with lots of opportunities to explore the outdoors. I play at least twice a week whenever I can. I love to take walks/hikes and explore forested areas that have never been seen before. One of the many things on my bucket list is to go and see/explore all of the national parks in the USA. Being in NJROTC has also given me many opportunities to have fun outside. At least once a month we would have a competition for our Raider team, or our Orientation team, and I was on varsity for both. During the Raider comps, we would go through multiple team obstacle courses throughout the day and get as dirty as possible. During our Orienteering comps, we would be placed in the woods, given a map and a compass, and told to escape the forest as fast as we can, making marks of where you've been along the way. When I was in junior high my family started a garden and I feel that's also what started my love for gardening. We built three entire 10X15 boxes for our soil to start planting. When the season came, we planted tomatoes, green onions, potatoes, and bell peppers, and had a separate four-level box that we grew our herbs and spices in. Every day I would go out and tend to the garden. I would water, and spray the chicken manure, and if it needed I would put some fertilizer down. Since we started this garden I've also built a canopy from large sticks and vines that cover the garden from the sun's heat. Camping and fishing have also been a big part of my life. At least once a year, during the summer, me and my dad will go out to Lake Taylor Reservoir, in Colorado, next to the continental divide. While we're there we'll camp, do plenty of fishing, dirt biking, skeet shooting, and my favorite part white water rafting, which is the craziest during the summer because of the snow melt. I've competed in many different fishing competitions in Texas, winning most of them. In conclusion, not only do I want the wilderness to be my career or the place I live, but I want it to be my life. I've always had a passion for the outdoors that will never leave me. I want to have an impact on national forests and the outdoors helping out wherever I can. With your contribution, I can succeed in doing these things and fulfill my dream in the woods.

I've loved the outdoors from a very young age. I can remember being 3-4 years old and going hunting with my mom and dad, from deer hunting to coon hunting, fishing to duck hunting. It didn't matter as long as I was in the great outdoors! My family and I are always outdoors, whether just enjoying nature, or hunting, to camping as well. Some of my most favorite and fondest memories have always been surrounded by stories that somehow involve a hunting tale. My whole family, my mom and my sister in addition to me and my dad, are all avid outdoorsman, and we frequently go hunting, fishing, camping, or whatever we can do to be outdoors. My desire to pursue a career in the outdoors also stems from a long family history of being farmers. Although I never had the pleasure of meeting my paternal grandfather, as he passed away long before I was born, I did have the pleasure of being raised not only by my outdoor loving parents, but my maternal grandparents and my paternal grandmother all came from a long family visit of farmers. My mom's family spent many years growing and processing tobacco and cotton before eventually transitioning to soybean and corn crops. They also raised cattle and swine, although not in a large scale business. My dad's family also grew crops but more in the way of corn and soybeans., and also had a larger scale marketing in the swine business. Both sides of my family have been contributors to our gathering heritage, and I'm proud to claim that heritage. Although I have not decided fully which area of agriculture I would like to be my final destiny, I am very excited to begin my studies with a plan to pursue an agricultural degree. I have contemplated many times how vast the opportunities are within this field. From being able to study livestock and how to manage them for the good of the food industry to managing forest and crops, studying how they are beneficial to the environment and processed to provide food and shelter. It's amazing how vast the possibilities that lie in securing an agriculture degree. I am excited at the opportunities that await me, and plan to carefully explore all aspects of possibilities within the agriculture realm before making my final area of specialty in an agriculture degree. Maybe a poultry farmer, maybe a crop analyst, or maybe just an everyday farmer... But oh, the possibilities!

I've been entranced with the outdoors since I was two years old. What began as walking with my mom and grandma searching for bugs and plants in the garden morphed into going camping and hiking with my dad to now, being an assistant Scoutmaster in my troop. Through my Scouting career, I've gone camping hundreds of times, logged dozens of hiking and canoeing miles, and fell in love with the outdoors. My favorite part is when I see new scouts (who are usually 12-13 years old and phone addicted), or even just normal people, also be curious and wonder about the nature and animals. If they ask questions, I love helping them learn, whether it's helping them learn how to camp, basic bushcraft skills, or how to be more considerate in the outdoors. And in scouting, my biggest (human) inspirations are my Scoutmaster, who I believe knows everything, and then my dad, who I still remember my first camping trip with. But my biggest inspirations are the views that come on a mountain backpacking trip, or a cool river swim after a morning fishing, or even better, seeing a rabbit or a deer just up the trail. Throughout my life, I always wanted to go hunting, but due to our schedule and location it never worked out. That is until I was able to go to a hunter education camp in my junior year, and I absolutely loved it. Even though I unfortunately did not get a deer, I did see how to field dress a deer, as well as make friends that love the same things I do. But the most moving experience for me was meeting the teachers. We were taught by full and part time DNR employees, two rangers and a wildlife biologist. I realized that is my goal in life: to be the guy that teaches how to hunt and how to care for the environment, but is outside and not a lab or a lecture hall. Who is in charge of enforcing the rules and law and not just teaching about them. Ever since that trip, and just magnified by my scouts experiences since then, and going fishing with my friends, has led me to study at the Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources at University of Georgia. I don't know exactly what major I want, but I do want to stay in the school. Regardless of my major, I want to get additional certificates and hopefully a minor or double major in conservation, just allowing me to increase my knowledge and ability to help the outdoors. I want to do it so I can give the people after me the opportunities I had.

There's nothing like a country boy who's stuck in the city. My whole life I have felt a deeper connection to nature than almost anyone I meet. There's just something about it that calls out to comfort and ease the stresses of life. However, I am stuck in the city. So, I have my home away from home. A small town in the middle-of-nowhere, Texas is the place that I love to be. Everything from fishing and hunting to ranching and farming could be done there. A place of endless possibilities. My grandpa very quickly became my best friend. We do everything together. During the winter, we are out in the harsh weather looking for that one big deer that always seems to never show. In the Spring, we are out fishing for those pesky bass that never seem to want to bite. In the summer, we're out in the fields harvesting corn. And yet, it always comes to an end. Even before we leave I'm always asking to go back. Even though I don't get to live in the country, I do my best to bring the country to me. Growing up, instead of playing video games, my brother and I would play with toy tractors and "farm" the carpets. My favorite TV show wasn't a cartoon, it was "Meat eater", possibly the best hunting show available. Instead of trampolines or a basketball hoop in my yard, I decided I was going to raise chickens, rabbits, and goats; much to my neighbor's dismay. Despite all that, I still can't wait to go back--my home away from home. It wasn't until recently that I decided I wanted to order my passions into the direction of a potential career. My cousin, Thomas Janke, is a wildlife biologist. One day during the summer a few years back, he invited me out to a job site with him. The organization he works for coordinates controlled burns all around the state of Texas in an effort to improve quail habitat. That day we burned several acres of property. It really opened my eyes to the myriad of professional possibilities that can be explored under the umbrella of the outdoors. Today, I am committed to Tarleton State University where I will major in wildlife sciences. In the future I hope to either go into the law enforcement side of the outdoors or continue on into a masters program to become a wildlife biologist.

When my Dad passed away back in 2019 from a automobile accident, it hit home hard on me, my sister, and my Mom. I was twelve at the time and going into eight grade. I will admit that my whole view on my future would change from that point onward. I had dreams of going to college to study Natural Resources Conservation. After my Father's death I figured college would be out of questions for me or my family. I thought college would be unobtainable for people like me. My original career path was to work blue collar jobs for the rest of my life like the rest of my family. None of my family members have ever been to college or pursued higher education It wasn't until my junior year in high school that I would consider college, yet I was so hesitant because I didn't want to get me or my Mother in financial trouble involving student loans or any educational expenses. My whole view on college changed after I learned about several scholarship opportunities with the help of my Counselor and Mother. Such scholarships I learned about were on websites like like Bold or were local scholarships in my home town of Penn Yan, NY. My mother would push me to apply to every scholarship that I was eligible for. She didn't want me to have the same fate as my Dad or the rest of my family. Working long hours, coming home with body aches, or having to work well into your seventies. My goal is that with these scholarships I can use them to obtain either a associates or bachelors degree in the field of wildlife management and conservation. This field is the one me and my Dad cherished when he was alive. We could hunt and fish responsibly and manage our hunting grounds for healthy wildlife that can reward us every fall when we would go hunting. With a degree in land management or Natural Resources Conservation, I intend to use these skills to my full potential to preserve and conserve the multiple habits of various living creatures that live in the state of New York I have already applied to four colleges in the state of New York that offer such majors that I can obtain. A career in U.S. Fish and Wildlife as a management officer would be my pick for a career involving my efforts in boosting environmental prosperity.