A University of Guelph graduate student has received a $3,500 scholarship from the Agricultural Institute of Canada Foundation. Sebastian Daly Kindsvater won a 2014 Douglas McRorie Memorial Scholarship in agricultural business, finance, economics and trade.
Daly Kindsvater is a master’s student in the Department of Food, Agriculture and Resource Economics. He is studying food security, specifically the economic impact of an international bean improvement program. The goal of his research, which has taken him to Honduras, is to enable policy makers to make better resource allocation decisions.
He has also volunteered with a micro-finance organization for entrepreneurial rural women in Costa Rica, with Crossroads International in Bolivia as a financial risk adviser, and as a mentor to recent refugees with the Vancouver Association for the Survivors of Torture. He hopes to work with an international agency after graduation.
The scholarship, which is made available through the support of the RBC Foundation, was established in 1990 to honour past president and agri-finance innovator Douglas McRorie. McRorie served as vice-president of agriculture for the Royal Bank of Canada and was a respected agricultural leader in Canada.
Award recipients are recognized for their academic achievements, areas of study, leadership and career interests.