Tully Girl Is Awarded the Mort Johnston Scholarship
21/3/2018
Nicola MacKay, a girl from Tully with a passion for the banana industry, is now the proud awardee of the Mort Johnston Scholarship for 2018. The scholarship has given her the opportunity to follow her family's footsteps in the banana industry. This scholarship will provide her with $5000 in financial assistance, giving Nicola financial support while perusing work experience on a commercial banana farm.
Nicola MacKay, a girl from Tully with a passion for the banana industry, is now the proud awardee of the Mort Johnston Scholarship for 2018. The scholarship has given her the opportunity to follow her family's footsteps in the banana industry.This scholarship will provide her with $5000 in financial assistance, giving Nicola financial support while perusing work experience on a commercial banana farm.
MacKay is a student at the University of Queensland and is a member of Australia's largest banana farming family. Nicola explained that she always loved working on the banana farm when she was growing up and that she still loved coming home for the holidays.
The turning point for Nicola was when the devastating outbreak of the Panama TR4 disease hit the Tully banana-growing region. The threat to the industry that she had grown up in cemented her resolve to help steer its future.
Ms MacKay is pursuing a Bachelor of Business Management and Science while majoring in Plant Science and Economics. This degree will help her to guide the future of the banana industry while learning about the latest in banana research.
While pursuing her first degree, she is also working as a casual research assistant under the direction of Professor Elizabeth Aitken. She has also undertaken work experience, working with the Scientific Advisory Services.
Nicola explains how her dad had told her to pursue a career that would make her happy. She believes that he is delighted she would be seeking a job that would enable her to stick with the family's banana business.
The Mort Johnston Scholarship was created as a means of honouring the late Mort Johnston who passed in 2006. He was regarded on a broad scale as an innovator and a forceful advocate for banana growers.
Nicola's brother Paul said that the MacKay name is for many synonymous with bananas in the region of North Queensland and he knows his sister will make the industry proud.
With her family's background, her education and dedication along with the experience and exposure she will gain thanks to the Mort Johnson scholarship she should have an engaging future in the
industry.
MacKay is proud to say she inherited her passion for the banana industry from her father and said how she knows that being awarded this scholarship is an excellent chance for her especially since she is just starting out.
Nicola received congratulations from Professor Neal Menzies the head of The University of Queensland's School of Agriculture and Food Sciences. Menzies also thanked the Australian Banana Growers Council for supporting the future of the banana industry. Professor Menzies went on the say that Nicola was a hardworking student that deserved the scholarship.
The Mort Johnston Scholarship was established in 2016 and has been maintained by annual donations from the ABGC since its inception.
