Life Changing Scholarship opens gateway to the World
26/2/2018
Shannon Notter knows that living on a farm will teach you something new every day. She is the operator of a dairy farm in South-Western Victoria at Carlisle River. Her love for new experiences and learning drove her to apply for the Nuffield Scholarship which provided her with the life-changing opportunity to travel overseas and study agriculture.
Shannon Notter knows that living on a farm will teach you something new every day. She is the operator of a dairy farm in South-Western Victoria at Carlisle River.Her love for new experiences and learning drove her to apply for the Nuffield Scholarship which provided her with the life-changing opportunity to travel overseas and study agriculture.
The Nuffield scholarship is funded by the Gardiner Dairy Foundation. The award is given to a Victorian dairy farmer each year. Scholars get to attend the Nuffield National Conference in Australia as well as many other Contemporary Scholars Conferences. They will visit the Netherlands this year and then will have a six-week group travel experience known as the Global Focus Program. Scholars will then have the opportunity to travel to a country of their choosing to study a relevant topic.
Ms Notter, when asked about her aims, replied saying "The outcome I'd like to see is for dairy farmers to have more of a focus on the profitability of their business and the financial management side of things.
"How do we get people to educate themselves to focus more on that?"
With a strong business focus, Ms. Notter left her job as a bank manager to manage the Carlisle River farm which was purchased by her parents as an investment. Shannon shared that working with young farmers and share milkers and helping them build their wealth while working at the bank was exciting for her. However, She does not regret the change in careers.
Shannon aims to pay down the debt on this farm and purchase another farm to use for herding cattle.
Her travel plans for her scholarship include NZ, the Netherlands and Ireland as the more accessible options and then China and India. She wants to have an eye-opening experience and looks forward to learning while she travels.
You will not only hear of Nuffield Scholars from Australia but also in places like Belgium, Brazil, UK, South Africa, USA, New Zealand, Ireland, France and Canada. One thing that all Nuffield scholars have in common is their ability and willingness to share. They are always ready to share their knowledge as well as eager to learn. Their network is one of their most powerful assets.
The 2016 Nuffield scholarship winner Brendan Hehir reflected on his experience as a scholar. He notes that he learned while travelling and since his travelling, as finished he is still learning. He is currently a business partner with his parents who run certified organic dairy operations in northern Victoria. The dairy runs 640 milkers and can produce up to 4 million litres over a year.
Mr Hehir completed his Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne and worked as a gas trader than as a financial analyst. Like Ms Notter, he came home to manage the business and used his Nuffield scholarship to investigate ways he could increase the spread between the cost of producing milk and the price it pays.
He notes that the scholarship provided him with some meaningful learning experiences even though some of them were uncomfortable.
Recipients of previous scholarships have done work that has been including in the Policy Council of the United Dairy Farmers of Victoria as well as Dairy Australia and the Boards of Regional Development Programs and milk companies.
Past recipients have gone on to contribute to the Policy Council of the United Dairyfarmers of Victoria and the Boards of Regional Development Programs, milk companies and even Dairy Australia.
