The Troy V. Majure Endowed Scholarship was set up for students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences last December to honor the Mississippi State alumnus.
Majure’s children, Anna Majure Royston and Troy V. Majure Jr., founded the endowment as a memorial to their father.
“My father was very interested in helping deserving people get the education they needed to pursue careers in agriculture,” Majure Jr. said.
Royston said Majure Sr., felt that by helping to educate young people he was working to create a better future.
“We set up this scholarship fund to help young people with an opportunity to further education in what we consider a vital field of study and, of course, to honor our father,” Royston said.
“Ms. Royston and Dr. Majure remember how their father believed that one needed a quality education to achieve success in life,” said Jud Skelton, director of development for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “They are endeavoring to keep his life’s mission alive through offering this scholarship to deserving students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.”
Trish Hughes, director of the special giving program for the MSU Foundation, said that the scholarship would not be ready until the fall of 2005.
“Usually we allow one year after the scholarship is set up to allow the money to grow,” Hughes said. “The starting fund, or the corpus, is $30,000 and the scholarship will be around $1,000 per year, but it depends on the endowment earning and how the stock market fluctuates.”
Donors awarding the scholarship can set its criteria. The Troy V. Majure Endowed Scholarship is available to any upcoming junior or senior in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences who displays leadership abilities and maintains a 3.0 grade point average, Hughes said.
Skelton said the scholarship is a single, all-at-once award to be given once each year. Students can obtain applications for the Troy V. Majure Endowed Scholarship as well as all other scholarships on the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Web site, www.cals.msstate.edu.
“The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences awarded $136,060 in departmental scholarships and $78,950 in college scholarships this year,” Skelton said.
Majure Sr. earned his bachelors degree in agricultural education in 1936. He was president of his senior class, as well as a founding member of the MSU chapter of Kappa Sigma.
Majure Sr. went on to earn his master’s degree in agricultural education, to become supervisor over agriculture teachers in Mississippi and to become the state director of vocational and technical education in Mississippi, Royston said.