The SWGGA Scholarship Fund

The Sierra Wine and Grape Growers Association supports a scholarship program for graduating students from Nevada County who are continuing their college education in agriculture and the sciences. Each year SWGGA awards a $2000 scholarship award to one student.

Susan Clarabut, our Scholarship Director brings us this update.

Thanks to all of you who buy raffle tickets at our events or add some extra money to your yearly dues, SWGGA gives a $2000 scholarship to a deserving local student each year with $1000 going to him/her the first year and $1000 the second year.  We don’t require that the scholarship dollars go only to tuition or books, instead we look at this as an opportunity for our student to buy what he/she needs; perhaps a computer, rent, or maybe even gas money to get home for Thanksgiving. Something that will make these first two years of college a little easier.

Scholarship Committee has just finished selecting SWGGA’s 2025 award recipient. Congratulations. Alas, the committee is not permitted to release the name of this year’s winner until the actual award night that takes place at the Veteran’s Hall. Stay tuned for that.

While we wait for that happy announcement let’s take a minute to visit with last year’s winer, Nina Best. Nina sent in this update along with some of her recent artwork.

“I excelled in my studies, taking courses like chemistry and environmental science and sustainability, achieving all A’s and keeping my 4.0 GPA! My transcript is attached below. I was not expecting to do this well, and I am so proud of myself, I feel like I fully understood the concepts as well, which is such a relief, especially as I struggled with chemistry during high school. We even surprised our teacher by dressing up like him for mol day! (pictured below). For my environmental science and sustainability class, I created some art, linked below, and participated in volunteer events like the lonely meadow cattle fencing/clean up and the Yuba River annual cleanup where I made some friends at SYRCL! (And potential future job opportunities!) Next semester I am taking classes in Rocklin for the first time like Biology and Calculus, so I am super grateful for all the support you have given me as I am able to pursue opportunities like these in my career thanks to you! I am considering transferring to Cal Poly Humboldt as it would be closer to my family, but I am going to try my best in the 2nd semester of chemistry to be able to go to U.C. Santa Cruz! Also, I have been working on getting a small business together for my arts and crafts (@beanie.bee.inc on instagram!) so feel free to share if you know anyone who would like art or keychains(pictured below) made all by me! 🙂 Please let me know if there is any other information you need for the 2nd payment of the scholarship or any events you would like me to attend (I’d be happy too) and I hope you had happy holidays! 
Thank you so much again, and if you would be willing to pass this on as I am missing some email addresses I would greatly appreciate it! “        Sincerely, Your recipent (name to come)