WYE MILLS –  May 2018 graduate Savanna Marks of Stevensville is the first student at Chesapeake College to earn an Applied Science degree in Agriculture (AAS). The 60-credit program was launched in 2016 and is designed to prepare students for a career in agriculture or to transfer credits and advance to a four-year institution.

In the fall, Marks plans to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture at the University of Delaware. In addition to being a full-time student at Chesapeake, she applied her classroom studies in the workplace at Crop Production Services in Centreville.

Marks joins Jordan Wilmer of Centreville and Taryn North of Trappe as the first recipients of the Jenny Rhodes Endowed Scholarship awarded to Chesapeake agricultural studies students.

Wilmer completed his first year at Chesapeake after earning credits through the CASE Agriculture curriculum offered at Queen Anne’s County High School. He also works for a Queen Anne’s county poultry grower. North will begin her second year of agricultural studies in the fall. Outside of the classroom, she cares for alpacas on her family farm.

The Jenny Rhodes Scholarship was created in 2017. Rhodes is a senior agent and educator for the University of Maryland Extension in Queen Anne’s County. Together with her sons, she owns and operates Deerfield Farms, a poultry and irrigated grain farm in Centreville that produces 500,000 antibiotic-free broilers annually.

“Jenny has provided valuable ideas for course activities and studies at Chesapeake and her local connections have helped our agriculture program to prosper,” said Nicole Fiorellino, Ph.D., Chesapeake College Agriculture Program Coordinator and Instructor.  “Her ongoing guidance and support through the scholarship contributes to the continued prosperity of agriculture on the Eastern Shore.”

Chesapeake College is the first two-year institution in Maryland to offer a degree in agriculture. For more information on agricultural studies at Chesapeake and the Jenny Rhodes Endowed Scholarship, visit [email protected].