April 16, 2025
Meet This Year’s DJF College Scholarship Winner
Say hello to Emily Schneider, a third-year student at Michigan State University. We are honored to be able to provide support to a student of Emily’s caliber.
Emily hails from Indianapolis. Her father is an arborist and works in turf—“meaning I was raised with a passion for nature,” she says.
Emily is majoring in Horticulture and History and has three minors in Sustainable Agriculture, Environmental Soil Science, and Environmental Studies and Sustainability.
“I originally came to horticulture as I was interested in food production and sustainability, having grown up in a food desert and seen the pollution and degradation of nature in the city,” she said. “I am very interested in sustainability and soil health, as it is a huge problem, but I am able to make changes myself that can reduce and even improve the problem.”
Emily is heavily and happily involved in community service. She is president of a campus organization that raises money for the Children’s Miracle Network. She also volunteers with the Greater Lansing Garden Project each spring, spending about 6–10 hours a week growing a diverse selection of vegetable starts that will be given out to the Lansing community as part of an effort to increase urban farming and food sovereignty in the city.