Yamaha Motor Corp., USA, recently provided $8,500 to four chapters of the National Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (NACT) organization to promote safe, responsible use of ATV and SxS vehicles in agricultural settings.
As part of the Yamaha Outdoor Access Initiative (OAI), Yamaha granted $3,500 to Oklahoma State University, $2,000 to Utah State, $2,000 to the University of Florida, and $1,000 to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Yamaha transitioned its longstanding support of the NACT organization from an independent scholarship program to the OAI this year to allow for expanded funding, and increasing the number of chapters receiving financial support.
“Yamaha’s goal for this program – the reason we work with Ag students year after year – is to provide them with important information relating to the safe, responsible use of ATV and Side-by-Side vehicles they can carry with them throughout their professional communications careers,” said Steve Nessl, Yamaha’s ATV & SxS group marketing manager. “Many of the ACT chapters have really embraced the program from inception, which allows us to expand and reach even more students year after year.”
The granted funds go toward helping students attend the annual Ag Media Summit (AMS), the largest gathering of agricultural media professionals in the country, and a primary career networking and professional development opportunity for ACT members. Over the past nine years, Yamaha has invested nearly $50,000 into the program.
“The ACT members participating in this program have been given the chance by Yamaha to further develop skills they are learning in the classroom through a real world project that they can be proud of,” said Emily Buck, Ph.D., NACT national faculty advisor. “We continue to be excited about this collaboration and opportunity for our future agricultural communicators.”
To apply for the Yamaha-ACT grants, chapters are required to develop educational communication campaigns and materials focusing on safe, responsible use of ATV and SxS vehicles on farming and ranching operations. The Yamaha OAI review committee then evaluates each application based on need and merit of submission materials, and this year, all four chapters that applied were approved for funding.
ACT is a national college student association with more than 420 members located on more than 20 college and university campuses across the country. Members often attend the annual AMS meeting for significant professional opportunities with members of AMS-sponsoring organizations American Ag Editors Association, Livestock Publications Council and the American Business Media Agri-Council.
For more information, visit www.yamahamotorsports.com.
