Local Seniors Win State Scholarship Essay Contest

Two high school seniors from local county school districts won the first and second-place designations for the Joe Fichter Scholarship Essay Contest at the Ohio Farmers Union Annual State Convention held in Lima, Ohio this year. Ethan Fischer, a senior at Ansonia High School, garnered the first place award and Emily Schmitz, a senior from Mississinawa Valley High School, was awarded the second-place designation.

Ohio Farmers Union honors Joe Fichter, a well-informed and dedicated advocate for family farms, and his work through yearly scholarships to deserving rural youth. Joe Fichter’s primary work was the preservation of the family farm and its values. He made numerous trips to Washington to lobby for the family farmer and the small towns they supported. Joe was a major part of Ohio’s Farmers Union and helped build the organization throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Mr. Fichter was also a professor of English, from 1936 to 1958, at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he lived.