A Big Heart, A Bigger Idea
If Josh Strine has an idea, he would make a plan. It came naturally to him.
So, if you ask how the Clifford & Frances Strine Scholarship Fund started, the answer is simple. Josh hasd an idea. While still in high school, he thought of creating a scholarship fund to honor his great-grandparents.
The idea came to Josh while he was researching scholarships for his own college education. He noticed the Eddie Shelton Agricultural Scholarship at Marion Community Foundation. Eddie and Joan Shelton were good family friends and people Josh admired, and the scholarship prompted him to consider his own family.
His great-grandparents, Clifford and Frances Strine, seemed equally deserving of recognition.
“They were both active and played significant roles in the local agricultural community,” Josh said. “The sheer number of people who attended their funerals showed the impact they had made. Everyone in my family recognizes their significance and sees this scholarship as a great opportunity to honor them.”
True to form, Josh turned an idea to action. He and his father, Doug, visited Marion Community Foundation to learn what was involved in creating a scholarship fund. With help from the Foundation staff, Josh developed a criterion that honored the family’s history with an emphasis on agriculture and participation in 4-H or FFA, along with academic achievement. Recipients must pursue a degree in agriculture or education.
The scholarship fund’s first donation came from livestock sale proceeds Josh earned at the Marion County Junior Fair. Family members then contributed and continue to give gifts at Christmas each year. Doug and Kara Strine, Josh’s parents, donated so the first scholarship could be awarded to correspond with Josh’s 2017 high school graduation.
Josh understands firsthand what scholarships mean.
“Josh is thankful for the numerous scholarships he received for his own education and wants to provide for other kids that may not have the same level of opportunities,” Doug said. “Not as many young people are studying agriculture and Josh wants to encourage more to do so.”
A graduate of River Valley High School, Josh earned his undergraduate degree from The Ohio State University before completing master’s and doctoral degrees in agricultural economics at Texas A&M and Purdue universities. He became the first member of his family to earn a doctorate. Today, Josh and his wife, Amanda, live in Indiana, where he works as a post-graduate research assistant at Purdue while considering a future in university teaching, research, or extension.
Agricultural economics allows Josh to connect his academic work with the lessons he learned growing up.
“I grew up on a family farm,” he said. “Through ag economics, I can take what I learned there—how decisions are made for operations and what to grow—and share
that information to help the future of farming.”
Clifford & Frances Strine Scholarship | Clifford was a fourth-generation Marion County farmer who began farming on the Kraner family farm after marrying Frances in 1938. His life was marked by remarkable determination. After losing both hands in a farm accident in 1954, he learned to perform nearly all of his farm chores using prosthetic hooks and continued farming well into his 90s. He was an accomplished cattleman and the first from Marion to show a Grand Champion Steer at the Ohio State Fair. Frances devoted more than 35 years to education,
teaching at Waldo, New Bloomington, Claridon and River Valley high schools. She coached girls basketball, advised students, directed school plays, and managed the Claridon school cafeteria.
That future is exactly what the Clifford & Frances Strine Family Scholarship Fund was created to support. Since its inception, the fund has awarded more than $7,000 to students studying agriculture at five universities. Each scholarship represents more than financial assistance. It represents a family’s belief that the values Clifford and Frances Strine lived—hard work, education, service, resilience and a commitment to agriculture—are carried forward.
