Newsroom

IMEF logoMay 4, 2011

IMEF Awards Scholarship to KSU Student
Blake Adams

Overland Park, Kansas – Blake Adams, a Kansas State University junior from Stephens City, Virginia, was named as
the recipient of the International Milling Education Foundation (IMEF) Scholarship. The scholarship will assist in covering his tuition expenses for the 2011-2012 academic year. Adams is working toward a degree in milling science, with a focus on operations.

Adams has had extensive experience working in flour mills. Starting in the summer of 2006, Adams said he has spent his summers working at flour mills – including Miller Milling Company in Winchester, Virginia, and Fresno, California, and a brief time at the corporate headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His summer 2011 internship was at General Mills, in Great Falls, Montana.

“Anyone who misses this [internship] process and doesn’t take full advantage of it is missing out on a very valuable life lesson,” Adams said.

“I have done most every job possible in a flour mill,” Adams explained. “By working hard and doing my best, I was given other opportunities including truck loading, wheat unloading, sifter repair, and general shift miller duties.”

“Blake is a skilled and energetic student with a positive personality and get-it-done attitude that fits well in the food/grain processing industry,” stated Damon Sidles, Miller Milling’s Fresno plant manager. “He has been a great student in the milling science program at Kansas State University, and he is a deserving recipient of the IMEF Scholarship.”

In his two years at the University, Adams has been an active member of the Grain Science Club, and he also holds a leadership position in the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.

The IMEF Scholarship program was established to support the education of undergraduates in the sciences of grain milling.

IMEF is the philanthropic partner of IAOM. IMEF solicits, manages and distributes funds for educational programs related to the grain milling industry. Established in 2003, the Foundation’s mission is to strengthen the grain milling industry through educational programs, professional development efforts and research projects. Priorities include:

  • ·Revise the IAOM Correspondence Course in Flour Milling,
  • ·Assist to create an international certificate program,
  • ·Develop multimedia online educational courses,
  • ·Create a “Career Kit" and industry recruitment materials,
  • ·Provide IAOM Conference travel grants for professional management speakers,
  • ·Design a senior milling executive workshop,
  • ·Provide assistance for educational material translations, and
  • ·Collaborate on a milling economics short course.