Rural Achievers Competition History
Rural Achievers Competition History
What began as an idea of the Scholarship & Education Committee in late 1989 grew into the RAS Young Achievers award. The inaugural competition was held in 1990 and was renamed Rural Achievers Award in 1991.
The competition was launched to highlight the important contribution of young people in the agricultural industry and the show movement. Its original stated aims were to:
- Highlight the importance of youth in agriculture and in particular the show movement.
- Identify enthusiastic, skilful, industrious and unselfish young people
- To give young people a forum to express their views and develop closer links with agriculture and the show movement
The initiative proved to be extremely successful with ten outstanding ‘young achievers’ selected to represent the state in 1990.
The program was enthusiastically endorsed by the Agricultural Societies Council of NSW. Then president of the Council Brian Jones believed that the awards provided another opportunity for young people to become very closely involved with agriculture and the show movement, and expressed a wish that show societies encourage young people to enter the awards.
Following is a comment from one 1990 RAS Young Achievers on the competition experiences:
“The beauty of the Young Achiever Awards are that they give you a chance to learn about other aspects of the Show…I’d like to see the Young Achiever Awards continue. I know there are a lot of young men and women willing and able to take part, which can only benefit the Sydney Royal and all regional shows around NSW to help them be the best in Australia.”
A full list of Award winners can be found here.