Investing In Future Cooperative Leadership

Every year, the Cooperative Council of the Carolina's invests in the next generation of leaders through the Jim Graham Leadership Scholarship. This $1,000 scholarship is awarded to a past attendee of Cooperative Leadership Camp.

The scholarship is named after Jim Graham, North Carolina’s longest-serving Commissioner of Agriculture and a strong advocate for youth leadership development. Known as “The Sodfather” Graham championed programs like Cooperative Leadership Camp and believed deeply in educating young people about leadership and agriculture. He even visited camp himself to encourage students to become future leaders. Today, this scholarship continues his legacy by supporting students who are ready to turn leadership into action.

In our last blog post, you learned more about Cooperative Leadership Camp (CLC) and why it is such an important and impactful experience for high school students. Camp helps build confidence and inspires participants to see themselves as leaders.

Attendance at Cooperative Leadership Camp makes students eligible to apply for the Jim Graham Leadership Scholarship during their senior year of high school.

In other words — camp is the foundation, and the scholarship is the next step.

Students take what they learn at CLC, leadership, collaboration, and cooperative values, and carry it forward into their academic futures. Scholarship recipients are selected based on their understanding of the cooperative movement, leadership ability, extracurricular involvement, and community engagement. This scholarship recognizes students who not only attended camp, but who continue living out what they learned there.

The Jim Graham Leadership Scholarship is not a starting point, it’s a milestone. It represents the growth that begins at Cooperative Leadership Camp and continues into college, careers, and communities.

Through CLC and this scholarship, CCC is building more than students.

We’re building future cooperative leaders!