News

By Angie Hamlet, MCC Freelance Writer

As a child, Sue Aagaard followed her grandfather to homes around Crystal Lake, tasked with dropping colored tablets into the plumbing. She would then race to the dock to stand beside him, watching the water for any sign of dye.

“My grandfather was one of the people that was really pushing for a sewer system,” she said. 

It worked. The system was installed, and in the 1970’s the lake went from one of the dirtiest in the state to one of the cleanest. 

It was an early lesson in what conservation can achieve. Love for nature, a common thread in her family, continued for Aagaard through the years, even as she pursued a career as a speech pathologist, first with Montcalm Area Intermediate School District, then Central Montcalm Public Schools. 

“Education is really important to me,” she said. “I was also raised caring about the environment.”

The combined interests led her to recently create The MCCF Sue Ann Aagaard Scholarship. The award supports students with an interest in environmental or agricultural work to attend The Stewardship Network Conference. The group equips and mobilizes people caring for land and water.

Aagaard’s involvement in Wild Ones River City, Montcalm Conservation District, Montcalm Area Master Gardener Association, West Michigan Conservation Network and Flat River Watershed group has immersed her in the world of environmental work and its various opportunities. Many acquaintances and friends have shared stories of discovering their interest in environmental science later in life and the struggles that came with the shift.

“When I talked to those people I was thinking, ‘Okay, how can we help young people not have to experience this?” she said. “If you get them on the right trajectory in the first place, what a gift. They don’t know what’s out there. I was going to leave money to the college anyway, and I thought ‘Why wait?... If I do it now I can see the end game.’”

Most recently, inaugural scholarship recipients attended the conference in Lansing. For the students, the experience came with invaluable connections and new career path options.

“I think it was really eye-opening for them, just the exposure,” Aagaard said. “I want them to understand the diversity of types of jobs they can get and what’s available with different degrees.”

She said it’s often graduate-level students participating in conferences, but there is value for first-year college students facing decisions on what career path to take. “A lot of people also talk about how they started somewhere, but switched jobs as they gained exposure to other things…People move around, and there's a lot more to move around in now.”

Environmental work and agriculture are tied closely together with a lot of exchange between the two fields, so it was a natural inclusion for the opportunity.

The scholarship stands apart from most, funding a professional development opportunity instead of tuition. It’s not Aagaard’s first experience giving to the college. As part of her work with the master gardener program, she also led the effort to create a three-and-a-half-acreeducational pollinator prairie and bird habitat on the college’s Sidney campus.

“My friends and I are doing a lot of work in environmental restoration and preservation,and we want to see these younger people coming in that are gonna take over when we’re not doing that anymore,” she said. “You want strong leaders coming up… Everybody’s life depends on it.”