IOIA accepts applications for the annual Andrew Rutherford Scholarship Award, which provides full tuition for an IOIA-sponsored organic inspector training course during the following year.

Both prospective and experienced inspectors are eligible to apply for the Rutherford Scholarship. It is awarded to an individual on the basis of need and potential as judged by the IOIA Scholarship Committee. Applicants can choose to attend any IOIA-sponsored training. The Scholarship pays for tuition, room and board but does not cover transportation or other expenses.

The late Andrew Rutherford was a farmer, organic inspector, and organic agriculture researcher from southern Saskatchewan. He served on IOIA's initial steering committee and then several years as a Founding Board Member.

Pedro H. Schambon is the recipient of the
2010 Andrew Rutherford Scholarship

Pedro Schambon , of Seguin, Texas. Pedro is an expert consultant in organic vegetable production and is founding president of “My Father's House International Foundation” (dba My Father's Farm, that is an organization for charity). He established an organic property in an orphanage in Colombia to be able to teach organic agriculture to children and young people. Pedro also established and is now the administrator of a 22 acre certified organic vegetable property in Seguin, Texas. The primary target is to use the gains of this property to be able to continue contributing the development of the orphanage in Colombia. The products of this property are generally sold to major supermarkets in the United States as well as to the public. Besides being certified organic, the property belongs to the Association of Organic Kitchen Gardens of Texas and is member of the program “Go Texan”. Mr. Schambon has traveled and acted as a financial manager in many international routes and has visited Panama, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Spain, Israel, Ecuador, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Colombia, and other countries. Mr. Schambon hails from Colombia and received a rank of accountant in the Hopkins Academy in Miami, Florida. He has also worked in a project of maize culture for the Organization Agriculture for the Poor Men, studied in a school of technical agriculture in the Seine, Colombia, and has practical study in the integral farm of the Foundation of Youthful Homes Farmers in Colombia. He has contributed in the production of onions for export in a property of 500 acres in Chile called Property of the Valley, and attended and completed the course on kitchen gardens that the program of Master Gardeners of Texas offers. His future plans are to “become the best possible international organic crop inspector for the rest of my life”.

The Deadline for returning Scholarship applications is October 1.
Scholarship recipients are notified by December 15.
Download applications for either scholarship program from the links below.

Para el español, chasque aquí.

Please return completed applications to: