Resource Management Service, LLC, one of the world's leading managers of forest investments for institutional investors, announced that it will fund a new scholarship program for the benefit of students who are pursuing undergraduate degrees in forestry at eight land-grant universities in the U.S. South, including Stephen F. Austin State University.

The RMS Forestry Scholarship was conceived as a way to promote forestry as a career path and is targeted at students from populations that historically have been under-represented in the profession or who would benefit from receiving significant financial support in their efforts to complete their forestry degrees.

"Forestry is an important profession – one that can have a very positive impact on the world," said Craig Blair, President and CEO of RMS.  "Foresters help society meet its needs through the sustainable management of one of our most important renewable resources – our forests.  This scholarship program is an effort to promote forestry and to provide a pathway to the profession for deserving students."

One scholarship will be awarded each year to a student in SFA’s forestry program.   Recipients will receive $10,000 annually for both their junior and senior years.  This funding will be paid directly to the student's university prior to the fall and spring semesters, and can be designated by the student to pay any combination of tuition, books, room and board.  In addition, RMS will offer each scholarship recipient an optional full-time, paid internship during the summer between his or her junior and senior years.

To be eligible, an applicant must be a full-time student and must have declared a major in forestry; must be slated to attain at least junior status by the beginning of the upcoming fall semester; and must maintain a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.0 through graduation.  

RMS was founded in 1950 by John M. Bradley, a young Yale University forestry graduate, and Harry E. Murphy, a graduate of Pennsylvania State University's school of forestry.  From its beginnings as a consulting forestry firm to private landowners, RMS capitalized on changing forest industry dynamics to grow and become one of the nation's leading providers of timberland management and acquisitions services.  By consistently and deliberately advancing the art and science of forestry, RMS has become recognized today as an accomplished global forest investment firm – one that manages millions of acres of forest assets in North America, South America, Asia and Oceana.  As a private, employee-owned company, its clients are primarily large, sophisticated institutional investors that invest billions of dollars in timberland and other sectors to, among other things, fund retiree pensions, capitalize university endowment programs and provide financial resources for charitable endeavors.  For more information, please visit http://www.resourcemgt.com/.