Contact: Amy Cagle

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Resource Management Service LLC, one of the world's leading managers of forest investments for institutional investors, is promoting both the forestry profession and the South’s forestry industry through the creation of the RMS Forestry Scholarship at Mississippi State. Samantha Seamon, a junior forestry major from Prattville, Alabama, is the inaugural recipient of the $10,000 RMS award.

“Forestry is an important profession, one that can have a very positive impact on the world, and we are pleased Samantha Seamon is the first recipient of our scholarship at Mississippi State and one of eight RMS recipients studying forestry at land-grant universities in the southern United States,” said Craig Blair, RMS president and CEO.

Blair, who holds a 1982 MSU Master of Forest Resources degree, continued, “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 as a career and to provide a pathway to the profession for deserving students like Samantha.”

In particular, Seamon is majoring in forestry with a concentration in forest management and a minor in economics. She is the daughter of Shaun and Wanda Seamon. As the first RMS scholar at MSU, she said she feels honored to pursue her dream of forestry with financial assistance.

“My brother and I are both in college, and the expense that comes along with that adds up for our family,” said Seamon. “Gaining support from RMS is a big deal to me. By taking away the financial burden of school, the company has encouraged and enabled me to completely focus on excelling in forestry.”

Through her time at MSU, Seamon has been involved with the MSU student chapter of the Society of American Foresters—serving initially as a freshman representative, then secretary, and now president of one of the nation’s most outstanding chapters. Seamon is also a College of Forest Resources Ambassador, representing the academic unit by promoting forestry studies and assisting in recruitment of students.

In addition to the scholarship, Seamon is eligible for an accompanying full-time, paid summer internship with RMS, which would occur between her junior and senior years of study.

MSU is among eight land-grant universities in the southern U.S. benefitting from the RMS scholarship program and internship opportunity. By achieving and maintaining established criteria, RMS recipients each are awarded $10,000 annually for both their junior and senior years of study.

Future MSU recipients of the scholarship must be full-time, rising juniors who have a 3.0 GPA or higher enrolled in the College of Forest Resources with a major in forestry. Preference in the selection process is given to forestry students from populations that are underrepresented in the MSU student body and who have financial need.

RMS, which manages forest investments and maintains a regional office in Prattville, Alabama, Seamon’s hometown, 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 beginning as a forestry consulting firm to private landowners, RMS capitalized on changing forest industry dynamics to grow and become one of the nation’s leading providers of timberland investment management services.  By consistently 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 investors are primarily large institutions that invest in timberland and other sectors to fund retiree pensions, capitalize university endowment programs, and provide financial resources for charitable endeavors.

For more information about Resource Management Service LLC, visit www.resourcemgt.com or contact Mary Kay Greer, senior vice president, corporate communications, 205-980-7304 or mgreer@resourcemgt.com.

To establish a scholarship in the College of Forest Resources at Mississippi State, contact Jeff Little, the college’s director of development, at 662-325-8151 or jlittle@foundation.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.