Monterey Mushrooms exceeds $1 million for the Carl Victor Fields Scholarship fund.

This year a major milestone in the Monterey Mushrooms Scholarship Program was reached--more than $1 million has been awarded to the children of employees for educational scholarships.

Initiated 15 years ago, this program was the vision of Shah Kazemi, president of Monterey Mushrooms and the late Carl Victor Fields, vice president of marketing. "Carl was dedicated to the program from the beginning," said Kazemi. "He took great satisfaction each year in seeing these awards go to the children of Monterey's employees--allowing them to further achieve their educational goals at major colleges and universities throughout the country" In 2004, to commemorate Carl's dedication and commitment, the program was renamed the Carl Victor Fields Scholarship Program, and now remains his continuing legacy.

Scholarships for 85 students totaling $126,000 in new or renewed scholarships have been awarded for the 2007-2008 school year The awards are made one year at a time, for a total of four years if the student continues to meet the criteria of the program. Applicants are evaluated on academic achievement, financial need and future potential. The scholarships were originally created to send students to traditional four-year colleges or universities. However, to make the program more flexible, the awards are also used to finance trade school and community college programs.

This year's applications were received from Monterey's multi-site facilities located throughout North America and Europe.

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