1
The laboratory and greenhouses at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne, MD are familiar territory for Shelby, who expects to graduate from college in spring 2014.
2
Malinda and Shelby stand with their father’s truck. Some of the family’s fruits and vegetables travel as far as the Philadelphia Produce Terminal.
3 1
Drag racer, beauty queen, business woman,
Shelby Hurley does it all story and photos by Nancy L. Smith
Despite compelling evidence to the contrary, there is only one Shelby Hurley. But which one is she—the certified nutrient management consultant or the beauty queen? The honor student with multiple scholarships or the farm girl selling fruits and vegetables at her family’s produce stand? Maybe she is the drag racer who was influential in convincing the sport’s governing body to change the rules so she could race her ’55 Chevy. Or is she the part-time employee at the local Natural Resources Conservation Service office? Could she be the savvy money manager who, at 20, owns a red Camaro and a pickup truck purchased with her own money? Shelby, who lives with her parents Steve and Tina and sister Malinda in Mardela Springs, Maryland, is all that and more. A full-time student at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and an honors graduate of Mardela Middle and High School, Shelby’s grades earned her a Richard A. Henson Honors Program scholarship that covers four years of tuition as long as she maintains a 3.3 grade point average.
hard work pays off
Shelby also won a MAFC scholarship in 2011. “The tuition scholarship doesn’t cover expenses,” she explains, “I used the MAFC scholarship for books, supplies and lab fees,” she said. Previously, Shelby also won the William B. Blank DACA Scholarship, administered by the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore.
Shelby works at the Wicomico County Soil Conservation Office. She also scouts fields for a consulting firm where her academic training becomes a real world asset. “I am able to see what’s happening in the field. I look for pests and diseases in grain crops,” she says.
Well into her junior year with a GPA over 3.4, Shelby’s academic focus has shifted. “I started as a plant and soil science major, but I am now majoring in agribusiness, minoring in plant and soil science,” she says.
4
The courses are not simply academic for Shelby. She has been a certified nutrient management consultant since 2011 and has written the nutrient management plans for her father’s 1,800 acre grain farm and her grandfather’s Hebron, Maryland operation. She is preparing a certified nutrient management plan for a local poultry producer.
It’s not all school and work for Shelby. Two years in a row, she was named Miss Wicomico County Farm Bureau. In both years, she represented the county in the Miss Maryland Agriculture contest at the Maryland State Fair. In 2012, she finished as third runner up.
Shelby’s speedy 1955 Chevy BelAir, with its windows frosted on a chilly morning, was her father’s. He bought it while still in high school to participate in car shows and drag races.
4
Tina, Malinda, Shelby and Steve Hurley at the family’s farm stand with loan officer Stuart Cooper. They started with one wagon and now have three. Practically all sales from the produce stand are on the honor system.