Three current Virginia Tech alumni and one Ph.D. candidate have been chosen as Worldwide Agricultural Education Fellowship Program fellows for the Norman Borlaug Institute for Worldwide Agriculture, a unit of Texas A&M AgriLife.

Selected in spring 2021, 9 fellows have been chosen from the pretty A pair of candidates For his or her ardour for agriculture education, their management, and their distinctive life expertises. The fellows took their ardour for agriculture education to communities in Ghana in July 2021.

The fellows will serve for a yr as agriculture teachers, Cooperative Extension brokers, and 4-H advisors To assist assist agricultural education in rural Ghanaian communities.

The fellows will work in lecture rooms with native teverying companions, However the expertise Shall be distinctive for every fellow based mostly on the wants of the group By which They will work. Widespread to all fellows, although, is the finaling influence of their work.

The Virginia Tech recipients of the fellowship are Arogeanae Brown, a doctoral diploma scholar Inside the Division of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education; Tessa Hawley, who earned her bachelor’s diploma in utilized financial administration; Mary Michael Lipford, who earned her bachelor’s diploma in crop and soil environmental sciences; and Lauren Seely, who earned her bachelor’s diploma in environmental science.

In Brown’s time at Virginia Tech, she was chosen As a Outcome of the school of Agriculture and Life Sciences excellent grasp’s scholar, was lively Inside the Agricultural Education, Leadership, and Community Education Graduate Student Council, and Virginia Tech’s chapter of Minorities in Agriculture, Pure Resupplys, and Associated Sciences.

Brown joined The agricultural Enchancment division of the U.S. Division of Agriculture after Highschool as an 1890 USDA Scholar. As an activist and mental, Brown earned this award by advocating for underserved communities and exploring the ideas of meals safety and agricultural careers as an financial supply for impoverished communities of colour.

After graduating from Virginia State College with a Bachelor of Science in agricultural enterprise, Brown proceedd to pursue greater education by buying her Master of Science in agricultural education, management, and group education. All by way of this research, Brown focused her thesis round African American youth and their curiosity in agricultural careers, serving her general ardour of offering agricultural education to Black youth and attacking poverty.

Hawley turned Considering about agriculture after taking an elective course on international development during her first yr Of school that defined the important position agriculture performs in assuaging poverty and meals insafety.

She participated For two yrs Inside the Division of Agricultural and Applied Economics Sustainable Evaluation Summer time Internship program the place undergraduates study analytical expertise To evaluate the methods of conservation agriculture Inside the creating space of the Chimbo watershed in Ecuador. Sadly, As a Outcome of of COVID-19, her group was unable to journey to Ecuador final summer To finish their research. Nonetheless, Hawley volunteered to Take part in This method For An further yr the place she found useful knowledge analysis and analytical expertise by way of a revamped Sustainable Enchancment Data Evaluation summer internship program.

Whereas an undergraduate at Virginia Tech, Hawley interned with a quantity of enterprisees, Similar to the Food and Drug Administration, American Council on Renewable Power, and the Virginia Tech COVID knowledgebase enterprise. She furtherly participated Inside The scholars for Sustainable Apply and the Agriculture and Forestry Inexpertised House Gasoline Inventory Committee.

At Virginia Tech, Lipford acquired the Aspire! Award, which acinformations scholars, school, and staff who exemplify Student Affairs’ Aspirations for Student Studying. Collectively with receiving pretty A pair of honors, awards, and scholarships, Lipton May even be acknowledged for her positions outdoors of teachers. She has been an Irish dance teacher, a member of The scholar Life Council at Virginia Tech, a member of the Cru group, and an English as a second language tutor for the Virginia Tech Coalition for Refugee Resettlement.

In June 2021, Lipford journeyed to Senegal with Ozzie Abaye, a professor Inside The varsity of Plant and Environmental Sciences, to assist with the utilization and implementation of the mungbean in that area, concurrently addressing malnutrition and meals insafety in Senegal. The introduction of mungbean into household farming methods Is predicted to End in well being advantages And current a lot-needed proteins and micronutrients, Similar to iron and zinc, typically lacking in common starch-based mostly diets.

Seely’s agricultural information stems from working with each dairy and corn farmers and has extfinished Proper into a soybean breeding program. In school, she spent a semester studying in Argentina to study Regarding The meat enterprise.

Alongside Collectively with her primary at Virginia Tech, Seely minored in each wetland science and Spanish.

The 4 Virginia Tech Worldwide Agricultural Education Fellowship Program fellows will assist the Borlaug Institute proceed its namesake’s mission of serving To raise small-holder farmers Throughout the globe out of poverty and hunger by way of agricultural science. The Borlaug Institute focuses on designing and implementing science-based mostly agricultural development and teaching packages To revenue small-holder farmers Inside the creating world.