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ISU student's international experience and undergraduate research set the stage for Goldwater Scholarship

mmgrant — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 16:18:28 +0000

AMES, Iowa – A resume that includes international experience and involvement with undergraduate research laid the foundation for Iowa State University student Emma Alstott to receive a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship this semester.

Alstott, a global resource systems and horticulture major from Fort Dodge, received word that she’d been selected for the scholarship last week while she was studying in Greece. The Goldwater Scholarship is the premier undergraduate scholarship in mathematics, natural sciences and engineering in the United States. The scholarships are awarded by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation to encourage outstanding undergraduate students to pursue careers in STEM research.

The foundation announced 438 new scholarships in 2024, selecting recipients from a pool of 1,353 outstanding undergraduates nominated by 446 institutions.

Alstott credited her international experience and participation in research while studying at Iowa State as keys that helped set her apart from the pack. Her first international experience came in high school, when she spent two weeks in Kosovo in a city that had formalized a sister-city relationship with Fort Dodge.

“After experiencing what it was like in another country and seeing so many people from a different part of the world, I knew I wanted to have an international focus as well as an agricultural focus,” Alstott said.

Alstott dove headfirst into research during her first semester at Iowa State with the ISU EARTH Program, which has offered students opportunities for education, outreach and research on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands since 2010. Alstott conducted a literature review that helped create a guide on the ecological importance of 25 plant species native to national parks in the Virgin Islands. Later, she began conducting research on bacterial threats to fruits such as apples, pears, berries and grapes.

She joined 4-H in fourth grade and got her first experience with farm management on her neighbor’s farm and in her home garden in high school. She found she enjoyed problem solving and strategic thinking in agricultural settings.

“Since these were hobby farms, we didn’t have huge resources,” she said. “That meant that I had a lot of time to figure issues out myself. I gained such an interest in pathogens and disease prevention.”

Alstott has spent the current semester studying at the American Farm School in Greece. The school is a private institution in Thessaloniki that focuses on precision agriculture and sustainable farming methods to serve rural populations in Greece and the Balkans. Studying abroad meant that she had to spend a lot of time on the phone with her friends and family the day she learned she’d been selected for the Goldwater Scholarship.

“It was very surreal telling everyone that I’d gotten the scholarship,” she said. “It’s such a big validation of the amount of work I’ve put into my research experience at Iowa State.”

Alstott is on track to finish her undergraduate work in spring 2026. After that, she hopes to earn a master’s and Ph.D. in plant pathology combating pathogens that threaten fruits and vegetables.

�� the scholarship

The scholarships cover the cost of tuition, fees, books and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year. One-year scholarships are available to juniors, and two-year scholarships are available to sophomores. Students who wish to apply must complete an application process, and a selection committee determines the university’s endorsed candidates. Iowa State’s Goldwater Scholarship Campus Committee included John Milstead, coordinator of nationally competitive awards; Kent Kerby, assistant dean in the ISU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Frank Peters, director of the ISU �� Center; Eric Underbakke, associate professor of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology; and Svitlana Zbarska, campus-wide undergraduate research program coordinator.

Students interested in applying for the Goldwater Scholarship should contact Milstead at milstea5@iastate.edu. To learn more about undergraduate research opportunities, contact Zbarska at szbar@iastate.edu.

Original article posted, https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2024/04/16/2024goldwater

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American Farm School-Perrotis College

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Fred Love- ISU News Service

Gaining global experience to tackle hunger

nicolerh — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 17:40:14 +0000

From a young age, Stefany Naranjo knew she wanted to play an active part in the fight against hunger.

This past summer, she tackled that lofty goal through an internship in the U.S. Virgin Islands with Iowa State University’s EARTH Program.

Naranjo is a senior in global resource systems and agricultural and life sciences education at Iowa State with an option in agriculture communications.

Her internship included creating and maintaining community gardens and helping churches feed the hungry. She was also involved in a long-term National Park Service project to restore shoreline plants impacted by hurricanes. Along with helping propagate mandrakes and other hardy native species that help shelter the island’s human and wildlife inhabitants, she created lesson plans to teach island youth about the plants and their benefits.

She first became aware of serious problems with food insecurity when she was in high school in Belmond, Iowa. She started a community food drive, then she had the chance to attend the Iowa Youth Institute and later served as a group leader for the World Food Prize.

These experiences “laid the foundation for my career going forward,” says Naranjo.

Ultimately, she sees herself working in underserved communities through urban agriculture, addressing issues such as food deserts.

Naranjo was recently selected to receive an Agricultural Communications Leadership Scholarship at Iowa State, which made it possible to accept the internship on St. John’s Island. The scholarship, established by Sorrel Brown, the first woman field agronomist hired by Iowa State University Extension, provides funding so students can “choose an internship based on the quality of the experience, not the size of the paycheck.”

“This scholarship was created for outstanding, service-oriented students like Naranjo,” says Howard Tyler, assistant dean for student services in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

“It has been a true joy to watch Stefany develop during her time at Iowa State,” Tyler says. “She entered our college as a first-generation transfer student in fall 2019, and despite the pandemic, the shift to remote learning and family financial challenges, she has thrived and continued to excel academically. Stefany has overcome every obstacle life has thrown at her, and is always an amazingly positive person.”

Naranjo loved her time on the island and the chance to directly impact people’s lives.

“Being there made me even more appreciative of how well things work in the United States and our easy access to basic necessities,” she says. “I’m so grateful for the Sorrel Brown scholarship and other donors and ISU faculty and staff who support students in so many ways. I wouldn’t be here without them.”

By: Ann Y. Robinson

^{Original story, https://stories.cals.iastate.edu/2021/10/gaining-global-experience-to-ta...}

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Gaining global experience to tackle hunger

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Service-learning on campus and beyond

nicolerh — Thu, 14 Oct 2021 17:21:10 +0000

Finding ways to grow local fruits and vegetables sustainably. Teaching children about agriculture, culinary science, natural resources and more. Learning to collect data to determine animal population numbers in certain locations. These are just a few examples of the many service-learning opportunities in which Iowa State University students take part at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ three satellite campuses. The activities allow students to take what they have learned in the classroom and apply it to real-world situations, all while helping others.

ISU EARTH Program, ISU-Uganda Program

The ISU EARTH Program and ISU-Uganda Program are similar in that students travel to these locations to participate in summer or semester-long programs. Faculty members also take students to these destinations for week-long trips during term breaks in the spring and fall semesters.

The ISU EARTH Program was established in 2010 in the U.S. Virgin Islands with the goal of offering Iowa State students service-learning opportunities, all while helping island residents improve their lives through sustainable agriculture practices. More than 75 students have taken part in the program since it began.

While on the island of St. John, Iowa State students assist with community engagement projects to increase their knowledge base and benefit the local area. These projects include establishing school and community gardens to supply fruits and vegetables for feeding programs; helping teachers create educational programs about agriculture, natural resources and environmental topics; and collecting food waste to compost and improve the soil structure.

“For our students to model the impact of agriculture and how it leads to better nutrition and health is inspiring for members of the community that have limited experience with agriculture,” says Shelley Taylor, director of CALS Global Programs.

In Uganda, students and faculty from Iowa State and Makerere University, Kampala, partner to create bi-national, educational, school garden programs in rural Kamuli district.

Since the program began in 2006, 147 Iowa State students have traveled to the country to team up with 168 Ugandan students to take part in service-learning opportunities. Those include developing school gardens that serve as both outdoor learning laboratories and contribute nutrition to lunches served at the schools, working with local youth to develop entrepreneurship projects as enterprises and assisting smallholder farmers with their crop and livestock farming.

“University students need to have a chance to learn about resource systems in other cultures and locations,” says Gail Nonnecke, Morrill Professor and Global Professor in Global Resource Systems. “It’s rewarding to see their personal growth and transformation as they contribute to development projects that can help to solve complex problems of our world.”

By: Whitney Baxter

^{Original story posted, https://stories.cals.iastate.edu/2021/10/service-learning-on-campus-and-...}

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