Mississippi high school students visit MSU to help solve world hunger

Contact: Vanessa Beeson

STARKVILLE, Miss. — High school students from across Mississippi were thinking big on addressing global food insecurity as participants at the 7th Annual World Food Prize Mississippi Youth Institute held in Mississippi on Friday. There is. [Feb. 23].

Twenty-one students from nine schools were recognized as Borlaug Scholars at an event hosted by MSU’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Students presented on a wide range of topics, from water scarcity in Antigua to malnutrition in South Africa to policy and governance in the Middle East.

The World Food Prize Global Youth Institute was founded by Norman Borlaug, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his lifelong work to feed a hungry world.

Each student wrote a research paper detailing a global food insecurity problem and its proposed solution. They presented their ideas to experts in attendance, including global food security leaders, MSU faculty, and notable MSU alumni. Students worked in organized small groups to discuss a variety of topics among experts and their peers.

“The Mississippi Youth Institute provides high school students across the state with opportunities to express their ideas about solving global problems. These students are the leaders of the future, so they can effectively collaborate with other students. Learning how to communicate is important. This program provides a constructive space for them to network with colleagues and experts from industry and academia,” said CALS Associate Dean, who heads the institute. Darrell Sparks said.

Kayla Epperson, a Raymond native and sophomore at Hillcrest Christian School in Jackson, presented on malnutrition in South Africa. She was inspired by her South African friends’ first-hand knowledge of the country’s nutritional disparities.

“My friend explained to me how malnutrition is a problem in poor communities in this country. I taught the community how to grow their own food and sell the surplus. We made a plan to train,” Epperson explained. “Attending the Mississippi Youth Institute and being a Borlaug Scholar two years in a row was a great experience meeting new people and exploring ideas about food security together. This experience has influenced me I’ve always been interested in agriculture, and I was able to see what it’s like.”

Epperson’s mentor is Gail Clark, an advocate of the Mississippi Youth Association since its founding.

“When the CALS Dean’s Office launched the World Food Prize Mississippi Youth Institute in 2016, I shared this program with every high school teacher I could, especially agriculture teachers. It was a perfect fit,” said Clark, who has retired from the university. The Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce last year

Ms. Clark’s husband, Mr. Willis, teaches social studies at Hillcrest, and last year she recommended that the program incorporate the required essay into the curriculum. He asked her to facilitate the process, and Clark himself is now a teacher at her school, and she said the same students who attended last year encouraged her to mentor her institute this year as well. I asked him to help me.

“I am passionate about this institute. I love this education both from a problem-solving perspective and because it opens students’ eyes to the world outside of their immediate community,” Clark said. Told. “Learning to be aware of people and always find ways to serve and teach others about hunger and malnutrition is a valuable lesson for them. They grow, study, start their own careers, volunteer They can apply this experience to other situations as they serve through community service.”

Charles E. Lindley’s talk will also be part of the event, and this year’s speaker will be Marty Matlock, professor of ecological engineering at the University of Arkansas. He served as a senior advisor to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack at the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 2021 to 2022 and was elected to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee on Agricultural and Natural Sciences in 2022. He has been championing food security for 20 years, focusing on the dynamics of food, water, and ecosystems, examining their impacts on humans and the biosphere.

Top students from the Mississippi Youth Institute will be invited to attend the Global Youth Institute in Iowa in October. Participating students are also eligible for CALS scholarships and can apply for the Borlaug Ruan International Internship and USDA Wallace-Carver Fellowship.

In addition to Kayla Epperson of Hillcrest Christian School, this year’s World Food Prize Mississippi Youth Institute Borlaug Scholars are (by school):

Brandon—Madison Heidelburg

d’Iberville—Blair Godfrey

Greenville Christian — Tristan Dorsey, Dishara Haggard, Jaquarius Harvey, Laura Holleman, Alana McCoy, Raven McElvaine, Makayla Ratliff, Mackenzie Ratliff

Hillcrest (Jackson) – Acelia Donerson, Ashantia Donerson, Kayla Epperson, Haley Grant, Campbell Hargett.

Homeschool—Joy Kitchens

James Madison (Carthage)—Landon Gomillion

Mazzy—Taylor Smith

Mississippi School of Mathematics and Science (Columbus)—Kinsley Collum and Lakin Dixon

Saltillo—Addison Crippen

The Mississippi Youth Institute is sponsored by MSU with generous support from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, alumni Barry L. White and Lana B. White, and the Madison Charitable Foundation.

For more information about the Mississippi Youth Institute, visit www.worldfoodprize.org/en/youth_programs/global_youth_institute/mississippi/.

For more information about MSU’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, visit www.cals.msstate.edu.

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