Author: Site Owner

It was late July in Greenbrier County, W.Va., almost one month to the day since torrential rain and flooding struck most of the state.  In response to the disaster, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service approved the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) request to operate a Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (D-SNAP) in several of the most severely impacted counties, including Greenbrier.  At several of the D-SNAP application sites throughout the state, dozens of DHHR staff prepared for what they anticipated to be a busy week of conducting interviews, determining eligibility, and issuing D-SNAP benefits to residents who lost food, income and property due to the flooding.

Venise LeGrande is a resident of White Sulphur Springs, one of hardest hit towns in Greenbrier County.  LeGrande recalls what it was like when the rain began the morning of June 23, 2016, when, what everyone thought was just another rainstorm turned into a deluge that didn’t stop for almost the entire day.  “We have little creeks, enough just for you to put your feet in, [they] opened up like the Red Sea,” said LeGrande.  By the end of the day, up to 10 inches of rainfall accumulated in Greenbrier County and the majority of West Virginia, which classified it as a 1,000 year incident.  The rainfall was followed by severe flooding which swept away homes and uprooted entire roads.  “The ground itself has been like someone just sliced it like a piece of pizza and put it to the side,” said LeGrande, who considers herself lucky that all she lost was electricity for several days and the food in her refrigerator. She had family members who weren’t so fortunate, like a cousin who had waist deep water in his house.

D-SNAP provides benefits to eligible households who do not qualify for regular SNAP benefits, but who experience disaster-related expenses, such as loss of income or property, so they are better able to get food following a disaster.  Along with other federal programs, D-SNAP has assisted thousands of households in the past year, following other historic flooding incidents, such as in Louisiana and South Carolina.  Yet, operation of the D-SNAP would not be possible without the hundreds, sometimes thousands, of state agency personnel who are mobilized to ensure all affected communities are properly served.  Many of these personnel are part of the impacted community and disaster survivors, themselves.  Helping neighbors get the assistance they need comes naturally.

Penny Dillon-Avila is one of several DHHR employees who volunteered to travel three and a half hours from her home to assist in the Greenbrier County D-SNAP.  For her, the recent flooding had personal significance.  “When I was a little girl, back in 1977, we lost our home; we lost everything [to flooding],” said Dillon-Avila.  “It was devastating…there were about 15 of us living in my grandmother’s home for several weeks.”  She admitted it was difficult choosing to spend time away from her family, which includes a son just beginning college at West Virginia University, and another son in the military who only had a few weeks of leave left before being redeployed.  But she felt the mission of the D-SNAP was important. “They miss me being home; I miss being at home with them, but at the end of the day, I have a home to go back to.”

Debbie Neal is another DHHR employee from Raleigh County, who didn’t hesitate to sign up as a worker for the Greenbrier County D-SNAP.  “They asked for volunteers and I knew immediately that I wanted to. I just like helping people.”  Reflecting on the households who shared stories of loss and grief with her, she believes D-SNAP has been important to the recovering community.   “I think that gives you hope. Even for the clients to know that there’s that many people reaching out, that gives them hope.”

Because D-SNAP serves households that might not normally need nutrition assistance, some households were hesitant about applying for assistance.  “For some people it’s hard to come in and ask for that help,” said Michael Tetreault, a DHHR employee and Greenbrier County resident.  “So we try to reassure people: It doesn’t matter whether you want to or don’t want to, we’re here for you. The program is here for you.”

While the impact of the June flooding is still fresh in people’s minds and recovery efforts will continue for months, D-SNAP and the efforts of West Virginia DHHR provide crucial nutrition assistance to affected households as they continue to rebuild and recover.  DHHR staff believe that, with help such as D-SNAP, the resiliency of the community will win out over the grief and loss.  “This is West Virginia,” said Dillon-Avila. “[They’ll] bounce back from it, because people pull together.”

Because September is National Preparedness Month and after working with our partners on these disasters, it is a good time to think about emergency planning.  Don’t Wait. Communicate. Make an Emergency Communication Plan for you and your family because you just don’t know when disasters will impact your community.

The start of the school year is a great time to get high school students thinking about the nutrition and physical activity choices they make. USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) and Team Nutrition have a variety of resources available to support high school educators as they guide students on their path to good health.

SuperTracker Lesson Plans for High School Students

CNPP has just released updated SuperTracker Nutrition Lesson Plans for High School Students. This free nutrition education resource for teachers, schools, and health educators helps students grades 9-12 learn how to build a healthy diet using MyPlate and SuperTracker, an interactive food and physical activity tracking tool. Originally released in 2014, the lesson plans have been updated to reflect the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, and two new lessons have been added.

SuperTracker is an engaging, interactive tool that can help students think critically about their food and physical activity choices. SuperTracker offers personalized recommendations for what and how much to eat; tracking of food, physical activity, and weight; goal setting; and a new group challenge feature that encourages healthy lifestyle choices through friendly competition. The online application is available on desktop and mobile devices.

The SuperTracker Nutrition Lesson Plans for High School Students were created to support teachers in using SuperTracker in the classroom. In addition to the two new lessons mentioned above, the lesson plans also include a variety of topics such as healthy snacking, finding personal dietary recommendations, evaluating food selections, building healthy meals, physical activity, and calorie balance. Each lesson plan includes learning objectives, detailed instructions, and an accompanying handout.  To download the SuperTracker lesson plans or find other resources for the classroom, visit http://www.choosemyplate.gov/teachers.

Toolkit for Back to School Events

Help families get off to a healthy start this school year! USDA Team Nutrition has just released a Toolkit for Back to School Events featuring posters, flyers, event ideas, taste test ballots, and more. Incorporate these fun activities and resources into your school’s back to school night or open house. Consider asking your school nurse, health and physical education teacher(s), Family and Consumer Sciences teacher, school nutrition director, and/or school wellness coordinator to join in.

What You Can Do To Prevent Wasted Food Booklet

What You Can Do To Prevent Wasted Food is an easy-to-use booklet from Team Nutrition that provides tips for school nutrition professionals, teachers, parents, students, and school administrators on many ways that everyone can help reduce, recover, and recycle food before it goes to waste.

A Guide to Smart Snacks in School Brochure

Help make the healthy choice the easy choice for kids at school. The Guide to Smart Snacks in Schools from Team Nutrition provides an overview of Smart Snacks Standards and how to tell if a food or beverage meets the requirements. This is a ready-to-go resource for anyone who oversees the sale of foods or beverages to students on the school campus during the school day.

You can make a difference in the nutrition and physical activity choices high school students make! Get the school year off to a great start by incorporating the lessons and tips from these valuable resources. Visit https://www.choosemyplate.gov and http://teamnutrition.usda.gov to learn more.

Issah Sugri of Ghana is helping his nation feed itself and improve its farmers’ efficiency thanks to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) program. The Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellowship Program, funded by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), is a six to 12 week training program that pairs up-and-coming researchers from selected countries with mentors from a U.S. land-grant institution or government agency. Sugri, one of 36 FAS Borlaug Fellows in 2012, was assigned to the University of Florida with the specific goal of reducing post-harvest losses of tomatoes by better understanding climate-relevant, low-tech methods of extending shelf life of fresh fruits and vegetables.

When he returned to Ghana, Sugri put his fellowship training to immediate use. Collaborating with fellow researchers at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR-SARI), based in Bawku, Ghana, he published fact sheets for local farmers describing optimal harvest and storage conditions. Sugri even included his mobile phone number so he could accept field questions and provide clarification.  He also worked with extension agents to train producers on post-harvest loss avoidance techniques and their economic benefits. At Sugri’s urging, SARI hired a dedicated food scientist to focus additional research on the topic.

Sugri went on to produce peer-reviewed journal articles as part of a partnership between SARI and North Carolina State Agricultural and Technical State University (N.C. A&T) in Greensboro, N.C. The partnership ran training sequences in 15 small communities throughout the Upper East Region of Ghana to show farmers how proper grain storage can reduce losses.

SARI and N.C. A&T continue their collaboration today, working with women farmers in Ghana to reduce aflatoxin levels in peanuts thereby increasing the safety and value of the crop.

“We focus our extension messages on low-cost technologies that enhance produce quality and shelf-life,” Sugri said. “I think farmers must be encouraged to invest in low-cost technologies that work.”

Sugri is currently a member of the Upper East Region Farming Systems Research Group of the CSIR-SARI, based at Manga near Bawku, Ghana. The group analyzes the region’s farming systems to improve local farmers’ livelihoods in the region.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, nearly one third of the food produced globally is lost or wasted, representing a loss of 1.3 billion tons of food per year. The World Bank estimates the postharvest grain loss in sub-Sahara Africa at $4 billion.

In partnership with Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative, the Borlaug Program supports efforts addressing the root causes of hunger and poverty and forges long-term solutions to chronic food insecurity and malnutrition.

Since the Borlaug Program’s inception in 2004, approximately 700 fellows from 64 countries have participated in research and training focused on a wide array of agriculture-related topics, including agronomy, veterinary science, nutrition, food safety, sanitary and phytosanitary issues, natural resource management, agricultural biotechnology, global climate change, agricultural economics and agricultural policy.

Can you believe that September is already here?  It may not feel like fall where you are, but, slowly, our focus has begun to shift from summer fun to returning to school and learning.

For more than twenty years, September has been recognized as National Food Safety Education Month.  The National Food Safety Education Month theme for 2016 is “Notorious Virus.”  So what better time to consider learning more about food safety and, in particular, learning more about food safety education in the school environment?

Let’s look first at some basics about norovirus, and then at some tools that child nutrition professionals have available to fight the spread of this highly contagious virus.

Viruses

A virus is a tiny organism that needs a living host to grow.  They’re carried by humans and animals, and while they don’t grow in foods or on surfaces, they can be transferred from one host to another by foods, contaminated surfaces or the vomit or feces of an infected person.  Viruses are difficult to kill, as they are resistant to heat and cold.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 20 million people get sick each year from norovirus, making it one of the leading causes of foodborne illness.  It’s most commonly found on ready-to-eat foods and shellfish from contaminated water.  And once one person becomes ill, norovirus is easily spread to others.  It only takes a small amount of the virus to make a person sick with diarrhea, throwing up and stomach pain.

Norovirus in Schools

The National School Lunch Program operates in about 100,000 public and non‐profit private schools and residential child care institutions and provided more than 5 billion nutritionally balanced lunches each school day in 2015.  The School Breakfast Program provided 2.3 billion breakfasts in 2015.  The two programs together provide over 7.3 billion meals each school year.

Schools are doing a great job with their food safety efforts!

According to CDC, out of all of the foodborne outbreaks reported to them, less than four percent are associated with schools.  Out of that small number, over half of those outbreaks are caused by norovirus.  It is important to note that sick food handlers can easily contaminate food and make others sick; effective food safety education programs that focus on foodborne disease prevention are vitally important to successful child nutrition programs.

The USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is committed to providing school nutrition professionals with the tools they need to prevent and control norovirus outbreaks.  A number of educational resources are available from FNS to aid in the fight against norovirus.  Throughout September, USDA will highlight norovirus resources on social media, including a fact sheet, an infographic on food safety in schools that focuses on norovirus, a print resource, “The Stomach Bug Book,” and finally, some handwashing resources to help stop the spread of norovirus.  Be sure to follow us on Twitter.com/USDANutrition so you don’t miss out.

So, enjoy National Food Safety Education Month, and remember to wash your hands!  It’s the best way to prevent the spread of foodborne illness, including norovirus.

By Lindsay Seventko, American Forests

This is part three of a three-part series exploring the importance of nutrient-rich and stable soil.

My foot slid out from under me and I froze, waiting for the ground to settle as a pillar of grey, ashy dust wafted out over the 8,000 foot drop like a cloud of smoke, hiding the valley below. The sand burned my throat and caked to the sweat on my face. As the earth settled, I forced myself to relax and continue gingerly stepping along the four-inch-wide trail, worn into the side of what felt like the world’s tallest sand dune. I could not believe I was right in the heart of one of the most fertile places on earth, northern Peru’s Andean rainforest, right in the middle of the rainy season.

I reminded myself of that fact, as I looked towards the towering palms waiting for me across the precipice. Never again would I take for granted the stability and softness of moist topsoil and spongy leaves. But, that thought did nothing to calm my nerves as I took another timid step across the cliff. And, as yet another cascade of sand gave way beneath my feet, I wildly grabbed at a coffee plant for stability and found myself clutching a fistful of leaves while the entire shrub dangled in front of me, sand and small gravel dripping from its scraggly roots. I stuffed it back down in the dust next to me, praying that the farmer hadn’t noticed.

I found myself walking across this precarious, dried-out mountainside on a trip with The Arbor Day Foundation, which sells shade-grown Peruvian coffee. Before this trip, shade-grown coffee was just a way to save a few trees when I had a little extra cash to spend, was feeling philanthropic or wanted to spoil myself on a premium blend in a hipster coffee shop. But right about now, it was beginning to feel more like a way to avoid seeing the world’s most lush ecosystem replaced by a desert wasteland.

Coffee Production in Peru

The world’s demand for coffee has exploded in the past few decades, and the ICO expects it to rise by another 25 percent within the next five years. This rapid growth created a new source of income for thousands of low-income Peruvians, many of whom had never farmed before. This economic opportunity, combined with few-to-no land rights in rural areas, encouraged new farmers to head out into the rainforest to slash and burn the trees and plant coffee. However, the deforested land quickly loses its fertility, and the farmer must move on to another patch of rainforest every five to seven years, leaving behind a wasteland of dry, infertile soil.

Deforestation’s Effects on the Andes

The entire Peruvian rainforest is already beginning to feel the effects of deforestation. As we drove for hour after terrifying hour on harrowing roads cut into the mountainsides, we saw deforested sections that had completely given way into landslides, smothering forest, roads and homes beneath layers of suffocating soil.

Drought has begun to plague areas that have never before had this issue, and the presidential campaign signs that we passed on rural roads clearly illustrated how the pressing issue of water security had even turned into a campaign platform. While it may be possible to temporarily alleviate symptoms of drought with more running water in rural areas of Peru, it was upsetting to realize that little was being done to address the main underlying cause of the drought — deforestation.

Ending deforestation in the Amazon is not as simple as passing a few laws. First, there is little-to-no way of enforcing such a policy in rural areas. Second, it would be leaving thousands of farmers who depend on their coffee harvest without an income, and of course, first-world consumers wouldn’t appreciate a coffee shortage. But, the situation is not without hope.

Coffee and the Rainforest, Coexisting

After the treacherous walk across the traditional coffee farm, the caravan from Arbor Day visited one of the shade-grown suppliers. As I walked under giant palms, plucked a guava and stepped over fallen branches, I could feel myself relax for the first time that day. This farm grew its coffee bushes right among the rest of the rainforest, where ground cover held the earth in place from erosion and large leafy trees provided a layer of organic material that decomposes into endless rich topsoil. Fruit and bean trees supplemented the farmer’s diet and increased not only his food sovereignty but also his financial security.

This trip into northern Peru changed my mindset about the urgency of addressing climate change. In the first world, we may be able to buy our way out of the worst effects of climate change for the time being but if things continue unchanged, there may come a time that the rainforest has turned to desert and there simply isn’t any water left to pump out of the aquifers no matter how much money we spend for it.

We need forests. Beyond recreationally, beyond aesthetically, beyond spiritually. We all deeply need forests for survival. Without them, there is no dark rich earth to grow our food in, no deep wide roots to hold the ground in place or to replenish our aquifers or to bring rain. Even if they’re not the forests in our backyard or state preserve or national park, the world’s forests intimately affect all of us.

For an introduction to the importance of soil, check out part one in our series. To see how the next generation is becoming involved in the state of our soil, check out part two in our series.

You’ve seen those markers on storm drains that say: “No dumping. Drains to river.” Or to a “lake” or “creek.” It’s a reminder that what we do on the land has a direct impact on a body of water somewhere.

Many of our nation’s farmers, ranchers and forest landowners are taking steps to ensure they’re sending cleaner water downstream. The positive outcomes of this stewardship abound. From Oklahoma to Mississippi, we’ve seen once impaired streams heal. And in waterways from Montana to Minnesota, we’ve seen struggling species rebound.

Creeks, streams, rivers and lakes all provide critical wildlife habitat for many species.

Fluvial Arctic Grayling

In the spectacular Big Hole River basin in southwestern Montana, where USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) partnered with other state and federal agencies and ranchers to help the fluvial Arctic grayling, a fish in the trout, salmon and whitefish family.

Reduced stream flows, degraded riparian habitat and man-made migration barriers contributed to the historic decline of this freshwater fish.

Through a partnership with state agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and NRCS, ranchers took steps to use water more wisely, improve riparian habitat and remove barriers to fish migration. Ranchers installed a variety of conservation practices from fencing to fish ladders.

Over the past 10 years, the grayling population has demonstrated that it has high genetic diversity and has significantly increased its population size. The grayling’s rebound was mostly attributed to the public-private partnership that led to better habitat for the fish. In 2014, the FWS determined that protections under the Endangered Species Act were not needed.

Brown Trout

Next, let’s head to the Driftless Area, a unique Midwestern landscape marked by its craggy limestone, sandstone valleys and steep hillsides. There, coldwater streams provide critical brown trout habitat. High amounts of sediment can cover the bottom of streams, preventing trout from spawning.

Farmers like Ryan Pulley are taking steps to keep nearby streams clean. Pulley has worked to restore and protect Pine Creek, which wanders through his land where he raises beef in southeastern Minnesota.

Pulley worked with NRCS to stabilize and smooth the sides of the creek as well as plant native shrubs and grasses. This restoration work benefits Pulley and his land because it safeguards his pastures against erosion. It also helps improve water quality, preventing sediment from polluting the shallow stream.

Broader Benefits

Arctic grayling and brown trout are among many species that benefit from good land management. NRCS provides technical and financial assistance to farmers to help them implement conservation practices on their land.

To learn more about NRCS’ conservation efforts to benefit wildlife, check out our new Working Lands for Wildlife magazine: A Partnership for Conserving Landscapes, Communities and Wildlife for more information. For more on technical and financial assistance available through NRCS conservation programs, visit your local USDA service center.

The Livestock Mandatory Price Reporting (LMR) Program was created to expand pricing information available to the livestock industry.  The data is collected and distributed by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) through its USDA Market News division to provide market information for cattle, swine, lamb, and livestock products.

LMR encourages competition in the marketplace by vastly improving price and supply data, bringing transparency, breadth and depth to market reporting.  Through LMR, livestock producers and processors, retail food outlets, restaurants, exporters, and many other stakeholders receive critical market intelligence on a daily basis.  Literally thousands of business transactions every day rest on the outcome of LMR data.

The program gets its authority through the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act of 1999, which must be reauthorized by Congress every five years.  The 2015 reauthorization required AMS to conduct a comprehensive study of LMR due to Congress by March 1, 2018.  In addition to working with USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist on the study, we will be engaging cattle, swine, and lamb producers, packers, and other market participants to gather information regarding the marketing practices used for livestock and meat to identify legislative or regulatory recommendations for the next reauthorization in 2020.

As a first step in this process, AMS commissioned Value Ag, Inc., to conduct a baseline analysis of the livestock and meat industry and LMR during this past year.  This baseline study provides an overview of the evolving livestock and meat markets to be taken into consideration in the comprehensive final study.

Since enactment of the 1999 Act, major changes have occurred in the livestock and meat industry.  The baseline study identified several trends in how livestock and meat production and markets have evolved.  For instance, over the past 15 years packers have become larger, more concentrated, and more vertically integrated.  Also, the industry has made major investments to improve supply chain management, and the use of LMR information has expanded beyond price discovery.  Additionally, consumer preferences have changed, and packers are marketing a wider variety of value-added and specialty products to meet consumer demand.

The baseline study identified several key implications of these trends.  With greater vertical integration and concentration in the industry, the negotiated markets have become thinner, and consequently, the LMR confidentiality requirements have limited the depth of market information provided in some markets that the industry needs.  In addition, there is a greater variety of meat products in the marketplace today than ever before, which also needs to be assessed for the reauthorization.  These are just some of the highlights from the study.  You can access the full report at: Baseline Study of Livestock and Meat Marketing Trends and Implications for LMR.

As we prepare for the comprehensive study, AMS will be inviting industry representatives from National livestock and meat trade associations and organizations to participate in a series of stakeholder meetings to discuss the marketing methods, the current challenges with reporting livestock and meat markets, and the needs of the industry regarding future revisions to LMR.  The goal of these meetings is to reach consensus on what each commodity area needs changed in the next reauthorization.  AMS has tentatively scheduled the first meeting for mid-November.  AMS will share more information when the schedule is finalized.

We are looking forward to working together as we complete the comprehensive LMR study and the report for Congress to serve as the basis to inform the next reauthorization.

In this guest blog, Abby Hostetler urges people to prepare for emergencies and describes an innovative display that Purdue Extension used at the Indiana State Fair to drive home that point. Because September is National Preparedness Month, it is a good time to think about emergency planning.  Don’t Wait. Communicate. Make an Emergency Communication Plan for you and your family because you just don’t know when disasters will impact your community.

By Abby Hostetler, EDEN Disaster Communications Specialist, Purdue University

Nearly 60,000 visitors to this year’s Indiana State Fair encountered zombies lurking around in the corners. Actually, they saw cartoon zombies that were part of an interactive exhibit, Don’t Be a Zombie – Be Prepared. The exhibit consists of a walk-though maze and interactive video game designed to simulate a zombie apocalypse.

The goal is to help families learn about disaster preparedness in a fun way. In 2011 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched their Zombie Preparedness campaign to much acclaim and success. The CDC campaign was a gory take on zombies and aimed at a teenage demographic. Once the Extension Disaster Emergency Network (EDEN) got permission from the CDC to adapt the materials into an interactive display, Purdue Extension used third grade classrooms to help tie into the rise of the zombie fad in pop culture while still keeping the materials friendly to all ages.

Purdue Agriculture’s Exhibit Design Center designed and built the maze and accompanying video game. In the video game, the player runs through a post-apocalyptic town collecting supplies for an emergency kit – while zombies are in hot pursuit. The exhibit ends at an underground storm shelter stocked with all the supplies necessary for survival in an emergency.

We hope that people leave the exhibit with four key points: be informed, create a family emergency plan, make an emergency supply kit, and practice and maintain your plan.

• Be informed – know the threats and hazards to your community – flooding, earthquakes, wildfires, tsunamis, etc.
• Make a family emergency plan – it should include everyone in your family, including pets, children, and seniors.
• Make a 72-hour emergency kit — it should have enough supplies for everyone in your family and include (at least) non-perishable food, a first aid kit, a hand-cranked or battery-powered radio with weather alerts, and one gallon of water per person per day.
• Practice and maintain your plans on a regular basis – a plan is only good if everyone knows it and it remains current.

The Don’t Be a Zombie exhibit will travel to museums across the country following the Indiana State Fair. The exhibit was developed by Purdue Extension in collaboration with EDEN, the nation’s premier source for disaster preparedness information, a one-stop shop of research-based educational material for all.  EDEN operates locally as part of the Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant Extension Systems’ efforts at each state’s land-grant and sea-grant universities.  The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) contributes funding each year through the Food and Agriculture Defense Initiative and Smith-Lever special needs grants.

NIFA invests in and advances agricultural research, education and extension and seeks to make transformative discoveries that solve societal challenges.

I’m not sure that there are many 1890 National Scholar interns who are “ambassadors” of their university and who are planning a career in farming. But then, I never considered myself an average student. My experience during my undergraduate years perhaps is not typical. Not only was I a USDA 1890 National Scholar, but I also served as the “queen” of my university all while maintaining a 3.5 cumulative grade point average.

Though I never envisioned myself at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, my undergraduate experience has taught me that it doesn’t matter where you attend school. What matters is how hard you work, getting an education and taking advantage of opportunities. The most important opportunities that I made sure I’d take advantage of as an undergraduate student were internships, which I believe are imperative for students to undertake prior to graduating.

The experience gained in the work place prior to graduating is valuable in that the student can either confirm or question whether he or she wants to pursue a career in a chosen field. For instance, during a previous internship, I gained a passion for food, especially the farm-to-table aspect. I learned through my internship, which was initially in food safety, that one day I wanted to farm and sell my products in local restaurants and grocery stores. This is not to say I didn’t enjoy the food safety projects, but I simply realized where my real interest lay. I gained that knowledge and passion because of the internship experience.

As an intern for the Agricultural Research Service’s (ARS) Office of Communications, I cultivated a passion for communication. On the first day of my internship, I was invited to participate in the World Cocoa Foundation Trade Fair. As a member of the Minorities of Agriculture Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS), I was already familiar with trade fairs because of the numerous conferences I attended.

This time I was on the other side. Though I could attend sessions and learn about the wonderful world of chocolate, my role was to talk about ARS research and to showcase its AgResearch online magazine.

I wondered at that moment during the fair if I could make a career in communications. It is only because of my internship experience that I am able to envision different career paths. Interning with ARS has taught me the importance of agricultural research and the extraordinary accomplishments of ARS scientists, and I know now that much of what I am interested in pursuing as a career is being done right here at the USDA-ARS.

I have made it my goal to make sure that other students take advantage of the opportunities provided to them. Who knows? I may be able to inspire other students to bring their talents to USDA-ARS.