COLLEGE STATION – More than 100 high school students from 14 states and four foreign countries will participate in the World Food Prize Youth Institute from Oct. 16-18 in Des Moines, Iowa.
This year, 102 students from the U.S., Tanzania, Nigeria, Mexico and Russia will participate in the institute. More than 850 high school students and teachers already have participated in the program since its inception in 1994.
“The institute provides a three-day, all-expense-paid opportunity for high school students to meet and interact with people involved in addressing the word food crisis, including Nobel and World Food Prize laureates,” said Julie Borlaug, manager of external relations for the Norman E. Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture at Texas A&M University.
The Borlaug Institute is named for Dr. Norman Borlaug, 94, the Nobel Peace Prize and Congressional Gold Medal recipient known as the father of the Green Revolution. Norman Borlaug has been a distinguished professor at Texas A&M since 1984.
The World Food Prize Youth Institute was established by Norman Borlaug and Iowa businessman and philanthropist John Ruan as a youth-oriented complement to the World Food Prize. It is held annually in conjunction with the Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium, also known as the “Borlaug Dialogue,” and World Food Prize Laureate Award Ceremony.
The World Food Prize Foundation in Des Moines administers the prize, Youth Institute and related programs.
Students and teachers participating in the Youth Institute become involved in a variety of activities related to the World Food Prize, which was created by her grandfather in 1986, Julie Borlaug said.
The prize recognizes the contributions of individuals toward a more secure, sustainable world food supply. On Oct. 17, Bob Dole and George McGovern will receive the prize and be named World Food Prize Laureates in a televised ceremony at the House Chamber of the Iowa State Capitol.
This year, the Borlaug Institute provided opportunities for high school students and teachers from Texas and Mexico to participate in the Youth Institute.
“Working through the annual 4-H Roundup at A&M and the Mexico Youth Institute Symposium in Mexico City we co-hosted with Monsanto Latin America, we were able to identify the six outstanding students and their teachers,” Julie Borlaug said.
“If more young people start caring about this (world food) crisis that affects us all, the solution will come earlier,” said Esthela de la Luz Valles Vindiola, 17, of Mexico City, who will be attending the institute. “If youth start working, proposing ideas and committing (to this effort), it will be the start of a huge change.”
Vindiola, who attends the Technologico de Monterrey High School, added that she is looking forward to meeting people who are “working to improve the planet and the quality of life of all people.” She also expects the experience to expand her personal and academic horizons.
Food scarcity and the increasing price of basic foods are producing a shock wave of hunger, poverty and uncertainty throughout the world’s poorest nations, said Julie Borlaug.
“At the Youth Institute, students learn about the importance of global food security and the need for nations to work together to resolve the food crisis and feed the world,” she said.
“Students also get to meet with experts and visit or learn about facilities and organizations involved in combating world hunger.”
“I like science, practical math and agriculture,” said Will Rooney, 17, a senior at A&M Consolidated High School in College Station who will attend the institute. “A lot of kids think agriculture isn’t very important, but agriculture feeds the world. This will give me a chance to get a wider perspective on agriculture from people who want to increase world food security.”
Rooney said people like Norman Borlaug have inspired him and other young people to become involved in efforts to address the world food crisis.
“Youth Institute participation helps high school students become better global citizens and problem-solvers,” said Lisa Fleming, youth and education programs director for the World Food Prize Foundation.
Fleming said participating high schools are asked to select a student and faculty member to attend the institute.
“This year’s students were selected to participate based on papers written on the topic ‘Agriculture in Development: Food Security in an Era of Increased Demand,’” she said. “The papers can be written by a single student or the student representative might be selected as the best participant in a class that completed the project.”
The papers are presented to a panel of experts and published in the online proceedings from that year’s institute.
Fleming said other Youth Institute student activities will include a field trip to Syngenta/Garst Seed Company in Slater, the “Hunger Banquet” and ushering for the laureate ceremony.
“The Hunger Banquet is usually one of the most memorable activities because it is a simulation of the unequal distribution of food in the world,” she said.
For the banquet, students are selected through a random drawing to represent one of three global socio-economic groups and are divided in proportion to that group. Students in each of those three groups are then served food typically eaten by members of their group worldwide.
“The largest (low-income) group of students sit on the floor and have only rice to eat,” Fleming said. “The middle-income group gets rice and beans. The smallest (high-income) group, about one-tenth of the participants who represent the world’s wealthiest, get to sit at a table and eat a complete, nutritious meal.”
Fleming added that institute activities also present the opportunity for students to meet with past participants and develop useful life skills such as communications, cultural awareness and leadership.
The World Food Prize Youth Institute is also a prerequisite for participation in the Borlaug-Ruan International Internship, which gives students the opportunity to get real-life experience in poor or developing countries, she added.
“As an extension of the Youth Institute, the internship places the best of our applicants, while still in high school, as research assistants at leading agricultural research centers in Africa, Asia and Latin America for two months over the summer,” she said.
Since 1998, 113 high school students have successfully completed paid two-month summer internships at 23 international agricultural research centers in 16 countries. Thirteen students among those who meet the December deadline will be selected early next February to participate in the 2009 summer program.
“I am convinced this program is contributing to spawning the agricultural leaders of the decades of 2040 and 2050,” Norman Borlaug said about the internship.
For more information on the Youth Institute and other World Food Prize programs, go to http://worldfoodprize.org .
Building on Dr. Borlaug’s work, the mission of the Norman E. Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture is “to employ agricultural science to feed the world’s hungry, and to support equity, economic growth, quality of life and mutual respect among peoples.” For more information on the Borlaug Institute, go to http://borlaug.tamu.edu .
-30-
