News : Vinton-Shellsburg Agriculture Students Combat World Hunger

Juliana Luis, Jeana White, Jade Pohlman, Spencer Williams, Alana Fleming, Megan Schlitter, Carlie Clark, Amber Deklotz, Kylee Kirchner, Gracie Fish, Izzie Birker, and Brody Waters point at Andrew Pingenot as they all pose for a group photo.

Izzie Birker and Jeana White listened as others in their breakout rooms shared their hunger solutions for their respective countries.

In March, students of the Vinton-Shellsburg Agriculture I classes were challenged to select a country around the world and a problem that was creating hunger problems within that country; and create solutions to combat food insecurity. After writing a paper to express their conclusions, they were given the option to submit their paper to the Iowa Youth Institute which took place in April.

Participants of the Iowa Youth Institute included: Brody Waters, Rayleigh Stander-Price, Megan Schlitter, Jade Pohlman, Juliana Luis, Kylee Kirchner, Alana Fleming, Gracie Fish, Amber Deklotz, Carlie Clark, Isabel Birker, Jeana White, Andrew Pingenot, and Spencer Williams. Students gathered in the Animal Learning Lab for the virtual institute. After hearing from hunger heroes on how to combat food insecurity across the world, students got the opportunity to present the main topics of their own papers to a small group of students from around the state.

Each student that submitted and presented their paper at the institute will receive a $1,000 scholarship to Iowa State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences which they can apply for each year. Jade Pohlman recapped the day, "I got to learn a bunch of new things and I'm happy I did it because I got to learn a lot I didn't know before I did it." Juliana Luis shared her biggest takeaway, "I learned that you can grow a lot of crops in the mountains or no matter where you are." 

With the experience came the opportunity to advance to the Global Youth Institute. Spencer Williams received notice in early August that his paper was selected to advance to the Global Youth Institute in October. Spencer will have the opportunity to revise his paper on Bolivia before he prepares to present and defend his resolutions to a panel. Jeana White and Andrew Pingenot were named alternates for the opportunity. Many students have already expressed their excitement to write their papers for next year as they continue to learn about and explore creative ways to solve problems in the world around them.