Student Stories

Jessica Chou, a senior majoring in environmental resource management, has been an active member of the Student Farm Club since she was a freshman. She now is the executive director of the club.

Justin Kurtz’s first encounter with the FFA transformed the way he thought about agriculture, the world and, most importantly, himself. Kurtz, an agricultural and extension education major in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, first began working on a farm at the age of 10 in Kent County, Maryland.

For many first-generation college students, study abroad experiences seem out of reach. However, a new course offered by the Environmental Resource Management program in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences aims to make that aspiration a reality.

Emma Steely, a first-year environmental resource management student in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, had the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica through her participation in the Pennsylvania School for Excellence in the Agricultural Sciences at Penn State.

Jack Pohutsky, a senior in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, was attracted to the rewarding, hands-on work of landscape contracting, and he took to the major immediately. Through small, student-focused classes, which touched on subjects such as horticulture, biology and design software, he has gained valuable knowledge and experience.

Over winter break, Penn State students in the embedded course, “ERM 499: Natural Resources in Chile/Patagonia,” will spend two weeks exploring the culture of Chile and the vast region of Patagonia with a focus on natural resources, climate and sustainability.

For students interested in embedded courses through Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, the spring 2020 semester will include a new animal science class that features a trip to Belgium and the Netherlands.

The George A. and Tina K. Georges Scholarship, which benefits students minoring in poultry and avian science or in animal science, has been created in the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences.

Jess Sourbeer, of Pittsburgh, has found her niche in forestry through internships at both Penn State Extension and Architect of the Capitol, the federal agency in charge of maintaining Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

Howard Salis, associate professor of biological engineering and chemical engineering at Penn State, helped to draft a technical roadmap recently published by the public-private Engineering Biology Research Consortium that will guide future investments in synthetic biology, including encouraging partnerships to enable these innovations to make the most positive societal impact.

Talia Seymore, a rising senior majoring in toxicology in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, has discovered her passion for research through the Penn State Millennium Scholars Program.

Jessica Briggs, a junior in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, received the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship this spring.

Tessa Sontheimer and Geoff Merz, graduates of Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, have been named recipients of Fulbright Study Awards.

A group of Penn State students explored a different type of classroom when they traveled to the tropics over spring break as part of the embedded course “Environmental Resource Management 499: Costa Rica Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources,” offered in the College of Agricultural Sciences.

Ben Kline, a wildlife and fisheries science major in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, recently was celebrated for giving an informative presentation at a professional conference.

Dan Stearns, J. Franklin Styer Professor Emeritus, who served as the inaugural professor and program coordinator of the landscape contracting program in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, recently was named Outstanding Educator of the Year by the National Association of Landscape Professionals during its annual conference in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Penn State’s Deer Research Center, commonly referred to as “the deer pens,” has been an endearing part of many students’ college experiences since the 1970s, providing a one-of-a-kind opportunity for hands-on learning about one of the state’s most recognizable mammals.

As members of the Penn State Livestock Judging Team, several students in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences have been putting their knowledge of animal form and function to the test this semester at national competitions.

An ideal world for Jayne Ulrich is one in which everyone -- from individuals to organizations to governments -- would take an active role in protecting, preserving and restoring the Earth’s natural resources. The graduate of Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences is doing her part not just personally, but also professionally as an environmental engineer with Mondelēz International, a multinational confectionery, food and beverage company.

Brianna Elicker, of York, a senior majoring in food science in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, has had a passion for food and agriculture from an early age.

Tony Rice, a senior agribusiness management student in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, studied “meat” made in the lab and not from animals, and grew increasingly committed to understanding its potential to enhance agricultural production.

A summer internship with the Pennsylvania Game Commission helped Penn State senior Dominic Lenzi cultivate his skills in the field of forestry.

Penn State remains committed 164 years after its founding to providing an agricultural education — no matter where its students live.

This past summer, Izaiah Bokunewicz, a plant sciences major in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, had a unique opportunity to advance his knowledge of food security and global hunger by participating in a prestigious program sponsored by Land O'Lakes.

As a food science major in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, Andrew Cotter conducted research on the storage of coffee beans. He showed that storing roasted coffee beans in the freezer — a popular preservation method — can help preserve the aroma of certain varieties of beans.

Preservice teacher candidates and current teachers from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan learned about agriculture and agricultural education in July as part of the AgEd2Malaysia Human Development Project, a collaborative effort among Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, and the Global Agriculture Learning Center at Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo, Iowa.

Food safety specialists in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences will collaborate with scientists at Addis Ababa University and Kansas State University in Ethiopia on a project to improvethe safety and quality of Ethiopian dairy foods.

Schreyer Scholar alumna and Penn State MD/PhD student Kristin Lambert aspires to practice bench-to-bedside medicine and to mentor current honors students.

Katie Turner, a 2013 Penn State graduate in environmental resource management, is putting her love of soil science to good use as the Pennsylvania agricultural program manager for The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit environmental organization that serves the global community.