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| Allison and a toucan at an aviary/gardens park |
After spending six weeks in the Spanish-speaking country,
Allison was ready to return home and speak English. However, she had one last
experience waiting for her: processing chickens with a group of seventh graders
and seniors at a technical high school with its own farm facilities. The school’s
chickens were raised, butchered, processed, and eventually sold to the school
cafeteria.
“It was exciting to see their energy for being engaged,”
Allison said about watching the students participate and eventually helping
them in their endeavors.
The agricultural and Extension education junior was
acknowledged recently with the W. LaMarr Kopp International Achievement Award,
which recognizes Penn State students, faculty, and staff who exhibit
outstanding leadership in international education, service, and research.
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| Allison soon before beheading a chicken, with the 7th graders who helped with the process as part of their introductory animal production course in the background. |
Allison is interested in many different cultures and serving
internationally. During the summer of 2012, she traveled to Costa Rica for six
weeks. For the first four weeks, she was involved in the Spanish for the
Agricultural Sciences Immersion Experience, which gave several Penn State
students the chance to work with high school agriculture programs and learn
about Costa Rica’s agriculture industry. Allison stayed an additional two weeks
with an International Agriculture Summer Research grant to conduct research for
her undergraduate thesis.
“Agriculture is emphasized
in Costa Rican programs,” she said. “A lot of students are going back to their
family farms in the region we were in, known as the Central Valley. There are
many coffee and sugar cane farms there, as well as dairies.
“It was encouraging to hear Costa Ricans recognize and be
proud of the fact that Costa Rica is a very agriculturally-oriented country.
This is reflected in the basic agriculture courses that all students had to
take at the schools I visited.”
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| A banana train, the method of transporting banana bunches from the plantation site to the processing site at EARTH University. The school's focus is sustainable tropical agriculture. |
Her awareness of the importance of international agriculture
grew through her attendance at the World Food Prize and Borlaug Dialogue in the
fall of 2011. Because of her interest in global competency, she received an
award from the National FFA Organization to travel to Iowa for the event, which
centered on investing in youth to alleviate global hunger. This focus helped
Allison realize the need for agricultural education and motivated her to
continue pursuing her interest of understanding cultures and agriculture around
the world.
“I strongly believe in the concept of global competency,”
Allison said. “We should all be interested in being part of a global
population. There are so many cultures, languages, and systems, and we should
have a genuine interest in them.
“Diversifying our world view can’t truly be done without traveling.
To understand who you are, travel.”
Allison is enrolled in the production option of Agricultural
and Extension Education and is minoring in International Agriculture, Spanish,
and Sustainability Leadership. She plans to pursue a career that allows her to
serve others through education, have a family and a small farm, and travel
often.
By: Elise Brown,
Student Blogger
