When I first sat down to write this post, I wanted the direction
to be centered around why educators should take students to the World Food
Prize to participate in the Global Youth Institute. Starting with explaining
what The World Food Prize (WFP) and the Global Youth Institute (GYI) are and
then move into some of my experiences that might motivate educators to want to
take students or inspire students that might read this to want to attend
themselves because that fits the audience of these blogs. As I began to write
and really reflect upon my experience though, I've realized that's not the
story that I want to be known, that's not where my deepest learning lies.
I will still start with a
little bit of background on what the World Food Prize is, so that there is some
understanding about the event I am referencing.
What is the World Food
Prize?
The World Food Prize (WFP) is the result of the vision of Dr. Norman
E. Borlaug, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. The prize is an
international honor that recognizing those who have made contribution to
advancing human development through improving the world’s food supply.
The Global Youth Institute (GYI) was created in 1994 to give
students a voice in creating change. 200 high school students meet and discuss
issues related to food security and agriculture internationally.
My story
I was beyond excited to be able
to attend the World Food Prize in general and was even more excited to be there
as part of the Global Teach Ag! Team - to learn more about Global Guides, work with
the professors, etc. I honestly had not put a lot of thought into what I
expected to get out of the experience beyond some networking opportunities, I
just knew that I would get to be surrounded by people that I aspired to be
like. People that were working towards creating global food security and loved
working with youth.
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| The #WFPGlobalGuides Team |
We talked about ‘Our Why’ a lot
during the global guides program, especially in relation to digital storytelling,
but also overarching as to why we were even at the WFP. I specifically remember
the night we had our GlobalGuides Session in the mural room at the Hall of
Laurates. I was sitting with a group of teachers and we were supposed to be
telling each other about our whys. One of the teachers honed right in on me and
wanted to know what my why was and honestly, I didn’t have a meaningful answer.
After some prodding I came up with some words, but even as they left my mouth,
they felt scripted and clique.
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| The beginning of the #WFPGlobalGuides session in the mural room. |
Throughout the week I slowly realized that as I’ve been wrapped up
in all the busyness of my own life, trying to get to the next phase, I had
somehow forgot about the part of me that has a passion for being a part of international
work related to food security and safe drinking water. I have always had a
desire and felt called to work to alleviate hunger, specifically in Africa. Those
feelings have changed slightly throughout my life for particular reasons, but
that is always where I have re-landed. That night in the mural room particularly
left me in a lot of deep thought remembering these things and thinking about life
reevaluation.
A different night we had a VIP guest from Corteva, who started out
in Agricultural Education come talk at a GlobalGuides session. As I was in this
spot of contemplating what my ‘Why’ is and since I graduate in May with not really
a clue of where I want to end up, some things that she said really resonated
with me. She talked about how we don’t have career paths, but instead we
have career adventures.
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| The speaker from Corteva. |
My education path has already really been an adventure, and
attending WFP was a piece in that story. I think that throughout the next few
years as I start my post-graduation career adventure, I will really get to look
back at my week spent learning from everyone around me at the WPF and see that
it played a pivotal role in where I end up. Not necessarily because of all the
information that I took in, but because of the people I met and the fact that in
its own way, it made me slow down. It’s crazy to think that through the whirlwind
of chaos that taking another week away from classes caused in my life, that I could
have slowed down, but during that bubble of time WFP, actually forced me to slow
down and ask myself what I am truly
passionate about and how I can make those passions and my career collide.
Looking past what everyone around me is doing and
where they expect me to end up.
I left the World Food Prize
even more confused as to what my own future holds, but I also left encouraged
and filled with hope for our future because of the amazing, motivated, and
caring people that I was blessed to spend my week surrounded by, and with the
reignited belief in the power of education. Most importantly though, I left that
week with a deeper understanding of my own ‘Why’.
Kaitlin Liszka
#PSUAgEd20
@KaitlinLiszka
