Fall 2008

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Science fair project leads to world of opportunities

Emma Flemmig, a senior in agronomy, participated in a semster-long study abroad program in Argentina. She worked with an environmental non-governmental organization (NGO) based in the city of La Plata.

It started with a high school science fair project.

"I researched transgenic corn's susceptibility to fungal diseases," says Emma Flemmig, a senior in agronomy and biology at Iowa State University. "I met two World Food Prize interns at science fairs and their experiences seemed to coincide with my interests in crop enhancement research, so I decided to apply."

She was accepted and after graduating from high school Flemmig spent the summer at the World Food Prize Youth Institute doing research with wheat varieties at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in El Batan, Mexico. There she met Nobel Prize laureate and native Iowan Norman Borlaug and learned about food security issues throughout the world.

"I didn't consider going into agriculture at all until I was awarded the World Food Prize Youth Institute internship and then, I thought, I could make a career out of this," Flemmig says. "The ideas and concepts I was exposed to helped me decide how to shape my college career - rather than going through college and then learning about those opportunities."

It's those experiences Flemmig values. Her campus job in molecular plant pathology with the Science With Practice program and research in diversified forage production through an agronomy professional development fellowship were examples of hands-on opportunities that complemented her classroom work.

"I'm an advocate of practical learning experiences," Flemmig says. "What I retained in the classroom was built on my experiences outside the classroom. That ability to apply practical information is an integral part of agriculture as a science."

Last summer Flemmig did undergraduate genetic research at Cornell University on tomato cuticles or the tomato skin. There she studied alongside 15 students from around the United States in a plant genomics program for undergraduates funded by the National Science Foundation. She also shared her Midwest perspective with her classmates.

"In New York, agriculture is completely different," Flemmig says. "They took me out to the research fields and it was all rock and clay. In spite of my soil class training, I still said, "You seriously grow crops on this?"

In August, Flemmig returned from New York and stopped in Ames just long enough to pack her bags to go to Argentina for a semester-long internship.

"My first month will be spent in an intensive Spanish language training class in Buenos Aires," Flemmig says.

Flemmig chose the internship so she could work with the people who live in the country instead of being based out of a university.

"I'll be working for an environmental non-governmental organization based in La Plata. It's focused on community development with environmentally oriented projects. I will be working on creating a composting program in the poorer neighborhoods that lack public waste management services," Flemmig says.

It also fits Flemmig's long-term career goal. She graduates in December 2009 and hopes to get her master's degree in an agricultural science and a doctorate degree in an area that will allow her to pursue a career in international agricultural policy or education.