Spring 2008

[ BACK ]

Forestry Student’s World View Shaped by Study Abroad

Luke Gran takes a hands on approach to learning and travel. He is shown planting a tree during a study abroad course in southern India in July 2006.

Potential employers should review Luke Gran’s passport as well as his transcript when evaluating his education at Iowa State. His study-abroad experiences have provided him insights into agriculture around the world and made a profound impact on the way he views agriculture locally and globally.

The senior in forestry and international agriculture speaks passionately about pursuing sustainable means to meet society’s demands for food, energy and nature.

“My travels deeply affected the way I view food cultures as reflecting agricultural production systems,” Gran says. “I have seen agricultural alternatives that, compared to high-input capital intensive agriculture, involve more community, earth care and lower input costs supporting a food system that can promote a healthier society. This is a global agro-environmental movement that is in Malaysia and right here in Ames, Iowa.”

Gran began his ISU studies in biology after graduating from high school in Newton, Iowa. But the course “Religion and Sustainable Agriculture” drew him to science involving applied land management. He also credits speakers encountered through ISU lecture series and the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture as well as influential ISU program leaders and professors.

Participation in an ISU summer abroad program in India to study sustainable agriculture, democracy and globalization furthered his interest. A meeting with Joe Colletti, then the chair of the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, started Gran in pursuit of his academic passion —forestry with an emphasis on national and international land management and sustainable agriculture.

Even a brief conversation illuminates Gran’s inquisitive and eclectic nature, as well as his desire to preserve and improve the land. He also plays trumpet and guitar, sings and enjoys writing.

After becoming a forestry major, Gran set about discovering his niche, "one foot in food issues and one in forestry.” Study abroad, including a second summer in India and side-trips to Borneo and Malaysia, provided valuable insight into global forces affecting agriculture that he believes seriously threaten global ecology.

According to Gran, it was his time working in applied forestry in Oaxaca, Mexico, that forged his commitment to forestry. He spent six months participating in a student exchange among American, Canadian and Mexican schools to explore the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.

With graduation in sight, Gran, who is fluent in Spanish, is considering career choices with a special interest in private forestry consulting.

“I want to be part of meaningful landscape change and genuine land stewardship in my country. I am a part of it with each meal I eat, each landowner I work with to use perennials to improve their farm watershed or their forest, prairie or wetland,” Gran says. “When woody biomass ethanol starts cranking, people are going to see their woodland as a fountain of new wealth. I intend to be a part of that discussion in directing prudent management.”

“I want to be part of meaningful landscape change and genuine land stewardship in my country. I am a part of it with each meal I eat, each landowner I work with to use perennials to improve their farm watershed their forest, prairie or wetland”