DREAMING BIG FROM THE FOOD NETWORK TO FOOD AID

Briana McNeal studied the nutritional needs of women and children in a school in H.D. Kote, India.

By Barbra McBreen

Briana McNeal believes in dreaming big.

Before the junior in global resource systems and dietetics enrolled at Iowa State she thought she would become a famous chef like Emeril Lagasse. But now she feels she can help more people by teaching them how to cook and eat nutritiously.

“I wanted to own a fancy restaurant and use the profits to fund a gourmet soup kitchen, so people who couldn’t afford that food would be able to get it,” McNeal says. “Now, I think I can help more people by teaching them how to eat.”

In high school in Austin, Texas, McNeal listed the Nobel Peace Prize as one of her lifelong goals. When she moved to Ames she was delighted to hear about the World Food Prize ceremonies in Des Moines, an event she plans to attend someday.

Traveling to India has been a dream of McNeal’s since the second grade. That’s when her best friend’s mom, who was from India, dressed her in a saree as part of a class presentation. “It was the best moment of my life,” says McNeal.

Her dream to travel to India came true this summer when she spent four weeks in Karnataka, India on a summer travel course. During her stay she and 12 other students studied the nutritional needs of women and children.

In an area where 46 percent of the children are malnourished, McNeal says their goal was to understand why. At one stop during the trip she served rice from a metal bucket to students attending a middle school. McNeal noticed that the students were much smaller than children the same age in the United States.

“We looked into whether they were having transportation or financial barriers,” McNeal says. “We also provided some cooking tips to increase nutrients.”

Cultural compliance was something her group also considered. Telling people to decrease rice and increase vegetables is easy, but since rice is an ingrained cultural tradition it’s not a simple change.

“They have no reason to listen to us because we have not lived in their shoes,” McNeal says.

The students also visited small farms. McNeal talked to one farmer who took home a six-figure salary or 9 million rupees from just two acres. McNeal doesn’t have a farm background, so she says it was a valuable experience to talk to farmers.

Traveling through southern India was an inspiring and jaw-dropping experience for McNeal. At one stop she posed for a photo in front of a 300-year-old jackfruit tree. McNeal says the owner knew the name of his ancestor that planted the tree nine generations earlier.

This year she’s continuing to study India and plans to return to do her internship before she graduates. As part of her global resource systems major she’ll continue to monitor events in India’s southern region and learn the Hindi language.

CHANGING THE WORLD ONE BEEHIVE AT A TIME

Learning the xylophone from pupils at Namasagali Primary School was part of Sam Bird’s experience during the Uganda Service Learning Study Abroad Program.

By Barbara McBreen

An op-ed piece for the Ames High School newspaper landed Sam Bird in Uganda, where he has taught students how to build beehives.

Bird, a senior in global resource systems, says he wrote the op-ed because all of Iowa is tied to agriculture, “but the average student in Ames didn’t appreciate that connection.”

The letter caught the attention of David Acker, associate dean of academic and global programs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Bird says he was originally headed to San Francisco to attend college. That changed when Acker contacted him and explained the global resource systems major at Iowa State.

Students who choose the major focus on an international region of their choice. Before graduating they learn the language and an understanding of the region’s issues.

Bird was one of the first students to sign up for the major. He also was one of the first student peer mentors in the major’s learning community. He says it’s amazing what he’s learned from other students.

“They go to Thailand, Morocco, India, China, all over the world,” Bird says. “It’s what my classmates do during the summer.”

Uganda was Bird’s choice because he’d already spent three weeks there during high school. During that visit he met students younger than he was caring for entire families.

“If you ever see the issues these families have to deal with—it really hits you,” Bird says.

The summer after his first year in college he returned to Uganda with the ISU-Makerere University Uganda Service Learning Program, which is organized by the Center for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (read more about this partnership on page 31).

Students from both universities worked together to teach English, improve the school garden and formed teams to teach specific skills. Bird’s group decided to teach beekeeping.

The Makerere University students suggested teaching beekeeping because the children could use their basket weaving skills to weave beehives. Also, establishing hives at the school would help teachers continue lessons on beekeeping. And the products, like honey, could be harvested and consumed or sold.

Bird says he didn’t think the students had caught on, until one morning they noticed an extra beehive.

“One student came over and said he had made the beehive,” Bird says. “Little bits of progress, like that beehive, is how to start to make a difference, whether it’s in Uganda or Iowa.”

The message Bird shares with his peers, international students and even United Nations leaders, is that we all have to work together to make the world sustainable. It’s an issue that’s interwoven with agriculture because he says, “we all need to eat.”

Bird participated in the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development in 2009 and was recently selected as a Udall Scholar. He plans to attend graduate school to study applied economics and its implications for agriculture and economic development in sub-Saharan Africa.

##

STORIES online extras:

Read about Sam Bird’s selection as a Udall Scholar, his experience attending policy meetings at the United Nations and find out more about the global resource systems major.

EXPERIENCING DIVERSITY FIRSTHAND

Ashlee Hespen visits the Church of Annunciation in the oldest quarters of Blagoevgrad, the Bulgarian city that is home to American University.

By Ashlee Hespen

Ashlee Hespen, junior in public service and administration in agriculture from Conrad, Iowa, spent four months of 2010 as an exchange student at American University in Bulgaria. She blogged about her experience, and the following account is her entry for Feb. 23, 2010.  Visit her blog at http://ahespen.wordpress.com.

Now that I’ve been here for a month and a half, I’m truly beginning to realize the diversity sitting right in front of me. American University in Bulgaria (AUBG) is more diverse than I could have ever imagined. Students from various countries across the world attend this private university of 1,000 students. In the main building, which previously hosted Soviet headquarters, hang the flags from all the countries, which have had students attend AUBG in the past and present. So far, I’ve met students from over 20 countries!

In the last week, I’ve taken the initiative to jump outside of the group of exchange students and spend time with full-time students. This past Friday, I was invited by a Bulgarian friend to join his group of friends. So I jumped right in to my greatest evening of diversity yet! There were about 20 students there, from Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia and a couple other countries.

This evening was so special because the friends took turn playing the guitar and singing songs from their own countries. It was so interesting to sit there and listen to the different music being played and feel the emotion of the music without understanding a single word. It was also neat because their languages are Slavic, so they understand each other. And luckily enough, my friend was kind enough to translate the jokes and conservations for me. There were Serbian snacks shared throughout the night and it was peaceful as we listened to the Bistritsa River flow near us. During many of the songs, the whole group would join in and they also played a couple American songs.

In class the following Monday, we watched a video “A Class Divided,” about Jane Elliot, an Iowa teacher who did an exercise with her third grade students shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. It made me reflect on my life back home. Friday was probably the first time I’ve ever felt, even in the slightest way, a minority. Although there were times I couldn’t understand anything going on, I was able to enjoy the company and experience a variety of new cultures.

I am so happy to have this study abroad experience in such a diverse setting and am looking forward to all there is to learn from my newly found Bulgarian friends, as well as all of the students I can befriend while I’m here. Each day, I appreciate the diversity even further and I’m looking forward to going home with a broader worldview!

CELEBRATING CULTURES, SERVING OTHERS

Aurelio Curbelo (left), director of the Ag Multicultural Programs Office, and Brian Castro, lead the March of the Flags parade in September. Castro is president of ISU Minorities in Agriculture and Natural Resources and Related Sciences and involved in the Latino Heritage Committee.

By Barbara McBreen

Moving from Chicago’s south side to Ames, Iowa was a culture shock for Brian Castro.

“I could hear myself breathe,” says Castro, a sophomore with a double major in animal science and global resource systems.

In Chicago, the third largest city in the nation, traffic, people and noise are a constant. Castro says it took a while to get used to the open horizons and acres of corn.

Immersing himself into new situations isn’t something new for Castro. He’s a first generation American and his first language is Spanish. His parents moved from Mexico to pursue the American dream in Chicago before he was born. Castro says he often surprises others when he answers his cell phone and speaks fluent Spanish.

“When people first meet me—they hardly notice that I have an accent,” Castro says. “Then my phone rings and I speak Spanish a hundred-miles a minute.”

In Chicago, Castro attended the Chicago High School of Agriculture. The high school attracted Castro because of his interest in animals. That interest and the guidance of Aurelio Curbelo, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences multicultural coordinator, brought him to Iowa State.

“We kept in contact all four years and he kept me informed about opportunities at Iowa State,” Castro says.

In high school, he was an avid fan of the FFA. He says the FFA taught him valuable leadership and communication skills. During his senior year he served as president of the FFA chapter, which is the largest in Illinois and the fourth largest in the United States.

Being involved is important, Castro says, and he leads by example. Castro is the president of the Iowa State chapter of the Minorities in Agriculture and Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS). In October, he helped organize a welcome breakfast for the largest ag career fair in the nation.

Castro also serves as the treasurer for the Latino Heritage Committee. The group celebrated Latino Heritage month in September with a parade of flags, dances, dinners and a fiesta.

“We like to show people what our heritage is about, so we host events to celebrate our Latin background,” Castro says.

From picking up cans at tailgates for charity to cleaning up the Skunk River, service and involvement top Castro’s list. He’s a pledge with the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity because of its extensive philanthropic goals, including helping with events to raise funds for the Girl’s and Boy’s Club in Ames.

Last summer, Castro took another cultural plunge and joined a group of

his peers in Uganda as part of the ISU-Makerere University Uganda Service Learning Program. He says the experience broadened his understanding about the problems related to nutrition throughout the world.

“Now, I want to focus my studies on international nutrition,” Castro says, “especially protein deficiency in children.”