OUR RURAL FUTURE NEWS FROM NC STATE’S COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND LIFE SCIENCES
I AM CALS
Seventeen years into his military career, the Army stationed Mario Lopez at CALS.
Mario Lopez Senior, Food Science Warrant Officer, U.S. Army
That’s 17 years after he completed basic training in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Seventeen years since he worked his way up from private to chief warrant officer. When Lopez walked into Schaub Hall for his first class, it had been 20 years since he sat in a classroom as a student. “I love that I get to use my education to help the war-fighter,” Lopez says. “That’s really what I love to do.” Lopez is a food safety officer tasked with learning the most modern techniques and bringing them back to base. After graduation, he’ll be stationed in South Korea; for now, he lives with his wife, Emily, in Angier and commutes the 40 minutes to class. Lopez doesn’t wear his uniform on campus. He’s not allowed, due to the beard he’s cultivated since coming to CALS — one of the perks of being an undergrad. Continued on page 43
go.ncsu.edu/Mario
NC State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Our Rural Future 16 THIS IS SPARTA Alleghany County Some students from rural areas see college as their ticket out of country life — but Alleghany County native David Cox is fighting to go back and stay.
24 LABOR INTENSIVE Hyde and Terrell Counties With the birth of her first baby weeks away, Extension Agent Andrea Gibbs is still on the job covering 1,000 square miles of farmland — more than an hour from the nearest hospital.
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EYES ON THE PRIZE: COLLEGE
Sampson County First-generation college student Selena Ibarra found her own way from the factory floor to her current role: senior at CALS — and college application adviser to her 10 younger siblings.
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8 New Entrepreneurship Program
10 CALS’ Future Healers
14 You Tell Us
36 Faster Answers For Cattle Farmers
40 CALS Giving
ONLINE EDITION go.ncsu.edu/CALSMagazine
FROM THE DEAN At NC State, we’re all about serving the people of North Carolina, in every corner of the state — north, south, east and west. For this issue of CALS Magazine, we decided to turn the lens to our work in rural communities, from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Currituck Sound. In the following pages, you’ll learn how CALS academic programs, research and Extension efforts are helping shape our rural future. We are making great progress on key challenges like expanding student access for recent high school graduates — 64 percent of student applicants from North Carolina’s 40 most economically challenged counties were accepted in 2017, the same as our acceptance rate from larger urban counties like Wake and Mecklenburg — and we recognize the tremendous opportunity to do more. We are creating initiatives that build connections between rural and urban areas to develop the talent, opportunities and solutions needed to grow healthier communities and local economies. These initiatives include food manufacturing, plant sciences innovation, animal agriculture and leadership development. What we Think and Do takes root across the state through our network of Extension offices and agents in all 100 counties and 18 geographically unique research stations. Our passion is for the continued growth of our wonderful state — where, as it says in the official North Carolina toast, “the weak grow strong and the strong grow great.” And we’ll continue to reach out. Through partnerships with leaders and friends like you, we can solve the challenges facing our state, nation and world.
Go Pack and go CALS!
Richard Linton, Dean College of Agriculture and Life Sciences 2 CALS MAGAZINE
CALSNEWS Staking Claim To The NC Plant Sciences Initiative “Stakeholders” isn’t usually a literal term — but it was when CALS invited members of commodity groups and other agricultural entities who supported the project to hammer actual stakes into the future site of the North Carolina Plant Sciences Initiative facility. “These commodity groups represent growers who have been impacted by the research and education from NC State for generations,” NC State University Chancellor Randy Woodson said. “It’s very meaningful when members of your family step up to … ensure you are here for the next century.” CALS and its partners continue to make swift progress on the initiative, an ambitious effort to make NC State and its partners the world’s leader in plant-related research and outreach. Since launch director Stephen Briggs joined in August 2017, he has worked with faculty and industry partners to fine-tune the initiative and with
FLAD Architects to develop its centerpiece: the Centennial Campus facility where interdisciplinary teams will address the plant biome, food sustainability and data analytics. DPR Construction will handle building. The project is on track to break ground in 2019.
Soldier To Agriculture Program Expands Thanks To Golden LEAF Grant The Agricultural Institute’s Soldier to Agriculture Program will continue to operate and expand through 2018 thanks to a $150,000 grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation. “This gift allows us to solidify our relationship with the military and continue to strengthen CALS’ outreach to transitioning veterans,” Director Elizabeth Wilson said. Founded in 2017, the highly sought-after, free five-week program educates soldiers exiting military service on basic agricultural skills and planning. Housed in the new Career Resource Center at Fort Bragg, every class has been full. “Soldiers are walking in with no real agricultural knowledge and walking out with a clearly defined pathway toward achieving their goals,” Veteran Liaison Robert Elliott said.
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CALS Magazine OUR RURAL FUTURE | 2018 A Publication of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Editor Design/Layout Writers Photographers Videographers
Chelsea Kellner Patty Mercer Chelsea Kellner Dee Shore Suzanne Stanard Marc Hall Becky Kirkland Roger Winstead Ken Ellzey Chris Liotta
Dean and Executive Director for Agricultural Programs Richard Linton Senior Associate Dean for Administration Harry Daniels Associate Dean and Director, NC State Extension Richard Bonanno Associate Dean and Director, N.C. Agricultural Research Service Steve Lommel Associate Dean and Director, Academic Programs John Dole Assistant Dean and Director, CALS Advancement Sonia Murphy Assistant Director, CALS Alumni and Friends Society Lindsay Skinner Chief Communications Officer Richard Campbell
NC State University promotes equal opportunity and prohibits discrimination and harassment based upon one’s age, color, disability, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation and veteran status. Send correspondence and requests for change of address to CALS Magazine Editor, Campus Box 7603, NC State University, Raleigh, NC 27695 -7603. 25,000 copies of this public document were printed at
a cost of 48¢ per copy. Printed on recycled paper.
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2018 NAS Prize Awarded To Barrangou Rodolphe Barrangou, the Todd R. Klaenhammer Distinguished Scholar in Probiotics Research, University Scholar and associate professor in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences, will receive the 2018 NAS Prize in Food and Agriculture Sciences for his discovery of the genetic mechanisms and proteins driving CRISPR-Cas systems. His work has shown that CRISPR systems defend bacteria against unwanted invaders. Barrangou is mostly concerned with CRISPR-Cas systems that use proteins as scalpels to cleave away foreign DNA. Possible applications include genome editing, antibacterial and antimicrobial production, food safety, food production and plant breeding.
Successful Farm Management Program Set To Expand The Executive Farm Management Program is expanding to serve farms throughout the southeast. The goal: cultivate the entrepreneurship, strategic planning, financial and human resource management skills participants need to compete in the fast-changing agricultural industry. Key to meeting that goal: faculty expertise from CALS’ Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, the Center for Innovation Management Studies in NC State’s Poole College of Management, and East Carolina University’s College of Business. Retreating from day-to-day farm tasks to focus on long-term issues and strategies with leading experts was invaluable, past participants said, as was building relationships among people who share similar challenges. The NC State Extension program was funded in part by a grant from the North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission and with gifts from farmers Johnny Barnes of Spring Hope and Richard Anderson of Nashville. For more info, email program organizer Blake Brown at blake_brown@ncsu.edu.
CALSNEWS How To Give A TED Talk: Poultry Science Alum Diego Bohórquez When he arrived at CALS from Ecuador in 2005, exchange student Diego Bohórquez spoke almost no English. For his first research talk, he had to memorize his presentation. Then the audience began to ask questions — in English. Bohórquez was stumped. Flash forward 12 years. An assistant professor of medicine and neurobiology at Duke University, Bohórquez now speaks the language with the verve and clarity needed to win a spot on one of the most competitive stages in the world: as a fellow at the 2017 TED Conference. Bohórquez’s work examines how the relationship between the gut and the brain can be used to modulate behavioral disorders — watch his dynamic TED Talk online for the details. Recipient of numerous awards, including a Grass Fellowship in the Neurosciences and an NIH Career Development Award, Bohórquez says he still had to train hard for the TED stage. How do you get invited to give a TED Talk? In life, there are two ways to get things. One is to wait until they get around to you, and the other is to go get them yourself.
When you got the call, did you feel ready? Yes and no. Yes in the sense that I’ve been giving talks for a while, but … every single person is different, and so every single audience is different. That’s the challenge.
I realized that the best speakers were at TED, and I thought, how do I get there? I started to seek out training. And I realized TED has a fellowship program, so I waited until my “idea worth spreading” was mature enough, then applied. They select 15 fellows out of thousands of applicants. I was one of them.
I was also coming from a scientific background. … We get so comfortable talking our own jargon, and it’s difficult to deconstruct it on the stage when the clock is ticking. But they give you extensive coaching. ... They have people helping you script your story, helping with your body language, helping put makeup on you. What was it like onstage? It goes pretty fast — five minutes, in this case. It’s very exciting to see the reaction of people to your message. The TED audience is one of the most prepared audiences I’ve seen. What was the best advice you got at CALS? Professor Bob Grossfeld once told us this in our human physiology class: “From humble beginnings, great things can happen — if you have big thoughts and curiosity.”
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Charcuterie School In Session Local restaurateurs, butchers and foodies convene in the basement of Schaub Hall every year for NC State Charcuterie School, taught by Extension meat specialist (and cured meat guru) Dana Hanson. The biggest takeaway from these classes? The famous Hanson equation: “Salt + Time = Love.”
CALS Book Club: Dive Into The Secret World Of Insects Dr. Eleanor’s Book of Common Ants: This behind-the-scenes look at the lives of ants by entomology alumna Eleanor Spicer Rice and Applied Ecology Professor Rob Dunn won coast-to-coast acclaim in 2017, spending time as the best-selling entomology book on Amazon. Powered by a long-running citizen science project, the series also includes books on the ants of New York, Chicago, California and — of course — North Carolina. The Los Angeles Times dubbed the California-based book one of its great stocking-stuffers of 2017, rubbing covers on that list with the likes of Stephen Colbert and Joan Didion.
Dr. Eleanor’s Book of Common Spiders: This time, Spicer Rice and co-author Christopher Buddle turn to the talented arachnids in our midst. Drawing again on CALS-based citizen science, the new book promises to turn “creepycrawly revulsion into spider wonder,” from the tiny but gymnastic zebra jumping spider to the “naturally shy and woefully misunderstood” black widow.
CALSNEWS What You’re Saying: Faculty Focus: 30 Years At CALS With Billy Flowers From his nostalgic graduation traditions to his mischievously long memory, how Billy Flowers became “something of a legend” around NC State.
Dean Linton showing off his considerable pizza making skills! Thanks for an exceptional meal my friend! @NCStateCALS @CALS_Dean
Justine Hollingshead @jho... 12/12/17
Beth Long Yes I love that class and him 1
I think we need a deans cook off. #ThinkAndDo
Like • Reply • Message • 12w
Travis Brown Hands down one of the best mentors I’ve ever had.....he throws a mean snowball as well Like • Reply • Message • 12w
Mike Mullen @NCSU_MikeMullen
Jim Kerns @KernsJim 12/16/17
Who knew @CALS_Dean had such skills :), very cool boss!
Who To Follow: CALS Spider Investigators @RecluseOrNot Who? Extension Associate Matt Bertone and entomology alumna Eleanor Spicer Rice Why? It’s creepy, it’s crawly — but is it dangerous? When you find a spider you suspect is a poisonous brown recluse, post a photo and our experts will set your mind at ease ... or not.
The new incarnation of Almanac Gardener Meet Homegrown! After 34 years on UNC-TV, Almanac Gardener has moved online as Homegrown. Featuring your favorite NC State Extension experts, the new format keeps you in the know on gardening, cooking, farming and more! Check out cals.ncsu.edu/homegrown.
CALS Food Science Alum @Nutritious_Neverland Who? Olivia Chadwick, December ‘17 alumna, Applied Nutrition Why? A gluten-free foodie with an eye for photography, she’s attracted the attention of major national brands like Smucker’s.
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REAL-WORLD PROBLEMS, MEET REAL-WORLD SOLUTIONS By Dee Shore
Aspiring agribusiness entrepreneurs now have three new CALS courses focused on bringing ideas from concept to commercialization. A serial agribusiness developer wanted to know whether an oyster farm on a North Carolina island could be profitable. A local nursery sought suggestions for marketing plants online. They came to CALS for insight: Students in a new course series on agribusiness entrepreneurship spent five weeks at a Raleigh business incubator helping real-world businesses with these and other entrepreneurial challenges.
go.ncsu.edu/BusinessOfAg
“If you can make your company valuable, it makes you valuable as an employee.” — Derek Washburn, Master’s Student and NC Farm School Associate
Developed by the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ARE) and the Poole College of Management, the course sequence kicked off last fall. Now is the right time for these courses, ARE Professor Kelly Zering said. And NC State is the right place: The university ranks among the nation’s Top 20 schools for undergraduate entrepreneurship programs. New technologies — gene editing, precision farming, robotics and more — are transforming farming. And that’s led to increased investment in ag and ag biotech. “Many people view this as a revolution in agricultural technology,” he said. “Capabilities are expanding, and the need for innovation and new companies and services for farmers is growing every day.”
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CALSNEWS The fall class, Principles of Agribusiness Entrepreneurship, was taught by NC State’s Assistant Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship Lewis Sheats. Students describe the experience as “incredible,” “awesome,” “a great experience” and “my favorite class.” Adding tailored programs in agribusiness entrepreneurship is a key step toward continued agribusiness development in rural areas struggling to attract jobs, said ARE Department Head John Beghin. The department wants to do more, he said, not only in teaching but also in research and extension. This spring, Zering is teaching New Agribusiness Venture Development. The course gives student teams experience with the nuts and bolts of moving ideas to the marketplace. The third course, a practicum, will give students more in-depth experience working with companies to find answers to entrepreneurial challenges.
The sequence gives agribusiness management students the chance to earn a concentration in agribusiness entrepreneurship, and ARE plans to offer a minor open to all CALS students as well as graduate-level courses and training for postdoctoral scientists. At each level, ARE will take a hands-on approach that puts students in touch with potential business mentors and the challenges they face. “In the experiential setting, they ... focus and see the applicability of what we teach,” Beghin said. “They remember what they learn.” The courses give students the kind of credentials that companies want in new employees, aspiring entrepreneur Charles Eason said. “When companies look at your resume, it’s not OK just to have an education,” he said. “You need to have these experiences — these real-world experiences.”
Want to join the network of people and companies on board with the agribusiness entrepreneurship program? Email jcbeghin@ncsu.edu or russ@ncsu.edu.
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CALS’ FUTURE HEALERS Shadoe Stewart’s “Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal”: Dental School From bartending to urban planning, Shadoe Stewart’s eclectic path through education and career has brought him to CALS with an unusual goal: dental school. How did you wind up in the Physiology Program at CALS? I went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for undergrad (I know, I know…), where I studied folklore, geography, linguistics and urban planning en route to a degree in Southern studies. After school, I took a job at Bull City Burger and Brewery in Durham where I worked as a bartender, manager and in the brewery. After completing a professional brewer’s training program, I found a renewed interest in the physical and biological sciences. Though I loved working in the brewery ... I eventually decided to pursue a career in dentistry. A friend of mine had just been accepted to medical school after completing the Graduate Physiology Program in CALS and recommended it to help me prepare academically.
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Why physiology? How does that help you pursue a career as a dentist? I like physiology because it’s the study of how the body and its systems work. … Physiology is also applicable to a surprisingly wide array of academic and career interests. I have friends in the program who are also pre-health and others who are pursuing careers in fields like biotechnology, food science and academia. I think in many other masters programs, one is often limited to and by the discipline, but the physiology program at NC State, specifically, is a great opportunity to prepare yourself for the field of your choice.
What do you see in your future? Since being accepted at UNC’s School of Dentistry ... I’m excited to get more hands-on experience in dental school and find out which areas of dentistry I gravitate towards. As of now I’m interested in military service, followed by a speciality residency in oral medicine, which will help me to navigate better the interface between oral health and general health. I really like the idea of bridging this gap from the dentistry side to treat medically complex patients more competently. This will be especially helpful for my ultimate goal of serving the oral healthcare needs of residents of rural North Carolina.
CALSNEWS Tell us about your experience with Operation Smile Student Programs. Operation Smile is a global, nonprofit charity that provides cleft-lip surgeries for children. Compelled by patient stories I heard at a leadership conference, I co-founded Operation Smile at NC State. To date, we’ve organized fundraising, advocacy and service events. I hope to attend a medical mission trip in the near future.
Tell us about how your family life has influenced your volunteer work.
Developing Wisdom For Medical School: Tin Phan Tin Phan is a Goodnight Scholar who volunteers for multiple nonprofit organizations, serves on student councils for global health and Operation Smile — and still finds time to coach the youthdevelopment soccer team he cofounded with his brother. What’s your career goal? I’d like to become a physician. Doctors not only learn and apply vast science knowledge, but also convey medical wisdom as part of their job. Wisdom is a social, emotional and medical skill of interpretation that the doctor develops over time — that’s the more challenging part...even moreso than the science. ... This path is a long one, but one I look forward to.
And in the future, I wish to serve medically in refugee and immigrant populations. That’s the community my parents grew up in and has been very close to me.
What sorts of research have you done? The aim of my first research project was to shed light on the mechanisms that allow viruses to adapt to drug treatments. I’ve also worked as a research assistant on novel treatments for muscular dystrophy. Today I am volunteering at a hospital to develop my clinical experience.
On the weekends, I coach for a youthdevelopment soccer team I co-founded in 2014, targeting low-income refugee and immigrant kids in East Charlotte. I also volunteer with the Missionaries of Charity in East Charlotte. They serve the community in which many of our soccer players have found a home. These families … possess the same stories of hardship of which my parents have reminded me since birth: my mom and dad were teenage refugees who fled during the Vietnam War aftermath.
What have you learned here that you’ll take with you when you graduate? An appreciation of North Carolina culture and values. I’m thankful to attend a school with over 35,000 students, because the second question to ask someone new is always “Where are you from?” And the answer to that is always of insight into the people, character and diversity of our state.
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OUR RURAL FUTURE Across the state, eyes are on rural North Carolina — especially when it comes to education. Two of the key goals in the UNC System’s new strategic plan are to increase enrollment of rural students by 11 percent and boost the number of graduates from rural counties by 20 percent. On a national level, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue presented the Agriculture and Rural Prosperity Task Force Report to the White House in January. The report outlines five major focus categories to improve life in rural America — e-connectivity, quality of life, rural workforce, technology and economic development — that overlap with many of CALS’ key initiatives, as you’ll see in the following pages. At CALS, our land-grant mission is to provide access to high-quality education, research and Extension outreach to all North Carolina counties, from Dare to Cherokee and all points in between. There’s no doubt rural areas face unique challenges — “While other sectors of the American economy have largely recovered from the Great Recession, rural America has lagged in almost every indicator,” Perdue wrote — but here at CALS, we’re hopeful. In 2017, our efforts to improve access to a CALS education showed results: 64 percent of applicants from Tier 1 counties were accepted, the same percentage as Tier 3. Join us on our journey from the Blue Ridge Mountains to Currituck Sound, telling the stories of rural North Carolina — and CALS.
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What counts as “rural,” anyway? This issue, we’re talking North Carolina’s Tier 1 and Tier 2 counties, determined by the North Carolina Department of Commerce based on economic well-being and population.
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YOU TELL US: What do you want to see in rural North Carolina’s future? How can CALS help?
Pattie Mills, Co-owner JP Davenport & Son, Greenville “Rural farms are slowly disappearing. Because agriculture is so vital to the economy of rural North Carolina, it’s important that we continue to find ways to increase production in these areas and also bring new opportunities to rural farm families. We must find ways to incentivize more companies to invest in our rural communities by buying North Carolina products. “The continued support and investment of CALS in areas like the North Carolina Plant Sciences Initiative is so important to ensure that our rural communities will be able to continue to live and feed their families through farming.”
Dan Gerlach, President Golden LEAF Foundation, Rocky Mount “I hope that we would have vibrant communities ... for our farmers to be the most productive in the world; for our manufacturers to be bustling; for tourism to be vibrant; and for education and health care to be world class. “CALS teaches the young people who are going to help transform the agricultural economy. … CALS has recruited great, world-class researchers. … Their results must be put into service first and foremost to North Carolina’s farmers and growers.”
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Brent Jackson NC Senator, Autryville “We need jobs that attract new residents and businesses and help retain the young people who come from rural areas. We need to ensure that rural North Carolina has the same quality of life and job opportunities that our urban areas offer. And to have the jobs, we’ve got to have the infrastructure to support growth.
“CALS can be a bridge between urban and rural areas. … I think more support is needed for research and development in new ... crops that can diversify the range of crops our farmers can grow. … Anything CALS can do to strengthen its presence in our rural communities is a benefit all around.”
Steve Griffin and Archie Griffin, Owners Griffin Farms, Washington Steve: “We need to teach these kids that agriculture is more than just driving a tractor — there are so many fields you can go into with an agricultural background.” Archie: “I think CALS can get people interested in coming back to rural North Carolina by setting up internships: have students come out and spend some time in order for them to connect with what farmers have going on. One day is not going to cause a student to really appreciate it out here. “CALS can also continue with their leadership courses — for instance, Blake Brown’s Executive Farm Management Program. That class ... made me realize that while rural NC might be small, you’re not detached from the rest of the state.”
Patrick Woodie, President NC Rural Economic Development Center Raleigh “In the immediate future, we need to see robust deployment of broadband infrastructure to fill the gaps of coverage that exist across rural North Carolina, and we need to see that be affordable. We’ve also got to figure out a way to see more of our rural families covered by healthcare. … and to do a better job retaining businesses and growing our entrepreneurs. “The work CALS is already doing through agricultural research and development ultimately leads to job creation. … When it comes to solving our healthcare gaps, as well as connecting people to the information and expertise of the university, Extension is one of the key ways that happens in rural communities.”
To read about Archie’s new status as a world-traveling researcher, flip to his AgPack Strong profile on page 44.
Rob Fleming, Co-Owner Fleming Brothers Farms; President NC Cotton Producers Association Scotland Neck “CALS can help provide the support rural North Carolina needs by taking care of our kids — getting them in to NC State, refining them and sending them back out to better their communities and themselves. “As these commodities move forward, applied research helps us stay in front of things instead of behind. NC State Extension’s specialists provide a connection to put research back on the farm and keep us moving forward.”
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THIS IS SPARTA By Chelsea Kellner
Students from rural areas face a unique set of challenges, from access to test preparation to culture shock on campus. Some work their way to college as the fast track out of country life. Others, like Alleghany County native David Cox, are fighting to go back and stay. go.ncsu.edu/David
One of the most difficult adjustments in David Cox’s journey from the family farm to the Brickyard has been physical: his aching, throbbing feet. “It was a change, walking on something other than gravel and dirt,” David says. “I noticed about the second week that my boots didn’t have mud on them anymore, and my feet were sore from walking on hard brick all the time.” A second-semester animal science major, David grew up working on his parents’ cattle farm in Sparta, North Carolina, population about 1,200. He’s one of only three CALS students from Alleghany County, dubbed a “Tier 1” county by the North Carolina Department of Commerce for its low population and economic challenges. Even in the sea of engaged, high-achieving students at CALS, David stands out. He’s already got seven years’ experience as a veterinary technician, starting as a volunteer at Sparta’s Twin Oaks Veterinary Hospital at age 12. An Eagle Scout and former lifeguard, David has been a volunteer emergency medical technician for two years, signing up after his grandmother broke her hip — David had to carry her from the hallway to her bed, then onto a gurney. He earned his welding certificate in high school so he could build his dad a steel cattlehauling trailer, and his artificial insemination certificate last fall to help improve the genetic stock of the family herd. As CALS continues to improve access to its top-notch land-grant education, stellar students like David in Tier 1 counties are still about 11 percent behind in fall acceptance rates — but thanks to the Pathways to CALS initiative, that number is climbing.
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Many rural students see higher education as a path out of the country to the plentiful jobs and amenities of city life. Others, like David, are fighting to go back to their hometown and stay.
“You need somebody dependable” The night before he heads back to campus after his first winter break, David’s phone rings: heifer calving on a mountainside across the valley. It’s 1 a.m. after a 16-hour workday at the family farm and the vet clinic. David grabs his boots from their spot by the wood stove and runs out the door. In the -11 degree windchill, the calf is reluctant to leave the warmth of her mother. That means extra time in the freezing darkness for David, coaxing the calf out hoof by hoof. “My hands froze to the calf jack,” he recalls. “I had to peel my hands off where they froze.” He got four hours of sleep that night. But the calf was born healthy and safe. David’s long-term goal is to join his boss at the clinic, Nash Williams, as one of Alleghany County’s only large-animal veterinarians. Based on population projections, that goal puts David in the minority: Large urban counties like Wake and Mecklenburg are expected to double in residents between 2010 and 2050, says CALS economist Mike Walden, while a third of the state’s counties — mostly rural regions — will continue to see steep declines. Farmers in Sparta are hoping David will help Alleghany County buck the trend, says his father, Larry Cox. “They know that you need somebody dependable here,” Larry says. “It was kind of a revolving door at that clinic for a long time before Nash got there. … They know David has got roots here and won’t just up and leave.” Those roots also give David a special kind of job qualification, Williams says. “He’s going to have a special insight into what the people in his community go through, what their desires and hardships are,” Williams says. “He has an insight that’s hard to develop for someone that’s not from here.”
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Rural Pride In the late 1700s, two brothers, both Revolutionary War veterans, traveled south from Pennsylvania and founded what would become Ashe and Alleghany counties in the mountains of northwestern North Carolina. One of those brothers was David’s great-great-great-great grandfather. He’s buried in a small cemetery just a few miles from the Cox’s farm, land that’s still in the family after 300 years. “It kind of makes you sick to think about somebody else ever owning it,” David said. That kind of longevity is part of what gives rural North Carolina its identity, says Patrick Woodie of the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center.
“Most of the folks are there because it’s home,” he says. “There’s a deep connection and love of the land.” When he’s home, David’s days start at sunrise. He feeds his dad’s cattle and helps around the farm before putting in about 12 hours at the animal clinic, eating dinner with his family and crawling into bed after midnight. On call for both EMT and veterinary work 24 hours a day, David leaves his boots by the wood stove when he goes to bed so they’re warm and ready if he needs to dash off in the middle of the night. Williams has had many apprentices over the years, and he believes David has what it takes to be a fine veterinarian. “A lot of times there’s odor, there’s excrement, there’s blood — to come here and deal with those things and stay, you’ve got to be a very compassionate person,” Williams said. “None of that bothers David. If he feels like he’s helping that animal, that’s the only thing that’s on his mind.” Around strangers, David is soft-spoken. He’s inherited a commitment to hospitality and community engagement from his parents, Larry and Patti Cox — there’s a family tradition of quietly gauging the needs of those around them and figuring out how to help. Many of the economic recovery issues the Rural Center has flagged as crucial for rural communities like Sparta — such as accessibility to internet and cell phone coverage — directly affect students like David. Many of his high school classmates didn’t have internet access at home, he says, limiting their ability to complete assignments. And when he’s rolling hay bales at his third job helping manage Williams’ farm, David has to drive 30 minutes in any direction to get cell phone service. “It makes my parents and my boss nervous, because what if something went wrong?” he says. “But what are you going to do? There’s work to get done.”
Avoiding Culture Shock On Campus When students from rural areas get to college, a common stumbling block is culture shock. The transition from country to city can be jarring. Twenty years ago, David’s older brother ended up leaving a different large state school for that reason. “I think it’s really, really tough for them, especially on a large campus like State,” Larry says. “When my oldest son left Sparta, it was like he went onto another planet.” “He got lost,” Patti adds, “and the school was so big that nobody knew he was lost.”
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So it was a relief for Larry and Patti when David got to CALS and found that the Animal Science Department functions more like an extended family. People know David’s name, professors keep an eye on his progress, and he stops by the administration office every Friday to say hello to Jennifer Knoll, the department administrator. Hard work and community outreach aside, Cox is also in many ways a typical 19-year-old first-year student. He’s found friends who share his background; they work out at Carmichael Gym and swap stories about runaway cow chases over their scrambled eggs at Fountain Dining Hall. And, of course, he’s taking on extra work: In addition to the academics that won him the prestigious Mildred S. Edeson Scholarship and the leadership-intensive Caldwell Fellowship, he found a job as an assistant at East Wake Animal Hospital in Zebulon. He also joined the Northern Wake Fire Department as a volunteer. To David, the most important message to other rural students working to make it to campus is simple: You can do it. “It’s less about the book smarts and more about the dedication,” David says. “Because it’s not about being smart — I graduated pretty well in my class, but that doesn’t make me smart compared to a lot of people. I feel like if anybody buckles down and takes care of their grades, does their assignments when they get them, they can do it. When you don’t understand it, you keep working on it. That’s what makes the difference.” That’s one of the reasons CALS should continue its outreach to rural areas, Larry Cox says. “When you grow up as far out as he did, everything you want isn’t instantly available to you,” Larry says. “If you want to go see a movie, you’re going to have to travel 35 miles. You have to put effort into things, they don’t just come easily. David and students like him have learned to put the effort in.”
“Just Let Us Know We Can Do It” David won’t know for sure whether he can go back to Sparta for another half a decade. First, he needs to get into a college of veterinary medicine — preferably the one at NC State, which had an 11 percent acceptance rate in 2017. There then needs to be a job for David back in Alleghany that pays enough to live on.
Know A Student Like David? Let Us Know! CALS’ Nominate A Student initiative lets you tell us about the stellar students in your area. Help them stand out in the crowd — visit go.ncsu.edu/nominate and submit your nomination today!
For now, David is doing what he does best: keeping his head down and his wits about him, working hard on what’s in front of him each moment, trusting the future to unfold as it should.
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EXTENSION IS EVERYWHERE Extension agent Jim Hamilton shows students ginseng plants outside Boone (this page) and mites discovered on a fraser fir tree in Watauga County (bottom right). Top right: Surry County Extension Agent Joanna Radford helps examine grape vines at Round Peak Vineyards. 22 CALS MAGAZINE
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LABOR INTENSIVE By Chelsea Kellner
With the birth of her first baby weeks away, Extension Agriculture Agent Andrea Gibbs is still on the job covering 1,000 square miles of farmland — more than an hour from the nearest hospital. From tromping through soybean fields to jumping ditches for soil-testing, being an Extension agriculture agent with NC State is always a physically demanding job. Eight months and two weeks into Andrea Gibbs’ first pregnancy, she hasn’t slowed down. “It’s probably more challenging in this job than if I was just sitting at my desk, but I just keep going,” Gibbs says. “But I do pay for it some days when I get home and sit down.” As the only Extension agriculture agent covering Hyde and Tyrrell counties, Gibbs spends long hours in her car, criss-crossing the combined 1,002 square miles. Most of the growers in the area know her by name. On paper, this is Gibbs’ job description: “to provide unbiased, researchbased information to farmers by serving as their connection to Extension specialists and by implementing on-farm research trials.” Or there’s how Gibbs puts it, which is much simpler. “I’m here for the farmers.”
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That involves farm visits, in person, to any grower who asks. It means hours a week of phone calls and paperwork, shuffling through research results at her desk in the Hyde County Government Building, and many more hours in the car covering her territory. As the pesticide coordinator, she spends January and February holding meetings around the county to make sure farmers’ credits are up-to-date. And she managed the wildly successful Blacklands Farm Managers Tour in 2017. County Extension Director Natalie Wayne praises Gibbs’ work ethic, eagerness to learn and dedication to the growers across both counties. “Her drive comes from her love of agriculture and the relationships she’s built,” Wayne says. “She’s made Hyde County her priority and Extension her home.”
“Farmers are my heroes” When Gibbs stops in at the Far Creek Gas and Grill, where gas is paid for on the honor system inside the shop after you pump, she’s greeted by everyone at the tables. “I didn’t know you were pregnant! I thought you were just eating our delicious dinners in the neighborhood!”
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one man jokes. Gibbs laughs and assures him that her baby girl, name chosen but still a secret, will be showing up in about two weeks. “We love Andrea,” says the woman working the register. “We wouldn’t trade her for anybody.” And Gibbs loves her work. She’s got a custom sticker on the bumper of her Ford Escape that reads “Ag Agent” in cursive across a magenta map of the state. When a call comes in from Tyrrell County, it takes about an hour for Andrea to drive there. They’ve been trying to fill the Tyrrell agent position that’s been vacant since October, but it’s challenging to find someone to move to a rural area. Andrea moved to Engelhard from Johnston County for another reason: Her husband grew up there. Plus, she loves agriculture — every aspect, from watching things grow, to the kinds of people who do the growing. “Farmers are my heroes,” Gibbs says. “I don’t know how they do it, when there’s so much risk involved. They work so hard and have a lot of sleepless nights. They do a lot to feed all of us. I love getting to work with them.”
Winning Trust Though Extension has agents in every county across the state, each agent’s job varies widely depending on geography. In the Blacklands — a four-county region near the coast spanning Hyde, Tyrrell, Washington and Beaufort — the soil is deep black from high organic content. Some areas have to deal with salt water intrusion from proximity to the sea. Hurricanes are always a threat. Gibbs works closely with other agents in the Blacklands on winter meetings, test plots and field days. The most important quality of a successful agent, especially one moving in from out-of-county: winning the trust of the farmers, says Dawson Pugh. He’s
past president of the North Carolina Small Grain Growers Association and owns Middle Creek Farm in Englehard. He’s known Andrea for about five years. “She went out and met the farmers in person to see what they needed, what their problems were, what they were interested in,” Pugh says. “If she had questions, she would get the answer to them as soon as she could, not wait for them to call back and ask.” Gibbs’ field uniform is an Extension polo shirt, a pair of blue jeans and sturdy shoes that can stand up to long walks around a muddy soybean field looking for the nematodes attacking plant roots — the problem she’s been trying to solve for Hyde County farmer Richard Mann.
“Andrea comes out here so I can produce more, so that prices go down and you can spend less money on your food and more money on, say, boats or whiskey, if you’d like,” Mann says with a chuckle.
With her due date in early February and the nearest hospital an hour away, folks started asking Gibbs in January when she would go out on maternity leave. Gibbs answered like someone who loves her job.
Mann has been working the family farm since he returned from serving in the Army during the Korean War. In that time, Andrea is only the third Extension agent he’s worked with. Recruitment can be a challenge, but agents like Andrea fall in love with the area and choose to stay. “We’re going to miss her when the baby comes,” Mann says.
“I tell them, well, I have a big farmers’ meeting in the beginning of February,” she said, laughing, in mid-January, “so maybe after that.” It was after that, but not by much: Gibbs and her husband, Johnny, announced the birth of their daughter, AdaMae Jean Gibbs, on Feb. 16.
go.ncsu.edu/Andrea
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Working With The Tribe: New Ag Agent Maddie Ciszewski After growing up in Washington, D.C., Maddie Ciszewski fell in love with NC State Extension’s blend of agriculture and community service. She graduated from CALS in 2017, and started her new job as an agricultural Extension agent in Cherokee. It’s the only Extension office in the state that works directly with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
What are some aspects of life in Cherokee you didn’t know about before you got there? We’re located on the reservation — though as a trust, the land is technically not a “reservation,” per se, but was purchased by the tribe in the 1870s and subsequently placed under federal protection. And it isn’t just one big tract of land, it’s in pockets here and there based on how things were negotiated, so I do a lot of driving. There is a big focus on reconnecting the younger population to Cherokee culture. A couple years ago, they built an immersion school that’s working to teach K-5 kids the Cherokee language, a lot of which has been lost. So that’s neat — I get to work with the teachers to learn more about the culture I’m coming in to.
Because of all the experienced farmers, there’s a lot of potential to diversify the economy rather than having to rely on the funds the casino brings in, because if it’s not doing so well one year, that puts a lot of stress on the community. It’s wonderful helping get people involved in things that will boost what they’re already working on.
I know you just moved there, but it sounds like you love it. What would you like to see for the community’s future? It would be really cool to see some of these communities be able to increase their dependence on agriculture, something other than the tourist economy. It’s different from how we think of agriculture in other parts of the state, where it’s a huge industry that does a lot of exporting. Here, it’s more about being self-sustaining.
What’s your job like day-to-day? The tribe has a lot of programs to help people get out of poverty or help kids in schools get into healthy living, so it’s not a resource-scarce area — it’s figuring out where and how you can best connect.
That way, you’re not bringing in outside economic resources to keep your community strong — you’re doing it yourself, right from where you are.
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“It might be a little harder, but there’s always another way.” 30 CALS MAGAZINE
EYES ON THE PRIZE By Chelsea Kellner
From teenage packing plant worker to animal science student and mentor, Sampson County’s Selena Ibarra is a first-generation college student who refused to quit. Selena Ibarra was 14 years old when she started work at a packing plant to help pay the bills for her family of 13. Fingers flying, Ibarra could strip the seeds from a bell pepper in under two seconds. Slower workers didn’t last long. The job required Ibarra to stand for hours, and lunch breaks depended on workload. So when Ibarra decided she wanted to leave rural Sampson County to attend university in the state capital, she had already developed the persistence and work ethic needed to be first in her family to figure out the system. “I constantly called staff members about the application process, because I had no idea how to apply — I had no one close to me to go to with questions,” Ibarra says. Her dream: a master’s degree from NC State in an animal-related field, followed by a stable job and her own small farm someday. Step one: an acceptance letter.
Falling In Love With NC Born in Oregon, Ibarra and her family moved to North Carolina when she was 10. Her father, a farmworker, kept getting pneumonia from field work during Oregon’s harsh winters. “The plan was to stay in North Carolina only until my dad felt better, but my parents ended up falling in love with the state,” Ibarra says. So Ibarra grew up in Turkey, North Carolina, a tiny eastern town just half a mile square. The population hovers around 300. Her family didn’t own a farm, but they raised chickens and collected the eggs. The Ibarras attended a local “farm church,” where most congregants had agricultural jobs and sang hymns in their work clothes. Since her large family had to share a single car, Ibarra’s world revolved around school, church and home.
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She started working summers at the packing plant during the 2007 recession, when her dad’s canning factory job was slashed to two days a week. But her dream continued to grow: Animal science. Master’s degree. CALS.
If One Door Closes… No one in Ibarra’s family had attended college, but it wasn’t their first time tackling a complex bureaucracy from the outside. Born in Mexico, her parents had successfully navigated the United States immigration system to receive citizenship decades before. They encouraged Ibarra as she toiled over her NC State application. But even with hard work, her first attempt met with disappointment: a rejection letter in her mailbox. “I got very discouraged,” Ibarra says. “But I thought, if you get a letter saying ‘no,’ it doesn’t necessarily mean no — there are other options, you just have to look for them. It might
be a little harder, but there’s always another way.”
Going Back To Pay It Forward
So she called back one more time. That’s how she found out about the Agricultural Institute, CALS’ focused, hands-on associate degree program allowing students to dive directly into agriculture.
Every time Ibarra heads home for a visit, she coaches her 10 younger siblings along their own college track, proofreading personal essays and explaining who to call in the admissions office. Three of her siblings have already followed in her footsteps, one to the University of North Carolina and the others to community colleges; another is on track to graduate from an early college program.
The odds against Ibarra were steep. First-generation college students are less likely than their continuinggeneration peers to persist through the first couple years of college, according to the U.S. Department of Education — and in one study, only 17 percent had attained a bachelor’s degree eight years after high school graduation. But two years after Ibarra’s acceptance into the Agricultural Institute, she earned her associate degree and transferred into the Department of Animal Science. Now 24, she’s a senior animal science major, getting ready to graduate.
Proud to support NCSU CALS and North Carolina agriculture
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“I would advise other students in my situation to reach out,” Ibarra says. “It’s important to realize that education is so valuable but that the system can be complicated, and you have to ask somebody who’s in the field.” Ibarra’s commitment to education still manifests through hard work. At her internship on a mountain farm last summer, she worked 50 hours a week or more, building fences and hauling produce to the farmers market. And instead of slinging seeds at the packing plant, she now has a steady job at the NC State gym to raise money for school. “I love college,” she said. “I’m very happy — and very appreciative — to be here.”
There’s More Than One Path To CALS… Selena Ibarra’s CALS journey led her through the two-year Agricultural Institute. Go online to go.ncsu.edu/PathsToCALS to find your best path.
WE BELONG TOGETHER “Perhaps the best way to bring urban and rural areas together is to make them aware of their economic linkages.” — Mike Walden, CALS Economist and Extension Specialist
“Urban areas can’t thrive if rural areas don’t thrive, and vice versa. We’re all in this together.” — Patrick Woodie, President, North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center
CALS RURAL OUTREACH ACROSS THE STATE HEALTH MATTERS FOR EXTENSION
When two Halifax County churches decided to build a community garden, two obstacles stood in their way: They had no water source, and they had no money for equipment, seeds or other supplies. But with a grant from NC State Extension’s new Health Matters program and expertise from Area Horticulture Agent Victoria Neff, the churches’ garden now provides produce to over 350 families. The garden is one of 60 wide-ranging projects by four Health Matters associates and their 110 community partners last year to increase access to healthy food and physical activity. “Oftentimes there’s a misconception that living a healthy lifestyle is just about individual choice, but what we often find in low-income and rural communities is that choices aren’t even there,” said Lindsey Haynes-Maslow, one of the principal investigators. Funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Matters works in four counties where more than 40 percent of adults are obese. But individuals’ weight loss won’t be the measure of the project’s success. Instead, Haynes-Maslow and fellow principal investigator Annie Hardison-Moody, both assistant professors with the Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences, say that Health Matters will be successful if it strengthens ties between Extension and other groups to help overcome health-related disparities.
Each year, NC State Extension’s family and consumer sciences program makes approximately 1 million educational contacts throughout North Carolina, sharing knowledge on healthy nutrition, physical activity and chronic disease reduction.
In designing the project, the researchers worked in partnership with faculty members from NC State’s departments of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management and Sociology and Anthropology. Rooted deeply in social and economic inequities such as community infrastructure and job scarcity, the disparities that affect people’s health can’t be resolved overnight, HaynesMaslow says. But Health Matters helps communities take steps in the right direction. — Dee Shore
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BIOTECHNOLOGY BOOT CAMP FOR BERTIE
go.ncsu.edu/BiotechBootcamp
A dozen high schoolers from Bertie County, North Carolina, got handson laboratory training at a summer biotechnology boot camp run by Matt Koci, an associate professor in the Prestage Department of Poultry Science, and Bruce Boller, a science teacher at Bertie Early College High School. The goal of the weeklong camp? To give students from one of the poorest counties in the state an opportunity to dive into college-level science at one of the best universities in the nation. During their visit in July, the students’ packed schedule included everything from hands-on lab training to visits with biotech companies in the Research Triangle Park. “It’s difficult for most of these students to connect abstract independent laboratory modules back to their daily lives, or more importantly, to the jobs and careers they see in their community,” Koci said. “We’re trying to change that.”
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FASTER ANSWERS FOR CATTLE FARMERS By Dee Shore
Science-based solutions are reaching North Carolina’s beef cattle producers quicker, thanks to recent changes at the state’s agricultural research stations. When physiologist Daniel Poole joined CALS in 2011 to research ways to improve reproduction rates in beef cattle, he faced significant challenges to testing his ideas.
But modifications at North Carolina’s agricultural research stations in the years since have changed that, reducing the amount of time it takes to gather data — and speeding up communication with farmers. That means that NC State is able to make management recommendations to farmers much sooner.
What’s changed? In the old system, herds at the eight research stations where NC State cattle research takes place were managed differently. “They were on a different numbering system, a different management scheme and a different vaccination schedule,” Poole explained. “The idea came about to build a uniform system in which all the cattle ... were managed similarly.”
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Animal Science Department Extension Leader Matt Poore has a similar perspective. Because cattle are being raised under the same biosecurity protocols, Poore said, researchers can move cows from one station to another without worrying about spreading health problems. As Poore and Poole look ahead, they see more improvements on the way. “We are also working on getting the genetics somewhat similar – not identical, but similar – by using a herd of purebred Angus cows and disseminating those genetics to other research stations to improve the quality of their herds,” Poole said. “Another thing we want to do is to grow our herd up at the Butner Beef Cattle Field Lab, from around 200 now up to 500 cows in the future.” While faster research is the biggest advantage researchers have seen so far with the changes, Poore noted that the shift has also spurred more
interdisciplinary livestock research. Experts in crop, soil, animals and veterinary sciences are already collaborating on a range of projects, from soil health to feed efficiency to fescue toxicity. “Before, those of us who used the research stations’ cattle were always sort of competing against each other for resources,” Poore said. “This effort has generated a collaborative atmosphere that helps us as we work with researchers from other disciplines and other states.” That kind of collaboration will be increasingly important as CALS frames a food-animal initiative aimed at solving problems that farmers face across the state. “If things continue to come together,” Poole added, “NC State can be the epicenter for beef cattle research, teaching and Extension east of the Mississippi.”
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RESEARCH STATIONED FOR IMPACT
Through a network of 18 research stations (six maintained by NC State) and seven field labs, NC State research and Extension track down solutions and extend research-based knowledge to growers across the state. Through research on just five crops — tobacco, sweet potatoes, cotton, blueberries and soybeans — we generate a $1.67 billion annual impact to North Carolina’s economy — and about $1.45 billion of that directly impacts Tier 1 and 2 counties, helping grow prosperity where it’s needed most.
Above: Ornamentals researcher Nathan Lynch eyes up black-eyed susans at Mountain Horticultural Research and Extension Center in Henderson County. Opposite: Nate Maren, grad student researcher at the Center, examines cultures in a lab. Top left: Student Chelsea Brown takes samples in a lab at the center.
CALS GIVING
CONSERVATION PIONEER LEAVES LASTING LEGACY By Suzanne Stanard
NC State philanthropist and early conservationist William Stevens helped hundreds of students attend CALS — and his nephew, Senator Richard Stevens, understands the real meaning of “conservation.”
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One day when Richard Stevens was a teenager, his uncle asked him if he knew what conservation meant. The answer stuck with him for the last 50 years, as vivid as when it was first spoken.
NC State students studying a variety of subjects related to conservation, including soil science, natural resources, forestry, horticulture and others.
Today, the endowment produces 12-15 scholarships per year. “I had kind of a tree-hugger impression of what conservation meant,” he said. “My uncle grew up on a farm as one “And my uncle said, ‘No. Conservation of eight children and lived through the means the wise use of our resources.’ depression, so I think, in that generation, I’ve never forgotten that. The earth is filled with resources, and we can deplete you appreciated and you conserved what you had,” Richard Stevens said. them or use them wisely. And that was his philosophy: replenishment, replanting, “As a young person, he had observed the abuse of natural resources and became reuse, taking care of our earth.” determined to do something about it.” His uncle, the late William Walton After earning bachelor’s and master’s Stevens, was a conservation pioneer degrees from NC State, William Walton who dedicated his life to the cause. Stevens served in various positions He and his wife, the late Emily Inscoe with the state Soil Conservation Service Stevens, didn’t have children, but and finished his landmark career in a were committed to fostering future top post with the state Office of Earth generations of conservationists. Resources. He also served 32 years in the U.S. Army in active duty or as a That’s why they established the William reserve, earning the Purple Heart and Walton and Emily Inscoe Stevens Soil Bronze Star. Conservation Fellowship/Scholarship Endowment in 1982, which benefits
Stevens received three meritorious citations from the USDA, was elected a fellow in the Soil Conservation Society of America (its highest honor) and was awarded the Governor’s Conservation Award by the Wildlife Federation of North Carolina, in large part, as the ceremony script says, because “he talks, lives, believes, and acts for the causes of wise conservation.” And he remained committed to NC State, through contributions of estate gifts over the years that supplemented his endowment. He also received the NC State Alumni Association’s Meritorious Service Award in 1995 and endowed the Stevens Nature Center at Cary’s Hemlock Bluffs Park. “He realized how important NC State was to him as a farm boy in the 1920s to be able to go to college and get a degree, and he and his wife wanted to give back,” Richard Stevens said. “I think he’d be very proud of the accomplishments of literally the hundreds of young people he has helped go through school.”
“My uncle said, ‘No. Conservation means the wise use of our natural resources.’”
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CALS GIVING
TALLEY-ING UP THE TURKEY UNIT Thanks to a visionary gift from the Talley family, the newly named Windell and Judy Talley Turkey Education Unit will boast renovations to improve biosecurity, decrease labor costs and boost turkey research productivity. When current poultry science Ph.D. student Brooke Bartz first set foot on NC State’s campus, she wasn’t planning on pursuing a degree at CALS. Then she toured the Turkey Education Unit. Through her tour of the facility, Bartz saw a chance to conduct research she’d dreamed of: improving farmers’ abilities to rear birds with economic efficiency and a high level of animal welfare. “A 20-minute farm tour turned into a life-altering opportunity,” Bartz told the Talley family at the unit dedication event in February. The family’s gift and naming of the unit will allow remodeling, improved biosecurity, decreased labor costs and faster turn time, with a net result of greater turkey research productivity. Remodeling of one unit will provide a facility to study the effects of lighting on rearing commercial turkeys. Remodeling of another will create a venue for studying intestinal health in turkeys. Pat Curtis, head of the Prestage Department of Poultry Science, called the Talleys’ gift “momentous.” And for Bartz, it was even more personal. “Without your support,” Bartz said, “I would never have found my calling in the poultry industry.”
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MEET THE TALLEYS Windell Talley has been an agricultural producer in Stanfield, North Carolina, for 51 years, providing a grain market for area grain farmers using corn and wheat for feed production in his feed mill. That feed sustains Talley turkeys and cattle, with some outside custom feed sales. A CALS alumnus, Windell and his wife, Judy Talley, have three sons who are NC State graduates and who returned to join the family farm operation. The Talleys’ work with CALS traces back to Windell’s poultry science degree in 1963. At the dedication, he spoke of his recent work assisting CALS researchers with on-farm research into early use of enzymes.
I AM CALS continued from page 1 Food safety isn’t the first thing that comes to mind for most people when they think of military service, but it’s crucial. From soldiers’ field rations to their families’ groceries on base, every scrap of food is inspected.
“I made a promise to myself at the age of 20: that if I didn’t feel I was progressing where I was, I would join the military,” Lopez says. “I felt that I was capable of much more than I was actually doing.”
“Military service members need to be in tip-top shape to do our jobs,” Lopez says. “If the food source is tampered with, if it is unwholesome, that stops the war-fighter — and that’s not only for soldiers, but also for their families and anyone else affiliated with the military. It has an overwhelming affect on how the military functions.”
Lopez entered basic training as an enlisted soldier and worked his way up to sergeant as first a veterinary food inspection specialist, then a warrant officer — a subject matter expert.
Lopez is the latest in a line of service members stationed at CALS, says Keith Harris, associate professor and undergraduate coordinator in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences. Harris himself served in the Marine Corps: first the reserves, then called into active duty in the Persian Gulf War. The self-discipline, leadership and organizational skills of military training translate well to the classroom, Harris says. During Lopez’s time at CALS, Harris has watched him mentor his fellow undergraduates, most of whom are a decade younger. “He could just walk in and take over, because he knows very well how to effectively manage a team — but instead he’ll make a suggestion, and then he’ll sit back and listen rather than micromanage everything,” Harris says. “That, to me, is a very effective mentor.” The Making Of A Military Man Lopez didn’t need to join the Army. He had two good jobs in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, working for Coca-Cola and as a supervisor at an automotive repair facility. But something was missing.
The most difficult part of his transition back to the classroom was adjusting to ways technology is now integrated into every lesson. Educational use of the internet was in its infancy when Lopez graduated high school. Being stationed at CALS also broadens the options available to soldiers like Lopez after they retire, opening up possibilities in the private sector that may require a degree. For now, Lopez hasn’t reached a decision on the timing of his retirement, or what he’ll do when he’s no longer an active duty soldier. But he and Emily have lived on bases around the world together, from Camp Zama, Japan, to Joint Base Louis-McCord in Washington. His next assignment after graduation will be his first unaccompanied tour — the couple decided that it was better for Emily to stay in their house in Angier, North Carolina, for the year that Mario is in Korea. After almost two decades of moving together around the world, this is one house they’re not going to sell, Lopez says: North Carolina feels like home. — Chelsea Kellner
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#AGPACKSTRONG From Little Washington to Israel: Archie Griffin, CALS ‘12 2017 Nuffield Scholar What was it like growing up in a rural area? I participated in the farm, but it was never my cup of tea. When I went off to State, I had no intention whatsoever of coming back to the farm. Ever. I wanted to get out and experience big city life. I told Dad I was going to sell the farm.
What did your dad say to that? He just kind of smiled. [laughs] I would say that was some immaturity on my part. … Once you do return, it’s well worth it. It’s not as big a change as you would think.
What makes moving back worth it? In Raleigh, you feel like you’re just another person, and you don’t know that your actions are making that big of a change. In rural North Carolina, every action you take is making a drastic change in not only your rural community, but on your big cities. Out here, if the local produce farmers have a bad year farmwise, not only are the prices of, say, cabbage or corn going to go up in your local grocery store, they’re also going to increase in Raleigh.
What are some misconceptions about working in agriculture? Nowadays, there’s technology in every aspect of what we do. … Farming technology has advanced so much that when I interview somebody, the first thing I ask them is: “Did you play video games growing up?” And I’m hoping they’ll say yes. Because in the sprayer or the tractors, I might glance up at the field every once in a while, but I’m mostly staring at a computer screen. There are so many opportunities. Because of farming, I leave in early March to travel around the world doing research
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on agricultural technology through a Nuffield International Farming Scholarship.
What are your travel plans? I’ll do a two-month span in the Netherlands, then Ireland, Brazil, Mexico, Canada and New Zealand. Then they give me a budget and let me travel wherever I want until the budget runs out. I’m focusing in on Israel, Jordan and the Middle East. Israel is probably the most technologically advanced country in the world when it comes to agriculture — they’re actually growing crops sustainably in the desert. Technology-wise, they’re probably at least 20 years ahead of us. Afterward, I plan to come back to my family’s farm, once again.
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SEPT. 8 FOR
State’s Biggest Tailgate! Imagine over 2,000 of your classmates, friends and family celebrating the Pack together. That’s the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Tailgate! Please join us this year — our 27th — and enjoy good food with family and friends, including our own delicious Howling Cow ice cream. It’s all part of Ag Day, with exhibits and activities for one and all. And, of course, the big game against the Georgia State Panthers. Mark your calendar and get your tickets today!
Saturday, Sept. 8 3 hours before kickoff PNC Arena, West Entrance (gametime to be announced)
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