7 minute read
A Week of Our Own
TSUAg Highlights New Departments in First Post-Covid “Ag Week” Celebration | By Charlie Morrison
Spring break may have come and gone in 2024, but a partylike atmosphere continued to circulate about the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg) campus this spring as the school played host to “Ag Week 2024,” a six-day celebration of student life at the College.
The week-long celebration of the College was held Monday, March 11 through Saturday, March 16, and featured interactive activities, guest speakers, tours, discussions, and of course, catered lunches. As evidenced by the smiling faces, laughing voices, and rounds of applause that permeated the event, it was well received by the student body. The event coincides with national Ag. Week, which kicked off Monday, March 18 across the country.
This year’s Ag Week festivities represented a return to normalcy for the College, as it was the first such event held since the breakout of the Covid-19 pandemic over four years ago. As was the case before the pandemic, Ag Week 2024 demonstrated once again the fact that free lunches, fun activities, and lively discussions never go out of style on a college campus. Students, faculty members, and College administrators came out in droves for each of the festivities’ six days of events, which this year, took on a different structure than their pre-pandemic predecessors.
The College, having just last semester introduced three new academic departments, built this year’s Ag Week festivities around the new structure, dedicating one day to each of TSUAg’s now five respective departments (two departments shared the first day). Following the respective celebrations held by the departments, the week-long event rounded out with the College’s annual Awards Luncheon on Friday, and the “Ag Alumni and Friends Day” event on Saturday.
The Departments of Agriculture Science and Engineering and Food and Animal Sciences shared the first day of Ag Week 2024 on Monday, March 11. The events that day began with the Agricultural Science and Engineering department hosting a department showcase in which faculty presented their vision for the department’s future, before shifting gears to a Food and Animal Sciences Department trivia competition. One happy undergraduate took home a $100 for winning the trivia contest, but all were happy about the final event of Ag Week’s first day, a build-your-own ice cream sundae event featuring therapy animals. Several hayride tours of the TSU Agricultural Research and Education Center farms took place throughout the day as well.
Day two of Ag Week 2024 was dedicated to the newly established Agribusiness Department. “Agribusiness Day” began at the Farrell-Westbrook Building Auditorium (the Barn) with a video presentation on the art of making a formal business pitch, followed by presentations and discussions on the topic led by TSUAg undergraduates Kerrington Howard and Omari Mason.
Following their own round of trivia questions, the Agribusiness Department presented guest speaker, Kroger Operations Coordinator and TSUAg Advisory Board member Jules Smith. Smith discussed the Kroger-backed scholarships at TSU before doling out some real-world advice for the undergraduates in attendance at the event.
The Department of Environmental Science took over on day three of the celebration, kicking things off in the morning with a battery recycling event in the Barn preceding the annual TSUAg Student Appreciation Day cookout held that Wednesday at the Farrell-Westbrook Auditorium. The event, featuring free barbecue cooked up by TSUAg’s own “Coach” Rod Reed, primed the party for the afternoon event, an electric vehicle car show held in the roundabout at TSUAg.
The final day of departmental celebrations was hosted by the faculty of TSUAg’s Human Sciences Department and kicked off first thing on the morning of day four on Thursday with a student recognition breakfast in Humphries Hall.
Undergraduates from the Human Sciences program joined several faculty members in one of the Humphries Hall kitchen classrooms at lunch, where they had a lot of laughs and a few near cries while creating homemade pizzas.
The signature event of the day was a custom tote bag and hat creation event sponsored by the TSU Fashion Society and held in the Barn in the late afternoon. TSUAg alumni and tailor to the stars Randolph Williamson gave the opening remarks for the event, which featured TSUAg fashion students creating their own custom tote bag accessories.
For Associate Dean of Academics and Land-grant Programs Dr. De’Etra Young, the department days and Ag Week as a whole make a significant contribution to the building of a real community at the College.
“The College of Agriculture is one big family where we share in hard work, camaraderie, and school spirit,” says Dr. Young. “Ag Week is really just about celebrating that family, having some fun and sharing some laughs with that family.
“It is a moment each year when the academics side of things take a back seat to the community aspect of the College, when we chat, we eat, we do activities all in the name of growing that sense of family, that sense of community here at TSUAg.”
After wrapping up the department days, TSUAg returned to the Barn one more time for the TSUAg’s annual Awards Luncheon. The annual awards ceremony recognizes the standout students, faculty members, and staffers at the College of Agriculture over the past calendar year in categories such as Outstanding Young Researcher, Outstanding Extension Agent, and Outstanding Teaching Faculty.
The final event of Ag Week 2024 was the TSU Ag Alumni & Friends Day event held this past Saturday morning at “the Farm,” the College’s Agricultural Research and Education Center, in the beautiful new Farm Pavilion building. Current students got the opportunity to rub elbows with TSUAg alumni at the event, which, in keeping with the theme of the week, featured food, fun, and lots of laughs.
Ag Week 2024, for College of Agriculture Dean Dr. Chandra Reddy, was a week for TSUAg to turn its attention inwards, a time to focus on the vibrance of community at the College of Agriculture.
“We like to take a moment each year to celebrate who we are as an academic community,” says Dr. Reddy. “We think happy students are productive students, and as we begin what will be a difficult second half of the spring semester, I think it’s important to create an environment of joy around our community, and that’s what we tried to do with Ag Week 2024.”
