Seven from TSUAg Attend USDA NextGen Student Summit

Last month, seven USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture “NextGen” scholars attended a week-long USDA NextGen Student Summit in Washington, DC. The NextGen program, subtitled “From Learning to Leading: Cultivating the Next Generation of Diverse Food and Agriculture Professionals,” was created to empower and attract students to the field of Agriculture and trips like this one to our nation’s capital back that by showing students what agriculture careers can look like. This summit provided our students with an incredible opportunity to meet and engage with top USDA leaders, including Dr. Carlos Ortiz, National Program Leader at USDA, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and NIFA Director Dr. Manjit Misra, among others. The group had visits to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, the U.S. Botanic Garden and Conservatory, and participated in a professional development communications training session led by Valerie Clark, MPA.

Seven students from TSUAg attended the week-long USDA NextGen Student Summit in Washington, D.C. last month, visiting, among other places, the Smithsonian Institution.