April 24, 2012
AMES, Iowa — More than 130 Iowa high school students will visit Iowa State University April 30 to learn more about world hunger as part of the first World Food Prize Iowa Youth Institute.
"We are grateful that Iowa State University has partnered with the World Food Prize to create this unique opportunity for Iowa high school students," said Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation. "We want to inspire young minds to think globally, and get students interested early on in the incredibly critical areas of food security, science, agriculture and humanitarian outreach."
Youth selected to participate prepared a paper on an important issue related to feeding the world's population. While at ISU they will present their papers to a panel of experts and receive feedback on their work, and the top students will be invited to participate in the World Food Prize Global Youth Institute in October.
The students will hear keynote speakers from Iowa who are leading the fight against hunger on a global scale, and will tour Iowa State facilities and meet faculty engaged in combatting world hunger.
"The World Food Prize Iowa Youth Institute represents an incredible opportunity for Iowa high school students to make a personal commitment to solving world hunger problems by pursuing careers in science," said David Acker, associate dean for academic and global programs at Iowa State's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the lead unit on campus which is organizing the event with assistance from ISU Extension.
"ISU is proud to have been a partner with the World Food Prize for more than 20 years and is tremendously excited to host this new World Food Prize youth program," Acker said.
The Iowa Youth Institute was made possible by a gift from Paul and Claudia Schickler to the World Food Prize and through funds from Iowa State University.
A schedule of the day and details for press are available at: http://www.worldfoodprize.org/iyipress. More information is available at: http://www.worldfoodprize.org/en/youth_programs/global_youth_institute/….