By Whitney Baxter
Seven global resource systems students completed internships this summer, while another will complete one this fall, all thanks to the Robert H. Maxwell International Service Learning Scholarship.
Career prep in the U.S. and across the world
The students traveled to Costa Rica, Ecuador, Germany, Ghana, Italy, Kenya and Mississippi to enhance their education and prepare for their future careers.
Soliana Janni, a senior in global resource systems and political science, interned with the El Terreno Cultural Exchange Center in Ecuador. Working alongside fellow interns and midwives in Guaranda county, they were tasked with legitimizing and strengthening ancestral midwifery while preserving their culture. They helped facilitate weekly workshops, raised funds and established dialectic strategies for building relationships with the county’s public health institution.
“My time in Ecuador taught me that some of the most meaningful learning happens outside of a classroom,” Janni said. “I came to Ecuador hoping to contribute, but I left feeling that I had learned just as much from the women and communities I worked alongside. The experience strengthened my appreciation for cultural preservation and community leadership.”
Lincoln Chan, a senior in global resource systems and wildlife and fisheries conservation and ecology, interned at Mississippi State University as a fieldwork technician. Working with a small team, Chan collected samples of black bear hair from study sites in the lower west Mississippi area. The hair was sent back to a lab for analysis to help researchers build a database to track the bears’ presence and population numbers.
Chan was interested in the opportunity to work in a different environment and learn more about the professional side of wildlife management and research.
“This experience, and the challenges, I faced have helped me build many skills that will serve me throughout my career, not just specifically in the academic/professional aspect, but also in personal growth,” Chan said.
For Julia Letsche, a senior in global resource systems and agricultural and rural policy studies, her internship with Self-Help International in Ghana, Africa, solidified her desire to pursue an international development career. She helped train teachers to establish baseline literacy levels for girls in an after-school reading program and formalize the structure of the levels of each girl for continued learning and progress.
“I fell in love with the work I was privileged to complete every single day. I also honed my passions in youth engagement, supporting women and girls, and education,” Letsche said. “This summer internship pushed me in ways I didn’t imagine possible but allowed me to learn so much about myself professionally and personally.”
Funding international learning opportunities
The Robert H. Maxwell International Service Learning Scholarship was established by David and Jane Acker “as a way to remember an amazing, ‘larger than life’ person and to encourage young people to get involved in development work in places like Africa,” David Acker said. Maxwell hired Acker to work on a project in Tanzania in 1980 and served as Acker’s mentor.
The scholarship is given to global resource systems students participating in an international internship or service learning experience. Since 2011, 64 students have benefited from the award, completing internships or service learning in 30 countries, said Shelley Taylor, director of the CALS Office for Global Engagement.
“This scholarship gave me the opportunity to participate in an experience that I may not otherwise have been able to pursue,” Janni said. “More than funding an internship, the scholarship allowed me to build relationships, learn from a community different from my own and gain practical experience that has shaped the direction of my current and future career.”
About Robert and Betty Maxwell
Robert “Bob” Maxwell (’50 farm operation, ’64 MS agricultural and life sciences education) grew up in Earlham, Iowa. After earning his Iowa State degrees, as well as a doctorate from Cornell University, he began a lifelong career of service, holding several leadership positions at West Virginia University, including dean of the College of Agriculture and Forestry. He also led many agricultural development projects in Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa. He was helping develop a college of agriculture in Mozambique, Africa, when he became ill and later passed away on Oct. 14, 1999.
Betty Maxwell, also an Iowa native, earned an English degree from the University of Minnesota. After she and Bob married in 1950, they settled on the Maxwell family farm near Earlham. Soon after, they and their young family embarked on the first of what would become many work-related trips to East Africa. After holding several librarian and administrative jobs amid the family’s travels, she spent 17 years as a program manager in Morgantown, West Virginia’s Gerontology Center. Like the Ackers, she, too, contributed to the Maxwell International Service Learning Scholarship in honor of her late husband. Betty Maxwell died Oct. 12, 2025.