N.C. A&T celebrated 134 years of legacy and leadership as a land-grant institution while also recognizing its contributions to the present during Agriculture Awareness Weekend, an inaugural event held Oct. 24-25 in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, one of the university’s founding colleges.
Events included a student career awareness day, an alumni networking tailgate event and a farm-to-table dinner at the University Farm.
Congresswoman Adams shares a joke with Alston Thompson, Ph.D., head of the Association of Research Directors/Ag Innovation, who wore a hat in her honor. At right is Interim Dean Radiah Minor.
Congresswoman Alma Adams (D-12) served as keynote speaker for the dinner, which honored the 135th anniversary of the Second Morrill Act of 1890, the landmark legislation that established N.C. A&T and 18 other Historically Black Colleges and Universities. N.C. A&T, which opened in 1891, was the second institution in the nation established under the Second Morrill Act.
“The founders of our institution understood something very powerful, that the path to freedom and self-determination runs through education,” said Adams, a two-time graduate of N.C. A&T, to a crowd of nearly 200 lawmakers, alumni, University trustees and college faculty. “When they were locked out of opportunity, they made up their own doors, and through the Second Morrill Act of 1890, they ensured that African Americans in North Carolina would have a land-grant university of our own.
“Tonight, you are sitting in history. Every brick, every classroom, every success story on this campus is a testament to their vision and to our resilience as a people.”
The event was held at A&T’s 492 acre University Farm, its largest classroom and largest laboratory, and featured a locally-sourced, North Carolina farm-grown menu. Attendees also watched “The Second Morrill Act: 135 Years Later,”a short film celebrating N.C. A&T and the vision of Sen. Justin Morrill, an abolitionist from Vermont whose landmark 1890 legislation opened university doors to people of all people for the study of agriculture and the mechanical arts.
Today, N.C. A&T is the nation’s largest Historically Black College and University, with more than 15,000 students, and leads the nation in graduating Black engineering and agricultural scientists.
“Agriculture is North Carolina’s top industry and a $111 billion economic engine for the state,” Chancellor James R. Martin told the crowd. “Agriculture has expanded in its use from the beginnings of growing food and supporting humanity, but now clothing, furniture, medicine – all of that is part of agriculture. It’s only fitting that a celebration of the Second Morrill Act is also a celebration of the “A” in N.C. A&T.”
Students from across campus also had the opportunity to learn about the jobs that exist with some of agriculture’s top employers at Ag Career Awareness Day, held in the Deese Ballroom.
Students handed out resumes and discussed summer internship and employment opportunities with Syngenta, Corteva, AppleOne and other businesses.
“Mechanical engineering is related to agriculture, and lot of the companies here do stuff with mechanical engineering,” said Travis Rivers, a sophomore in the College of Engineering. “I wanted to learn about careers outside my major as well.”
Alumni, friends and fans gathered the next day to cheer the Aggies on to a 28-24 football victory over the Campbell Camels and enjoy barbecue, fried fish and fellowship outside Truist Stadium at an Ag Day tailgate, the college’s third such event.
“Here, we found our voices to become proud graduates, problem solvers, stewards of the principles of agriculture with the discipline and technical precision of engineering,” Velma Speight, Ph.D., a former chair of the N.C A&T Board of Trustees and graduate of the college, told dinner attendees.
“I came to this university as a student, and I left it as a congresswoman,” Rep. Adams told the dinner crowd as she led them in a celebratory toast. “HBCUs are not partisan, they’re patriotic. This is a university that believes in its people.”
N.C. A&T will celebrate the 135th anniversary of the Second Morrill Act all year. Check the Morrill Act web page for events.
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