More than 100 undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D. students "went the extra mile" this summer with trips abroad, internships with John Deere, and graduate study research. They shared it all with faculty, staff and friends during the 15th annual CAES Student Showcase of Excellence, held on Sept. 2 at the N.C. A&T University Farm Pavilion.
“Julius Caesar once said, ‘Experience is the teacher of all things,’ ” Associate Dean of Academics Antoine Alston, Ph.D. told the students and faculty. “What’s going to make your resume stand out is these internships, this experiential learning, these research experiments. You’re going the extra mile compared to your friends.”
Students from four collegiate departments lined the Pavilion's halls with their poster displays offering photographic glimpses and summaries of their weeks-long experiences.
Araceli Scott, a fashion merchandising and design major, discussed her study abroad experience taking marketing and fashion classes at visual arts school LCI Barcelona in Spain.
“It was a 100 out of 10 experience,” said Scott. “My family is from Panama, so learning Spanish was one part of why I went, and their fashion is on a whole other level.”
Logan Wilson, an agribusiness and food energy management major, interned at John Deere’s sales and marketing division in Raleigh.
“I had the opportunity to cross-function with a lot of teams within the company and had the ability to launch specific equipment in Europe, which was pretty big for me,” said Wilson. “I received the internship through MANRRS (Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences), so getting to network with different MANRRS representatives and seeing them show up in John Deere meant a lot to me and my success at the internship.”
Animal science student Jordyn Jones interned with VAW Global Health Alliances’ Veterinary Outreach program in Peru.
“This was A&T’s inaugural group with VAW. We spent two weeks in South America, where we worked with farm animals and exotic pets as part of the internship,” said Jones. “This was my first time abroad outside the country, and it was a wonderful experience that I would do again.”
Digital agriculture research assistant Edmond Kwekutsu spent his summer studying how efficient AI and robotic drones are in eliminating pigweed in soybean fields.
“It’s a new area that we’ve been exploring with a lot of difficulties, but so far we’ve been able to overcome them and achieve our results and apply the model onto the drones,” said Kwekutsu.
In the closing ceremony, poster presentations for undergrad and graduate students were awarded in each category: animal science majors Jared Vanhook and Ethan Humphree won for best internship and study abroad, while laboratory animal science major Alana Pouncy won best undergraduate research presentation. Natural resources and environmental design major Daniel Tetteh won best graduate research presentation.
