Atlantic FFA Advisor Eric Miller reports club FFA member Malena Woodward presented a paper virtually to the Global Youth Institute on Tuesday, October 13th. Woodward’s paper was on malnutrition in Puerto Rico and provided several options to help solve this issue that affects 1.5 million Puerto Rican’s every year. Malena’s solutions included additional education for school age students with an emphasis on growing food on the island. Puerto Rico imports 85% of the food they need every year.

Malena Woodward (Photo submitted)

Malena said, “I really enjoyed the presentations, I thought it was interesting hearing the ideas of other students and experts trying to solve world hunger as well as hearing their input and giving me more ideas about my topic “. In addition to this experience Malena earned 2 scholarships for Iowa State University. The first was for $500 for participating in the Iowa Youth Institute in April and the second was for $2,000 for participating in the Global Youth Institute this week.

Malena had 8 other students in her roundtable discussion from 5 different states and 1 student from China. Each of these individuals had presentations on Water & Sanitation issues in Ireland, Infectious Disease in Burundi, Sustainable Agriculture in Guatemala, the Education Gap in El Salvador, Climate Volatility in Bangladesh, War and Conflict in Yemen, Policy and Governmental Conflict in Zimbabwe and Water Scarcity in Uganda.

Not only did Malena present to a group of students, she spoke to and was given feedback from 3 distinguished experts in a variety of different fields. Dr. Ruth MacDonald Iowa State University Professor and Chair, Food Science and Human Nutrition. Dr. Glenn Gregorio Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA)Director and Mr. Stan Carlson Former Canadian diplomat and United Nations Official.

On Friday the Global Youth Institute wrapped up with a keynote address by His Majesty King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein of Jordan and a round table discussion with all of the student participants and more than a dozen government officials CEO’s of nonprofit organizations and Fortune 500 business leaders from all over the world.

ABOUT THE WORLD FOOD PRIZE: The World Food Prize is the foremost international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world. The Prize was founded in 1986 by Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, recipient of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. Since then, the World Food Prize has honored 50 outstanding individuals who have made vital contributions throughout the world. The World Food Prize annually hosts the Borlaug Dialogue international symposium and a variety of youth education programs to help further the discussion on cutting-edge global food security issues and inspire the next generation to end hunger.