Atlantic FFA Advisor Eric Miller reports, that on Monday, April 26th and Tuesday April 27th, Atlantic FFA members Malena Woodward and Bryan York participated in the 10th annual Virtual Iowa Youth Institute (IYI) hosted by the World Food Prize Foundation. Woodward and York were part of the 264 students and 110 teachers from 93 Iowa high schools. This virtual, 2 day-long event was the first of its kind for the IYI supported by over 90 experts from across Iowa.

Each year, the World Food Prize Youth Institutes convene high school students, teachers and experts to explore and solve local, national and global hunger and food security issues. In order to be a part of the Iowa Youth Institute, students research and write a paper on a global challenge related to hunger and food insecurity. Currently, 25 states, the Netherlands and Honduras host Youth Institutes, where students can be selected to serve as delegates at the Global Youth Institute as part of October’s Borlaug International Dialogue.

Woodward’s paper was on the malnutrition problem occurring in Guatemala. Woodward said, “I had fun researching and learning more information about Guatemala. After learning that over half of their population is malnourished I feel it is important to educate the local population on nutrition and producing their own food.” York’s paper focused on Sustainable Agriculture in Tanzania and how this affects the food insecurity problem. “I was interested in soil health and Sustainability overseas. After Doing a bit of research, I decided to write my paper about Tanzania, a country who has been on the raise in recent years, but has had trouble with its malnutrition and infrastructure.” York stated, “I found, in my research, that Tanzania can produce almost 95 percent of its own food. But, many Tanzanians have trouble accessing this food inside its borders.”

Malena Woodward

Bryan York (Photos submitted)

The day began with remarks from Kelsey Tyrell, Organizer for the Iowa Youth Institute and Wendy Wintersteen, President of Iowa State University. The keynote address was provided by Kim Reynolds, Governor of Iowa. Once the opening session was complete Woodward and York began Roundtable Discussions. Students presented their research in a roundtable fashion to ISU faculty and industry professionals by using Zoom Meetings. Students were also supportive of their peers and asked questions to provide a diverse array of perspectives to the discussion. During the afternoon session students and teachers participated in virtual Immersion Discussions with World Food Prize Partners.

At the end of the second day, Woodward and York were declared Bourlag Scholars and awarded a $1,000 scholarship to Iowa State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Both Woodward and York are going to be Seniors next year and have the opportunity to participate again. When talking about her experiences Woodward said, “I really enjoyed the presentation. 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.”

This one-day event is offered at no cost to teachers or students. More details are available at www.worldfoodprize.org/iowayouth.