Iowa Youth Institute
BECOME A STUDENT LEADER IN THE GLOBAL FIGHT AGAINST HUNGER!
Take part in the Iowa Youth Institute at Iowa State University on April 29, 2013.
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HOW TO PARTICIPATE
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At this exciting day-long event, participating high school students have the opportunity to:
- Present research and recommendations on how to solve key global challenges in a short speech and small group discussions with local experts;
- Connect with other students from across Iowa to share ideas, identify solutions to these problems and build lasting friendships;
- Interact with global leaders in science, industry and policy;
- Take part in educational sessions and interactive tours at Iowa State University to explore current research and issues in international development and life sciences; and
- Meet innovative researchers, professors and college students in Iowa working to end hunger and poverty and improve food security around the world.
Click here to see photos from the 2013 Iowa Youth Institute.
Click here to see photos from the 2012 Iowa Youth Institute.
Eighty exceptional students at the Iowa Youth Institute will be competitively selected to represent the state of Iowa as delegates at the Global Youth Institute, held in Des Moines on October 17-19, 2013. There, they will join over 250 other outstanding high school students and teachers from across the United States and around the world for an exciting three-day program to interact with Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates and the more than 1,000 global leaders from 75 countries attending the World Food Prize's annual international symposium.
By participating in the Global Youth Institute, students are eligible to apply for a prestigious Borlaug-Ruan International Internship or USDA Wallace-Carver Internship.
The Borlaug-Ruan International Internship is an all-expenses-paid, eight-week hands-on experience for high school students to work with world-renowned scientists and policymakers at leading research centers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Since 1998, over 180 Borlaug-Ruan Interns have traveled to Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Kenya, Peru, Philippines, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Turkey to get a firsthand view of pressing food security and nutritional problems in poverty-stricken areas and take part in ground-breaking research.
The Wallace-Carver Internship provides Global Youth Institute delegates a paid three-month research or policy placement at any USDA laboratory or field office, or at USDA headquarters in Washington D.C., once they enroll in college. In 2013, up to 125 Wallace-Carver Interns will be placed nationally in internships in economic and policy analysis; environmental and agricultural law and trade policy; rural development; nutrition and human health; conservation, forestry and natural resource management; biological and agricultural engineering; climate and atmospheric research; wildlife management; animal science and veterinary medicine; as well as soil, plant and crop sciences.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
To participate in the Iowa Youth Institute, students research a global issue and write a five-page paper under the supervision of a teacher mentor (using the downloadable guidelines above). Each Iowa high school may nominate multiple student delegates to participate. The school must register their nominees separately and submit each student's research paper online no later than April 1, 2013. Students in grades 9-11 are eligible to apply.
The 2013 paper topic is Ending Hunger in Our Lifetime: A Call to Action.
Papers will be evaluated by an expert committee (based on the evaluation rubric above).
Lunch and program expenses at the Iowa Youth Institute are provided by the World Food Prize Foundation and Iowa State University for participating student delegates and their teacher mentors. Both student and teacher participants must organize and fund their own transportation to and from the event at Iowa State University.
For more information on how to participate in the Iowa Youth Institute, contact the World Food Prize Director of Iowa Education Programs Catherine Swoboda at cswoboda@worldfoodprize.org or at (515) 245-3727.
Since 1994, over 1,000 Iowa high school students and 400 teachers from 200 high schools across the state have participated in the Global Youth Institute.
More than 140 Iowa high school students have traveled to Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East through the Borlaug-Ruan International Internship program to work alongside renowned scientists at leading research centers.
