Penny Fang, a 2004 graduate of Ames High School, was awarded the Roberta Ahmanson Intern Award during the 2005 World Food Prize Laureate Ceremony on October 13, 2005 at the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines.
Fang, now in her second year at Harvard University studying Neurobiology, was recognized for her outstanding work as a 2004 World Food Prize Borlaug-Ruan International Intern. She completed her internship at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, Philippines. In her eight-week internship at IRRI, Fang worked on a 2-part laboratory project dealing with drought-resistance in rice plants. She also volunteered each week as a teacher at a Children’s Feeding Center and assisted IRRI physicians during several of their Outreach Medical Missions.
Fang was selected as a Borlaug-Ruan International Intern after completing the World Food Prize Youth Institute in October of 2003. The Youth Institute, a prerequisite for International Internship eligibility, exposes young Iowans to opportunities associated with careers in food, agriculture and natural resource disciplines. Youth Institute participants interact with World Food Prize Laureates and Nobel Prize Laureate Dr. Norman Borlaug to discuss issues relating to food security throughout the world.
The Ahmanson Intern Award was created in 2001 and is named in honor of former teacher and journalist Robert Green Ahmanson, for her generous endowment of the World Food Prize International Internship Program and Youth Institute.
Fang received her award prior to the awarding of the 2005 World Food Prize to Dr. Modadugu Gupta of India. The event was televised live on Iowa Public Television beginning at 7:00 p.m. on Oct. 13. Dr. Gupta has enhanced the availability of food for more than one million people, mostly very poor women, through the expansion of freshwater aquaculture—fish farming—in South and Southeast Asia and Africa.
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Borlaug-Ruan Internship