10/14/2009

Program Prepares Teens for Roles as Agriculture's Future Leaders

AUBURN, Ala.—An Auburn University College of Agriculture professor and an assistant professor in the College of Education who share concern for the future of U.S. agriculture have launched a leadership-development program designed to prepare outstanding high-school students who are enrolled in agricultural classes and involved in ag organizations to be the next generation of leaders in agricultural production, education and science and in agribusiness.

Don Mulvaney, animal scientist and leadership coordinator for the College of Ag, and Brian Parr, an agriscience education specialist, developed their project— MATRIX for the Future: Premier Agriscience Education Academy—in response to a growing shortage of secondary and post-secondary agricultural educators and declining enrollment numbers in agriculture at Auburn and at land-grant colleges nationwide.

“Our focus in this program is on helping high-school students who are in ag-related classes and groups now build their leadership skills and encouraging them to pursue college degrees in agriculture and be leaders in ensuring the future of American agriculture,” Mulvaney said.

In the two-year project, which is funded by a $100,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant, Mulvaney and Parr have partnered with the Collegiate Future Farmers of America chapter at Auburn to hold Premier Agriculture Leadership Workshops for FFA chapters throughout the state. Activities during the day-long workshops aim toward helping participants discover their leadership potential and learn skills that will help them reach it. The workshops will continue through February.

A highlight of the project will come in June 2010, when a group of rising high-school juniors and seniors will be selected to participate in the first Agricultural Leadership Education Academy on the Auburn University campus. The five-day academy will offer the students advanced leadership instruction, tours of research facilities and opportunities to network with faculty and current students as well as training in areas such as interviewing for jobs and preparing for college entrance exams.

Success of the MATRIX project should help secure funding to continue the program at the end of the second year. It also could lead to changes in Alabama’s high-school ag education curricula, Mulvaney said.

To learn more about the leadership workshops and the academy, go to www.ag.auburn.edu/goplaces/ and click on Future Student Events, or contact Mulvaney at 334-844-3200.

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Contact: Don Mulvaney, mulvadr@auburn.edu, 334-844-1514

Contact: Jamie Creamer, 334-844-2783, jcreamer@auburn.edu

OFFICE OF AG COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING
Auburn University College of Agriculture
Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station
3 COMER HALL, AUBURN UNIVERSITY
AUBURN, AL 36849
334-844-4877 (PHONE) 334-844-5892 (FAX)
AgComm@auburn.edu