USU Professor Attends Exclusive Food Security Conference

Michelle Burrows, assistant professor of agricultural science education at Utah State University, recently attended a leading global agricultural and food security event as part of a select group of educators.

The Global Guides Program chooses just 25 educators from across the globe to send to the Norman E. Borlaug International Dialogue, the premier international agriculture and food security conference. This event gave Burrows the opportunity to interact with scientists, policymakers and hunger fighters from around the world.

“All these scientists and world leaders were so excited about connecting with the educators in the Global Guides Program,” Burrows said. “They see us as having the opportunity to make a difference when it comes to complex issues like food security because we can impact so many individuals. They all had teachers who were instrumental in helping them follow their passions.”

Participants of the Global Guides Program prepared for the Borlaug dialogue with 40 hours of immersive programming, discussing topics such as building students’ global competency, effective teaching techniques, and how educators can make a difference addressing issues related to food insecurity.

The Global Guides Program is hosted by the World Prize Foundation and the Global Teach Ag Network.

Burrows plans to take what she learned from this program and design a USU general education course that will help students connect with global issues like food insecurity.

“I think it's really important that students understand how all of these big, complex, global issues that we hear about are very interconnected and directly affect students in their everyday lives,” Burrows said.

The agricultural education degree program in USU’s College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences prepares students to become teachers in secondary schools and within community organizations in a range of subject areas, including plant, animal and natural resource sciences, agribusiness, agricultural mechanization, and agricultural economics.

“Agriscience educators are teaching the next generation of decision-makers, whether they be consumers, scientists, politicians, agriculturalists or even parents,” Burrows said. “If we can start introducing issues like global food security to our students when they're in high school, it's going to provide opportunities for students to explore the world beyond themselves. They're hopefully going to be interested in these issues and pursue education or career paths that are going to help us address them.”

Click here to learn more about the agricultural education degree program at Utah State University.