The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/college_of_agriculture_and_life_sciences/)
During a seminar on Wednesday, Sept. 6., Tom Vilsack, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, spoke to Cornell on farmers’ current struggles and how governmental programs may help them.
With nine undergraduate colleges and nearly 80 majors, internally transferring can help students find the best academic fit within the University.
Chobani has committed to supporting agricultural development at Cornell, dedicating $500,000 to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and allowing students to benefit from the Chobani Scholarship Program over the next five years.
Since 2018, the program has created opportunities for a number of students in CALS pursuing a career in dairy. This January, Chobani announced that it will broaden its entire program by one million dollars and will expand its eligibility criteria to include a wider variety of agricultural interests.
In the past, this scholarship has provided CALS students interested in dairy with life changing opportunities. Libby Swatling ’24, a scholarship recipient, is an animal science major with a focus in dairy management. Before finding the Chobani program, she reported experiencing difficulty finding a scholarship that would support her aspirations to work in dairy agriculture. Unlike some students pursuing work in the dairy industry, Swatling does not come from a farming background.
“I don’t qualify for a lot of scholarships, and the agriculture focused ones usually require the applicant to be from a farm or be involved in their local [Future Farmers of America] Chapter,” said Swatling.
Robert “Bob” Parker, a beloved professor in the College of Human Ecology, Division of Nutritional Sciences, passed away in Nov. During his 38 years in DNS prior to his retirement in 2018, he earned tenure, full professorship and was an integral member of the DNS administration. Parker served as Director of Undergraduate Studies and Curriculum Committee Chair, where he helped shape the undergraduate program and led the development of two critical majors. He taught courses in Nutrition and Food Science and mentored countless undergraduate and graduate students, including myself. Over the five years Parker mentored me, he taught me so much more than just science; he instilled in me the love of learning that was so prominent in his own life.
One of the benefits that is supposed to come from attending an Ivy League university is a vast network of resources. Cornell students are ostensibly privileged with all the guidance and mentorship they can ask for, all at the tip of their fingertips. For the most part, this is true. If we truly need help with a particular problem, we can almost always seek it out. And at the core of this support network is the advising system.
Following the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic, many on-campus organizations, programs and facilities were forced to close their doors. Cornell’s student-run organic farm, Dilmun Hill, was among these many organizations heavily impacted. Each year, four to five student managers are hired to prepare for the planting season in early spring. They stay through the summer and fall to grow, harvest and distribute food produced on the 12-acre farm plot near the Cornell Orchards on Route 366. Unfortunately this year, because of the sudden undergraduate hiring freeze and other newly-introduced COVID-19 restrictions, Dilmun Hill stayed silent for many of the normally hectic growing months.
Prof. Kathryn Boor ’80, food science, the current dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, will serve as the Graduate School dean and vice provost for graduate education, Provost Michael Kotlikoff announced on Monday afternoon.
Collaboration between the Frank Lab and the Ithaca Children’s Garden creates a do-it-yourself gardening program for local kids in quarantine.
CURB aims to promote undergraduate research on campus, and the fall forum is one platform that allows students to do so. The event was organized by the symposium committee and encourages research from a diverse array of disciplines including biological sciences, engineering and applied science and social sciences.
Although the initiative began with faculty collaboration, professors hope to inspire their students with a similar drive to solve one of the most pressing global problems of the next century.