College of
Agriculture
Alumni Newsletter Articles written by USU Agricultural Communication Club
Fall/Winter 2012 Awards and Honors
Dr. Allen C. Christensen Receives Alumni Hall of Honor Award By Jamie Keyes
W
isdom, leadership and determination are only a few qualities that help individuals accomplish great goals. Allen C. Christensen has all of those qualities and more, making him a deserving recipient of the 2012 College of Agriculture Alumni Hall of Honor Award. Christensen graduated from Brigham Young University (BYU) with a bachelor’s degree in animal husbandry. He received a master’s degree in animal nutrition and chemistry from the University of California and earned a PhD in animal nutrition from Utah State University. Christensen has served in many highly esteemed positions. He was involved with the United States Agency for International Development and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. He was chairman of the Consortium for International Development and the project leader for the USDA/OICD Small Ruminant Production Short Course. He began his career in 1961 teaching vocational agriculture in Nevada. In 1964, he was offered a general agriculture teaching position at California State Polytechnic University (CSPU) as an assistant professor. For the next 30 years, Christensen served at CSPU in a variety of positions before becoming dean of the College of Agriculture for the last seven years of his career at the university. When Christensen retired from CSPU, he continued to stay busy. He served in a volunteer position in his church until he was selected to be the director of the Ezra
Taft Benson Agriculture and Food Institute at BYU in 2001. During his time at the Benson Institute, families all over the world benefited from the institute’s agriculture programs, which provided better nutrition in their countries. Christensen was later selected by President George W. Bush to be a part of the U.S. Presidential Board for International Food and Agriculture Development. He was an advocate for programs in water and agriculture and contributed to international programs in these areas at USU.
Of all Christensen’s international work, he is most widely known and respected for his successes in agriculture. He has brought honor to Utah State University, and the College of Agriculture is proud to name him as this year’s Alumni Hall of Honor recipient. If you are interested in nominating someone for the Hall of Honor, applications are available at ag.usu.edu/hallofhonor. Please have your nominations submitted by June 28, 2013! Questions? Contact Heidi Berg at 435-797-2205.
Left to right: Dean Cockett presenting Christensen with his award; Christensen on one of his many international trips.
1
Following the Aggies
NDFS and PSC Students Volunteer in Honduras By Rachel Kenley Fry
M
Clockwise from the top left: Spencer and Tiffany Maughan posing with local fruit; High tunnels Tiffany helped construct; Tiffany with a child from the orphanage; Spencer and Tiffany with another volunteer; Spencer with a child from the orphanage.
2
any college students spend their spring breaks taking advantage of the time off to have fun. Not Spencer and Tiffany Maughan. In March 2012, the couple spent their spring break volunteering in Honduras. Spencer is a senior majoring in nutrition science who hopes to go to medical school next fall. Tiffany is a plant science master’s degree student. Their service trip, sponsored by One Life at a Time, was uniquely tailored to their interests, as Spencer worked with doctors, and Tiffany worked on a school’s farm. “It was really awesome for us,” Spencer said, “because I got to do what I’m planning on doing, and Tiffany got to work in her area of expertise.” Spencer shadowed doctors as they did check-ups at an orphanage in San Pedro Sula. Many children had severe problems, Spencer said, including beriberi, pellagra and kwashiorkor, which are protein and vitamin deficiencies. Spencer explained that kwashiorkor causes children to look emaciated but have enlarged stomachs due to fluid retention. Pellagra causes the death of extremities. He also saw fungal infections, not because the people weren’t clean, but because of the humid tropical climate. Tiffany said this experience was very educational for Spencer. “He was able to be exposed to and see the things he had only heard about in his classes.”
Some children at the orphanage suffered from the effects of drastic, unnecessary surgeries. “The doctors there are not well trained,” Spencer said. “They’re doing the best with the education they have, but they don’t get the same type of training that American physicians do.” Doctors in Honduras complete a short apprenticeship right after high school, Spencer said. He reflected on the cost of health care in the United States, and said the expense is worth the superior health care U.S. citizens receive. Volunteers on the trip set up a clinic with donated materials that remained in Honduras for American doctors to use during future service visits. “It’s all donated equipment,” Tiffany said, “so it’s been used, but it’s still a thousand times nicer and newer than whatever they had in Honduras.” At the clinic, Spencer took on a managerial role. Patients needed a series of tests before they could see the doctor, so Spencer ensured everything was in order and done as efficiently as possible. He also offered support and comfort to people who had never seen a doctor or dentist before. “Anytime something is new like that, it’s scary,” Tiffany said. “A lot of people there just needed someone to talk to them and give them some attention.”
Tiffany’s volunteer work took place for the most part at a school. Spencer explained people in Honduras live in extreme poverty. They earn about a dollar a day, he said, but the prices of food and other goods are comparable to those in the United States. The school provides opportunities for adult students to learn marketable skills. The school recently acquired a donated farm, and they’ve started to produce vegetables on it. “The students at the school need a way to earn everything that they’re getting, because teachers are trying to teach them responsibility and skills,” Tiffany said. She explained that students are also required to fulfill a certain number of service hours, and these can be done on the new farm. Tiffany’s graduate research focuses on using high tunnels – unheated greenhouses which are sometimes called hoop houses. In the United States, high tunnels are generally used to extend the growing season. In Honduras, however, high tunnels are used to protect crops from the heavy rains in the area, which can wash away nutrients and oversaturate the land. With a crew made up of teenagers and the wives of doctors, Tiffany constructed three high tunnels at the school, and left materials for the students there to construct another.
3
College News
New Degrees Offered in Applied Economics Department
New Applied Economics degree programs include natural resource economics and international agribusiness which includes studies at the Royal Agricultural College in England.
By Sarah Hatch
T
Clockwise from top: Students’ work on display; Rendering of part of the new field studio; The Mitchell House, which was recently donated to the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning.
LAEP Department Plans Field Studio, Mitchell House By Aubrie Waldron
T
4
he Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning (LAEP) made progress toward its new Environmental Field Studio and acquired a new house for visiting dignitaries. Last spring, students in the LAEP program were charged with designing a general layout of the field studio, which could serve as an entry point and centerpiece of the USU Innovation Campus. Over the course of the summer, Phil Waite, field studio director, with the help of students Jessica Van Natter, Andrew Noorlander and Dallin Slater, implemented many of these ideas to complete a master plan for the site. USU cross country coach Gregg Gensel and the USU Athletics Department worked with LAEP to weave a modern cross country course into the field studio. Synching the two creates a trail for runners on the Aggies’ cross country team and the surrounding community. A memorandum of understanding was crafted and signed by Vice President for
Commercialization and Regional Development Robert Behunin. This enables the LAEP department to fully utilize the site as an outdoor classroom. “If you look at the whole master plan [for USU’s Innovation Campus], it called for a core park area and outdoor open space that students and faculty would be able to use,” said Sean Michael, LAEP department head. “So we’re pre-creating that segment of the master plan, and then the buildings and so on can be developed around it.” He added that the department has made changes in its curriculum so that all LAEP students will have a class at the field studio. “This will ensure that everyone gets to utilize it,” Michael said. “It is really critical to teach students with hands-on learning.” The LAEP department also recently acquired the Mitchell house. The house was previously occupied by the Western Rural Development Center. Two years
ago, the department requested a house with the intent of creating a place for visiting distinguished scholars. The department will use the house to accommodate visiting dignitaries in their profession. Located just off campus on 700 North St., the house is close enough for a visiting scholar to walk to campus to teach or do research, and have easy access to the recreation available in Logan Canyon. The vision for the house is to model examples of how to improve energy efficiency, create landscapes that others may look to for ideas and provide more hands-on learning opportunities. The Planting Design class is currently creating a master plan. Michael said, “It’s going to be a really great sort of nexus, like the field studio, among members of the community, practitioners and the students.”
he Applied Economics Department (APEC) teamed up with USU’s S.J. & Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources (CNR) this fall to create two new degrees. APEC’s focus has traditionally been on agribusiness and applied economics, but it now offers an undergraduate degree in environmental and natural resource economics. “A few years ago, we created a course that APEC students and many CNR students would take for an intro course into environmental and natural resources,” said new APEC Department Head Dillon Feuz. “With this new undergraduate degree, we hope to create a niche for students interested in both environment and natural resources as well as how they are impacting the economy, and we are very excited about where it will take not only the College of Agriculture, but APEC as well.” Some examples of the topics this new degree will focus on are public lands, water and national parks, and how they impact communities. The interactions between public access, recreation, mining and agriculture will also be studied. At the master’s degree level, APEC has a program jointly conducted with the Royal Agricultural College in England. This program allows students to study both at USU and in England, write their master’s thesis and then, if the student chooses, return to USU and receive a companion degree in international food and agribusiness. If students decide to stay in England, they will graduate with only the Royal Agricultural College degree. Feuz desires to have the currently offered undergraduate programs reviewed and broken down by the undergraduate committee in order to ensure students are learning everything they need to be taught in each course. “This will really help the faculty understand what it is we need to do in order to make sure our students are getting the very best out of their education here at USU,” Feuz said.
5
College News
Utah State’s School of Veterinary Medicine’s inaugural class.
Introducing the School of Veterinary Medicine By McCarty Hatfield
T
his fall, the College of Agriculture proudly welcomed students in the first School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) in Utah. The Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences partnered with Washington State University’s (WSU) College of Veterinary Medicine to bring the degree of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) to Utah State University. The first class of DVM students arrived in August. The class is comprised of 30 students: 21 Utah residents and 9 non-residents. DVM students will spend their first two years of training at USU and the remaining two years at WSU in Pullman, Washington.
Jenny Bunnell, an incoming DVM student from Provo, Utah, said, “I am excited for the opportunity to fulfill my lifelong dream of being a veterinarian. The timing was perfect to apply to Utah’s first vet program, keeping me closer to home.” Many students like Bunnell expressed excitement and said they are honored to be part of the inaugural vet med class at USU. Students’ goals range from becoming large animal veterinarians in rural areas to caring for large exotic animals in zoos or game reserves. For most students, it is a dream they have had for a long time. Danielle Rowen, a DVM student from
Las Vegas, Nev., said, “I’ve wanted to be a vet since I was two years old. I’ve been working to get here for 20 years with volunteering, studying on weekend nights and working on top of that. The fact that I’ve finally made it here is unreal.” Several students share Rowen’s lifelong dream of becoming a veterinarian and say they are finally achieving their goal. For more information about the Regional Program in Veterinary Medicine, visit www.vetmed.usu.edu.
Aviation Program Purchases New Flight Simulator By Dawn Otterby
U
6
tah State University (USU) aviation students will soon be landing at airports around the world without leaving campus. The brand new Paradigm CRJ 700 flight simulator will make it possible. The new CRJ 700 was purchased to replace the 10-year-old Advanced Simulation Training Regional Jet. The old simulator broke last March, said Lawrence Hemingway, acting director of aviation technology at USU. The aviation department considered repairing the out-ofdate simulator but ultimately decided purchasing a new simulator would be more cost effective and beneficial to the students. “The simulator is key in training,” said Assistant Chief Flight Instructor and Safety Officer Aaron Dyches. “It gives [students] real world environments without putting them at risk.”
Other universities and some commercial airlines use the CRJ 700 to train and prepare their pilots for real world situations. Because the CRJ 700 is used by commercial airlines, USU students will have a competitive edge in the market, Hemingway said. According to Dyches, the new simulator is upgradeable and expected to be fully functional for well over 10 years. He went on to say Paradigm is a very stable company with great customer service. The new simulator will be housed on USU’s main campus in the Industrial Science building. Aviation students begin using the simulator during their junior year and are required to log a certain number of hours before graduating. College of Agriculture Dean Noelle Cockett, and Agricultural Systems Technology and Education Department
The Paradigm CRJ 700 flight simulator will allow for students to transition into an actual cockpit like the one shown below.
Head Bruce Miller were instrumental in purchasing the new simulator, Hemingway said. Although the CRJ 700 wasn’t cheap, it was a small price to pay to ensure the safety of students and provide them with first-rate training, Dyches said. USU has a great safety record, and Dyches believes the CRJ 700 is necessary to maintain that record.
Raising the
[BAR]N College of Ag Week 2012 and the Utah Agricultural Products BBQ at USU
4800 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT 84322 – 4800
Utah State University is an affirmative action / equal opportunity employer.
action/ equal opportunity employer
College News
Changes for the College of Agriculture Dear All,
on October 2, 2012, USU President Stan Albrecht announced to the campus community that Executive Vice President and Provost Raymond Coward will be stepping down on July 1, 2013 and that I will be moving into the executive vice president/provost position. While this new assignment provides me with another opportunity to serve the University, it was with sadness that I accepted, as I love being the Dean of the College of Agriculture! I will greatly miss providing leadership for the college. In fact, words cannot convey how honored I have been to serve you all in this capacity for the last ten years. You have my commitment to continue to support all that makes our college the very best at USU. We will be establishing a national search for the new dean and expect to have someone in place by July 1 or shortly after. I believe the trajectory of the College of Agriculture is incredibly strong. Over
the last decade, the college has expanded through the addition of departments and programs. As of October 2012, we now include two schools, six departments, 346 faculty and staff members and over 2,000 students in 66 undergraduate and graduate programs. This expansion has allowed us to diversify the research, education and outreach programs we offer while providing extended opportunities for students. Because of the continued advancement of the college, is important that we fully communicate what the college offers to its constituents, including current and future students. Therefore, we have started a process that will result in a name change for the College of Agriculture. Although the decision has not been finalized, we anticipate a name that will allow us to more fully communicate the diversity found within our college while remaining true to our legacy of excellence in agriculture. The new name will be announced at a special event on April 9,
2013 at the USU Kent Concert Hall. Although there will be many changes for the College of Agriculture in the coming year, I am confident that our trajectory of excellence will continue.
8 Newsletter prepared by: USU Agricultural Communication Club, acc@aggiemail.usu.edu