Hello CALS,
I'm writing to you on the day I'll transition from the American Farm School (AFS) in Greece to the College of Design's campus in Rome. Both locations are significant study abroad destinations for our students, with important opportunities to expand partnership opportunities. AFS is one of the top two semester-long destinations for our students (the other top location being University College Dublin). It also hosts 5-10 summer study students from CALS each year (they were so excited to be there when I saw them this week), and there are terrific opportunities to develop further student and faculty exchanges. They have terrific capacities, and just this summer, there have been and will be visits here by David Acker (associate dean, global engagement), Sotirios Archontoulis (agronomy), Erica Beirman (FSHN), Lorraine Lanningham-Foster (FSHN), Carmen Bain (associate dean, academic innovation), Shelley Taylor (CALS global programs) and Kevin Duerfeld (horticulture); plus probably 50 students overall this calendar year. If you're interested to know more, just let me know!
In Rome for the 15th year, we'll have the Dean's Global Agriculture and Food Leadership Program, this year led by Carmen Bain, Shelley Taylor, Ebby Luvaga and Amani Elobeid. The program is intensive, with approximately 10 students each year who work on a problem identified by our collaborators at UNFAO. This year, the students have two projects - one related to the potential for developing alternative milk production from camels in drought-prone areas of East Africa, and the other about opportunities and barriers to using digital agriculture techniques in the developing world.
These are all truly fantastic and transformative activities for our students and the faculty and staff engaged.
For those of you on campus, today kicks off the first of many orientation days that will take place throughout June, welcoming new students who will join us in the fall. Please offer a friendly smile to these students and their families who will be on campus to register for classes and learn more about university life. If you encounter any lost visitors, please send them to 0004 Curtiss Hall where staff will help them find their destination. Questions related to orientation can be directed to Katy Heineman, katyh@iastate.edu or 294-6611.
My best for a great week! Dan
Scenes from CALS
Below are pictures from the American Farm School in Thessaloniki, Greece, which is one of our top study abroad destinations. The pictures also include the typical local places our students visit while here on semester-long or summer programs. The school (K-12, junior college and bachelor's and master's programs) has a broad view of agriculture and food, is a top school of its kind, and has many collaborative opportunities for CALS. The pictures include:
- views of the famous Mount Olympus (as seen from the campus, and which students hike to the top of),
- the palace and burial tomb of King Philip II (the father of Alexander the Great), and
- the rock formations and monasteries in Meteora.
