WORLD FOOD PRIZE YOUTH INSTITUTE

PAGE LINKS:
Introduction
Timeline of Events
2008 Topic
Paper Guidelines
Presentation Guidelines

COMPLETE INFORMATION PACKET

INTRODUCTION

The World Food Prize Youth Institute provides a three-day all expenses-paid educational opportunity and forum for high school students. Our students interact with Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates and are exposed to an array of experts, facilities and organizations relating to food security. The Youth Institute also provides students with opportunities to consider careers in food, agriculture and natural resource disciplines.

The Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture has created the Texas A&M Youth Agriculture Symposium as an extension of the World Food Prize Youth Institute. Students from all over the state of Texas are invited to submit essays and participate in the event.

SCHOOLS:  Each participating high school selects a student who will write an essay addressing the topic determined for the year (to be released in April, 2008).  Schools are also asked to designate a faculty member who will chaperone the student at the symposium.

4-H PROGRAM:  County 4-H Programs can advertise to, or recruit, 4-H members that are interested in issues involving world agriculture and global situations.  Participants must be junior or senior school aged youth.  4-H members participating must have either a parent, or county Extension Agent accompany them to the Texas A&M Youth Agriculture Symposium. 

A select number of youth (depends on number of papers submitted) will be invited to the Texas A&M Youth Agriculture Symposium, which is to be held in College Station on Tuesday, June 10, 2008. The top three students will be invited to attend the World Food Prize Youth Institute. This includes a three-day trip to Des Moines, Iowa, where students will learn from such luminaries as Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Norman E. Borlaug and other World Food Prize Laureates for three days of dialogue, presentations and interaction. The symposium takes place on October 15-18, 2008.

Student and faculty teams prepare discussion papers, which are presented by the students during a day-long seminar before a panel of World Food Prize Council of Advisors and Laureates - individuals who are acknowledged leaders in a broad range of food and agricultural disciplines. The papers are published in the Youth Institute Proceedings. Discussion and interaction with fellow students and presentations by officials (such as Iowa Lieutenant Governor Sally Pederson) enhance the overall experience.

The Borlaug-Ruan International Internship is one of the most unique programs in America inspiring science education for high school students.

The Foundation stresses the uniqueness of this program from other study abroad internship programs in that the students participate in research projects with world-renowned researchers while getting a first-hand view of real and pressing food security issues and nutritional problems in poverty-stricken areas. The student becomes an integral part of the project spending time in the lab as well as days or weeks at a time in the field conducting research and gathering data. The goal of the Summer Internship Program is to inspire Iowa youths to pursue careers in food, agricultural and natural resource disciplines.

Paper specifications and other information can be found at the World Food Prize Youth Institute Web site: http://www.worldfoodprize.org/youth_institute/youthinstitute.htm

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TIMELINE

April, 2008	Topic is announced by the World Food Prize Youth Institute.
June 2, 2008	Paper (Microsoft Word format) and presentation (Microsoft Power Point format) submissions are due via e-mail to 4hevents@ag.tamu.edu.
June 10, 2008	Texas 4-H Roundup and Texas A&M Youth Agriculture Symposium take place in College Station, TX. As part of the symposium, students will give a brief 3 minute speech about their papers and answer questions from a panel of judges. The top three students are selected and invited to attend the World Food Prize Youth Institute in Des Moines, Iowa.
October, 2008	The World Food Prize Youth Institute takes place in Des Moines. Students are given the opportunity to interact with World Food Prize and Nobel laureates as well as other leaders in agriculture. Students present their papers once more to a faculty expert and a team of students. Students attend the presentation of the World Food Prize at the Capitol, take part in a hunger banquet and much more.
December 2008	Deadline for applications for the Borlaug-Ruan Internship
Summer of 2009	Borlaug-Ruan Interns participate in study abroad experience

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2008 TOPIC

The topic for 2008 is:
“Looking Ahead: The Changing Role of Agriculture in Development in the Next Fifty Years”

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PAPER GUIDELINES

Role of Teacher/Mentor/County Extension Agent:
The teacher/mentor/county Extension Agent should help the student to make sure that the paper meets all of the requirements. The student is responsible for writing the body of the paper, but the teacher is asked to work closely with the students on their papers. The student should write the paper from an outline so that the paper is clear and concise. In order to be eligible for submission to the World Food Prize Youth Institute, it must meet all of the content and quality standards.

PAPER FORMAT REQUIREMENTS – MUST BE FOLLOWED:

Papers must include:

• A cover page which identifies the paper title, name of student author(s) and high school
• A bibliography page of at least five sources, using the standards set by the Modern Language

Association (MLA) (Footnotes are not required for high school and undergraduate papers in the MLA format.)

• A body of approximately 4-5 pages in length with all* of the following components:

*(an introduction and conclusion, each of which must be at least one-half page)
*(word count of approximately 2200 to 3500 words, excluding cover and bibliography)
*(character count-no spaces, from 12,000 to 18,000 characters, excluding cover and bibliography).

Page format requirements are as follows:

• Set one-inch page margins (top, bottom, left, right)
• Use eleven-point (11) font, Times New Roman
• Single-space text
• Indent each new paragraph
• Double-space between paragraphs

RESOURCES: General research sources include scientific journals, web sites, reference books, interviews and organizations. We will be supplying you with specific examples.

Reference material to research: "World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development" that was published by The World Bank.  You can download the full text here and there are also links to some excellent policy briefs and background papers:
World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development

IFPRI also has a great pertinent report that you can download – Research Report No. 153
The Role of Agriculture in Development Implications for Sub-Saharan Africa
Xinshen Diao, Peter Hazell, Danielle Resnick, and James Thurlow
July 2007
The Role of Agriculture in Development

In addition, the Gates Foundation has useful resources:
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - Agriculture Development

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PRESENTATION GUIDELINES

Students are asked to present their papers to a panel of judges at the Texas A&M Youth Agriculture Symposium to be held in June10, 2008. The presentation should cover the main arguments from the paper. Students are allowed to use PowerPoint, but it is not required. Presentation can last up to three minutes. After the presentation, the judges will ask questions about the paper. The judging panel will be comprised of A&M faculty and staff who will ask tough questions. Teachers can help students prepare by thinking of questions and practicing the presentation with their class.

The presentation at the World Food Prize is very similar. Students are asked to give a three minute presentation to a faculty expert and team of students. PowerPoint will not be available at the symposium in Des Iowa.

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Page last updated: April 25, 2008