SALISBURY – Two students from Parkside High School’s Department of Career and Technology Education will represent Maryland at an international symposium later this month in Des Moines, Iowa.
Parkside seniors Logan Dennis and Layla Renshaw will join 200 students from 30 other states and territories and seven other countries for the Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium, Oct. 12-14.
The two students were selected as Borlaug Scholars based on their research conducted within the CTE Horticulture Management Program.
Both ladies will get the opportunity to discuss their findings with global experts and other students at the symposium and will also have the opportunity to meet with Nobel and World Food Prize Laureates.
Discussions and events at the symposium will address varying issues of food security and its possible solutions.
“Our students have shown that they are among the best in the world when it comes to research, and we’re delighted that they have given themselves this opportunity to learn from top people in the field and to network with business, government and student leaders from around the world,” horticultural instructor Jerry Kelley says in a press release.
Dennis’s paper discussed sanitation solutions in Namibia, while Renshaw researched nutrition realities and solutions in Ethiopia.
At the conclusion of the symposium, students and teachers will attend the World Food Prize Laureate Award Ceremony, where they will get an opportunity to see an individual be awarded the Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture, according to the organization.
Dennis also joined Parkside senior Brittany Briddell at a Junior Minorities in Agriculture Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS) state convention last month at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, where both ladies represented Wicomico County and its surrounding regions.
The MANRRS program, in conjunction with the UMES School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences and Bayer’s Crop Science division, selected 16 ambassadors to represent the state at its third annual convention Sept. 23-25.
The remaining 14 students came from the Western Shore of Maryland.
While at the event, Dennis and Briddell had the opportunity to meet with peers and professionals and partake in agricultural workshops.
These ladies will join the UMES MANRRS members and Bayer employees on a tour of the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. this month.
While there, Dennis and Briddell will have the opportunity to network and learn within the agricultural field.
The pair will also participate in the Junior MANRRS National Essay Contest and the World Food Prize – Maryland Youth Institute in upcoming months.
All three ladies are students of Parkside’s CTE Horticulture Management Program, which has produced many success stories in recent years.
Dennis, Renshaw, and Briddell are among the eight students and graduates listed for their achievements within the program and the horticulture community.
Others were recognized for receiving competitive internships, breaking world records, and delivering presentations to top government officials.
Since the Junior MANRRS convention last month, the program can now recognize two more individuals from the program.
Kelley received the Junior MANRRS Advisor of the Year Award, and former student and UMES student Omariah Estrada received a $1,000 scholarship from the program.
