Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences
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Table of Contents • Notables • Division of Agriculture Field Days • Animal Science student is Bodenhamer Fellow • Bees removed from Old Main tower, put to work at AAREC • Maxwell receives Animal Management Award • Terry Siebenmorgen receives food engineering award • ADA names Foote 'Outstanding Dietetics Educator' • Faculty members attend teaching camp • KC Kauffman Scholars visit Bumpers College
Vision Credits
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Belize team to receive Faculty-Student Collaboration Award The St. Matthew’s Sustainable Farm Project conducted by Bumpers College students and faculty sponsors will receive the 2007 Academic Convocation Faculty and Student Collaboration Award to be presented at Academic Convocation, Aug. 19, 4:00 p.m., at Bud Walton Arena. The project, which is continuing for up to five years, will receive a $1,000 grant. The project team, led by Nilda Burgos, CSES, and Jennie Popp, AEAB, included students Kerri Boling (AEAB), Misti Clark (AEAB), Heather Markway (CSES), Ashley Jones (AEAB), Evreda Rice (CSES), Laura Sossamon (AEAB), Mioko Tamura (CSES) and Lauren Webb (FDSC). The Bumpers team cleared land for a small pepper farm, planted the crop, arranged marketing and helped organize local people to follow through with growing and marketing the crop. The students also taught four science classes for standards three through five (5th through 7th grades). Each student paid $3, 600 plus UA tuition to cover transportation, lodging, weekend excursions and basic supplies. They spent May 31-June 15 in Belize. The university is committed to continuing the work for at least five years. The first summer went smoothly because of planning and the devotion of UA’s partners in Belize, Popp said. The goal is to help improve conditions in Belize’s economically depressed Stann Creek District. The project is a collaboration of UA and Peacework, a nonprofit international volunteer agency based in Blacksburg, Va., and headed by 1977 UA graduate Stephen Darr. +++ Details are provided in progress reports provided by Burgos and Popp and posted on the "Letters from Belize" Web page on the Bumpers College Global Studies Web site. The following are excerpts from the letters and an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article by Carolyne Park, which is also posted on the Web site. "The day we were all waiting for came on June 11th," Popp said. "That afternoon, UA students, St. Matthew’s faculty, PTA and members of the Pomona Women’s Group participated in the planting of the peppers. Roughly 250 peppers were planted that day. "Another 250 are scheduled to be planted June 26. Mrs. Anne McCoon, St. Matthew’s Principal, has organized school staff, PTA and members of the Women’s Group to oversee the garden. UA students developed a reward system (called Garden Bucks) that St. Matthew’s students can earn to assist in the garden." Belize’s rainy season started about a week after they arrived, and the weather shifted suddenly. “It was like a light switch had been turned off,” said Misti Clark, an agricultural business management and marketing major from Prairie Grove. The students and people from the community cleared stumps, roots and other vegetation and tilled the stubborn soil to build seven beds measuring about five feet by 110 feet, Popp said. Students installed a fence and built a catchment system to hold 400 gallons of rainwater for use in the garden. It took just two days for rain to fill the tank. The UA group planted about 250 pepper plants, of 490 total, and made arrangements for the school to sell the chilies when they are harvested this fall, Popp said. The school plans to expand the farm to raise other vegetables and possibly small animals. As many as 20 volunteers came to help daily from Ecumenical College in Dangriga, the local agriculture office, women’s groups and St. Matthews. “They’re really friendly,” Clark said. “All we had to do was ask, and the community was more than willing to help and give time and resources. They made the project.” Students from the elementary school also came out to help. They cleared dirt and debris, and boys used machetes to cut roots and logs, said Laura Sossamon, 20, a senior agriculture business major from Ozark. “That was really unexpected — how excited the kids were about the garden,” Sossamon said. “The first day we broke ground, there were probably 50 kids there with rakes. They worked and they worked hard. Every opportunity they had, they got in and helped.” In their off time, students went to the beach, snorkeled and scuba dived, visited the city of San Ignacio and toured Mayan ruins. On one trip, they walked and swam through a cave containing Mayan artifacts dating to 900 A. D. Burgos said the trip was a success. “We started something that we hope will flourish,” she said.
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