Agriculture Future of America has selected 25 Ambassadors to serve for the organization’s 2021 fiscal year. These students represent 25 schools from 21 states. During their year of service, these students will interact with agribusiness leaders, campus faculty and fellow students as they represent AFA.
“AFA has always valued students as leaders,” said Mark Stewart, AFA president and CEO. “These 25 AFA Ambassadors have been selected to represent our organization on their campuses, in their regions and nationally as we work to build bridges to foster engagement and innovation in food and agriculture. This highly competitive group was chosen because of their passion and commitment to agriculture and AFA.”
The AFA Ambassadors set goals to increase awareness of AFA programs on their campuses and in their regions and work to establish creative strategies to accomplish those goals. Ambassadors will also interact with industry professionals at various events and meetings on behalf of AFA. The health of AFA’s relationship with a college campus relies heavily on the work of our Ambassadors.
“As AFA’s director of collegiate relations, one of my main objectives is to diversify our student participation in our programs so that our group of students represents the enrollment in agriculture programs throughout the United States,” said Ashley Collins. “When we have a strong Ambassador on a college campus, we see strong applications and participation from that campus. I’m excited to be able to work alongside this group of Ambassadors as we work to reach more students on more campuses.”
On average, 66% of the applicants to AFA’s leader development programs come from a school where AFA has an active Ambassador.
The Ambassador’s first meeting will be in April. This will be a joint meeting with the AFA Student Advisory Team and will include team building, inclusivity training and planning for their year of service. AFA’s student leadership program has been made possible through strategic partnership with the CHS Foundation.
2020-21 AFA Ambassadors from our readership area are as follows: Kendra Betz, Missouri State University; Erin Chalupa, Iowa State University; Landry Cunningham, Texas A&M University; Morgan Duenke, Northwest Missouri State University; Claire Sheppard, Oklahoma State University; Nicole Stafford, Kansas State University; Caleb Swears, University of Arkansas; Cara Teigum, South Dakota State University; and Haylee Young, Texas Tech University.