Spring 2010 - College of Agriculture - Montana State University

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StudentsAGED students organize State FFA ConventionIn late March, over 1,000 FFA members attendedthe 2010 State FFA Convention on the MSU campus.The event was organized and hosted by students in theAGED class, “Agricultural Youth Event Management.”“We give the students some rope and let them run theevent,” said ag education professor Marty Frick. “Weare still there to support them, but the students do thelion’s share of the work.”The seminar class was established in 1998 for studentswho wanted to get academic credit for organizing the convention.Students plan all aspects of the event including therecruitment of over 100 judges, managing contests, compilingcontest results and acquiring the appropriate materials.About half of ag education students plan to becomehigh school agriculture teachers, while the other half goon to work as extension agents, according to Frick. Ineither career, they will likely put on events similar tothe State FFA Convention.Each student in the class is assigned one event tomanage. The head chair of the event is elected by theCollegiate FFA organization.“The students practice leadership, organization andcommunication,” said Frick. These are important skillsregardless of the career students choose.”MSU students score in top five on range management testAn MSU student and the MSU teamfinished in the top five at the 2010 UndergraduateRange Management Examin Denver.Out of 209 students from 24 universities,Kailee Bickford of Havre, a seniorMSU students at the Undergraduate RangeManagement Exam in Denver. Photo courtesy ofBret Olson.6FFA convention. Photo by Kelly Gorham.in natural resources and rangeland ecology,tied for third place in the individualcategory. She and a student from theUniversity of Wyoming each earned 220points. The first- and second-place winnerscame from Brigham Young Universityand Colorado StateUniversity, respectively.MSU’s team tied forfourth with Texas A & MUniversity. Each earned579 points. The top threeteams came from BrighamYoung University, theUniversity of Wyomingand the University ofAlberta, respectively.MSU students who tookthe undergraduate exam,in addition to Bickford,were Daniel Pratt of MilesCity, Daisy Garverich ofButte, Lynne Buckles ofWyola, Schaun Lingohr of Malta, JenniferEsp of Big Timber, Elizabeth Smithof Glen, Ben Lynn of Clyde Park, LindsayWilsey of Big Timber, Tara Turnbullof Brockton, Brandon Hartz of GallatinGateway and Jordan Rice of SanFrancisco. Ten team members major innatural resources and rangeland ecology,and two major in animal science.Merrita Fraker-Marble, MSU’s coachand a research associate in the Departmentof Animal and Range Sciences,said the two-hour test covered rangeecology, grazing management, range improvements,range regions, range inventoryand analysis, and multiple use. Thestudents also solved problems in grazingmanagement, range improvements, andrange inventory and analysis.In addition to completing the test,Pratt was elected to a one-year term asStudent Conclave President. His termbegan in February.
New MSU President connected to agAgriculture is recognized as an importantfocus of land-grant universities likeMontana State University. To emphasizethis importance, MSU President WadedCruzado is planning to visit the MontanaAgricultural Experiment Station’s(MAES) seven research centers acrossthe state in the not-too-distant future.Cruzado, MSU’s 12 th president, saysthe College of Agriculture and MAESare especially important to the peopleof Montana.“Our agricultural teaching, researchand outreach programs are focused onmeeting the changing needs of Montanans,”Cruzado said. “These programsprovide important knowledge and technologicalsolutions. They improve thequality of life of thousands of citizensacross the state.”Land-grant universities date back tothe middle of the Civil War, when thecountry’s leaders decided to create ahigher education system. The MorrillAct—named after Vermont CongressmanJustin Morrill—was signed intolaw in 1862 by President AbrahamLincoln. The Act allowed revenue fromthe sale of federal lands to be used forthe establishment of universities acrossthe nation.Cruzado has a strong history withland-grant institutions.Prior to coming to MSU, Cruzadowas executive vice president and provostat New Mexico State University andserved for a year as its interim president.Before that, she was at the University ofGrad student receives fellowshipfrom heart associationSara Wezensky. Photo by Jackson Harris.NewsWaded Cruzado. Photo by Kelly Gorham.Puerto Rico - Mayaguez. Both are landgrantuniversities.Today there are more than 100 institutionsthat are designated as landgrants.MSU was established in 1893 andrecently celebrated its 117 th anniversary.Sara Wezensky, an MSU graduate student working on her Ph.D. in veterinary molecularbiology, has won a two-year fellowship from the American Heart Association.The Pacific Mountain affiliate, pre-doctoral fellowship will allow her to continueresearching the mechanisms of drug resistance. She is specifically focusingon the gene srbA and a common mold called Aspergillus fumigatus. Themold can invade the lungs of humans and cause dangerous diseases, includingInvasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis. Patients with compromised immune systems,especially organ transplant patients, are particularly at risk. The srbA geneallows molds to thrive during infections, but when the gene is removed, themold becomes much more vulnerable.Wezensky wants to understand how the gene regulates resistance and how itorchestrates the activities of other genes.“I’m totally enthralled with my project,” Wezensky said.Wezensky works on basic research that has clinical relevance. Both aspectsappeal to her, she said.“The evolution of drug resistance is of great interest to me, and this as a topicof research has the more immediate potential to be applicable in the clinicalsetting,” she commented.Wezensky earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Louisvillebefore coming to MSU where she completed her laboratory rotation in the Departmentof Veterinary Molecular Biology (VMB). She joined Robert Cramer’slab in May 2009.Appreciative of Cramer and the entire VMB department, one thing thatdrew Wezensky to MSU was the low ratio of principal investigators to graduatestudents. “It appeared I wouldn’t get as much hands-on training as I felt Iwould need at other institutions with higher ratios,” she said.7
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Spring 2010 - College of Agriculture - Montana State University

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