2018 ASHS Annual Conference

The Global Youth Institute is an international education program offered by the World Food Prize. Exceptional students from state youth programs as well as international students and their teacher mentors travel to Des Moines, Iowa in mid-October to attend the three-day event at which they interact with World Food Prize Laureates and get the opportunity to explore pressing food security and agricultural issues with international experts, expanding their knowledge on global issues. Students research and select a topic related to poverty, agricultural productivity, and food security and write a research paper, the findings of which they present and discuss with international experts and their peers. The Global Youth Institute serves as a forum for students to connect with other students from around the world, attend symposia featuring discussions by global leaders in food security, and tour agricultural research facilities. Since its inception in 1994, the Global Youth Program has grown tremendously. Among the participating states, Colorado had been missing. Denver Botanic Gardens’ Center for Global Initiatives (CGI) partnering with Colorado State University offered Colorado’s first state youth institute in 2017. The program is expanding in 2018, reaching additional schools and offering a teacher training workshop in the summer to provide high school teachers the tools to administer this program. Details about this program will be discussed.