Dear Students,
On behalf of our faculty and staff in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (AGNR), I want to officially welcome you to the 2022/2023 academic year! We are thrilled to have you back on campus and can’t wait to meet you at many of our upcoming student events. You have an exciting year ahead as you learn from and interact with our world class faculty through coursework, research, entrepreneurship, and community outreach.
For the arriving freshmen and transfer students, I am thrilled you have chosen our college - the Cornerstone College of the University of Maryland - as your academic home. We will work hard for you every day to provide you the type of undergraduate experience that matters most, one that clearly defines your future and points you on a career trajectory to solve some of the world’s most immediate and relevant challenges, including global food and nutritional insecurity, climate change, diminishing and contaminated natural resources, and disease prevention. Upon graduation, you will enjoy a very high placement rate with a degree from AGNR, around 91% for jobs, graduate school, internships, and more.
Here in AGNR, we are firmly committed to establishing a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture within our college. We have a college-wide plan for diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect (DEIR), which I encourage you to read. A community with a vibrant climate of inclusiveness contributes to AGNR’s continued excellence. The college’s commitment to DEIR will be one of our greatest attributes and strengths moving forward. We look forward to your partnership and leadership in framing our college as a campus-wide leader in this space.
I want to mention just a few events coming up this fall that we hope you will plug into your calendar.
On Wednesday, October 12, we will host our 4th annual Cornerstone Event with a focus on a college-wide strategic initiative of optimizing urban environments through design, green technology, and community engagement, which comes at a very opportune time given the White House’s focus on infrastructure, job creation, and climate change. Headlining the event will be keynote speaker Kate Orff, founding principal of SCAPE, a design-driven landscape architecture and urban design studio based in New York which addresses the global challenges of climate change and social and environmental justice. Registration will open soon through AGNR’s website and we hope you will attend and participate in this lively and informative conference.
Our Welcome Back Bash focused on our students will be held on September 13 from 4 - 6 pm in the courtyard adjacent to the Animal and Avian Sciences building.
Our annual Pick and Treat event during UMD’s Family Weekend, October 7 - 9. Come pick a pumpkin and receive an AGNR treat. More details to follow.
Our annual AGNR tailgate for faculty, staff, and students on October 22 at 12:30 pm in the Animal and Avian Sciences building courtyard.
As you look to the future, know that our alums are working in an incredibly diverse array of fields and industries including food and product safety, agriculture education, human and animal health, environmental policy, environmental horticulture, bioenergy, landscape architecture, and many more. I am confident that the future holds great things for each of you, and take pride in knowing that our college will be the springboard for your success.
We are delighted you have chosen our college for your academic home. We look forward to working with you to develop an educational experience that fully prepares you for an exciting and impactful future in your field. When you graduate from UMD, not only will you be a lifelong Terp, but you will have attained a world-class education from world-class faculty at a world-class institution
Please introduce yourself whenever you see me as I would very much like to meet each of you and learn more about your interests and your future goals.
Have a wonderful and fruitful upcoming academic year.
Go Terps!!!
Warmly,
Craig Beyrouty
Dean and Director
