Image Credit: Edwin Remsberg
(The following article appeared in the October 22 edition of The Delmarva Farmer:)
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — When promoting the University of Maryland College Park and its College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Dr. Leon Slaughter, the college’s associate dean for academic programs, almost immediately brings up the school’s location. The 1,250-acre campus in College Park is “probably the best location a school could have, especially one offering agriculture,” Slaughter said. “Three miles north of campus is the USDA’s Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, the largest research center in the world. A 20-minute metro ride south, and you’re in the heart of D.C., at the USDA or World Bank. Within a half-hour car drive is the National Institutes of Health, the National Zoo, the Baltimore Zoo…. I bring that up because if a student wants to do an internship, which is required in many instances, what better place could you be with so many opportunities nearby? Students do internships at USDA, FDA ... It’s location, location, location.”
When Tim VonThun, now a senior in Maryland’s Plant Science and Landscape Architecture Department, was shopping colleges, he said he talked with family and his county Extension agent in New Jersey about ag programs at colleges in the region and then started visiting the campuses. “I just fell in love with Maryland’s campus,” he said, preferring its “condensed” layout to other schools with a larger footprint.
Living and working on his family’s fifth generation fruit and vegetable farm in central New Jersey, VonThun said an interest in agriculture came naturally. “I was always with my dad, helping him after school and in the summer,” he said. “That definitely got me very interested in agriculture. It’s not the same job everyday. There’s a creativity in the work that I enjoy.”
VonThun said during his college search he planned on majoring in agriculture engineering but soon changed to agriculture science and technology. He said working with his father, Bob VonThun Jr., taught him what to do to grow a good crop but from his coursework and activities at Maryland, “I have a better understanding of why we do these things.”
After graduation, VonThun said he plans to return to the family farm with a goal of bringing in more technology and efficiency to keep the farm environmentally and economically sustainable.
Some of the fastest growing programs are in the Department of Environmental Science and Technology: Eco-system design, natural resources management, environmental health — these are very popular programs, Slaughter said. Another new and fast-growing program is a minor in sustainability, offered by the College of AGNR with another unit on campus. “In less than a year it has become the largest minor on campus,” Slaughter said. “There are more than 300 students enrolled already.”
The AGNR college’s designation as one of the three STEM schools in the university, advancing science, technology, engineering and math, has been attractive for students, Slaughter added.
“Students are challenged to learn the theory of why we do what we do in ag and natural resources, but also participate in hands-on activities,” Slaughter said.
The STEM programs also offer more social sciences, such as landscape architecture, a nationally accredited course within the Department of Plant Sciences. There’s also a department of Agricultural and Resource Economics with a program in ag business that is one of the strongest in the nation, the associate dean added.
Outside of the classroom, Slaughter said students have the opportunity to study abroad within a college unit dedicated to international programs. There are a number of summer programs in France, a month-long study during the winter term... Students go to Costa Rica, Belize, Australia, Brazil; some go to Taiwan, China, Italy and England. This past summer, Tim VonThun spent a month in France in a study abroad program with about 30 other students from five other universities where he took courses and visited many farms to get an idea of that country’s production models. “They do things differently and it gave me a whole new perspective,” he said.
Slaughter also touts the number of student support systems, particularly for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. “First of all, we want our students to succeed academically and socially,” Slaughter said. “We support their academic progress. We help them develop four-year plans as a road map, listing the sequence of courses they should take in order to complete the program here.”
The first-year retention rate for the university is 94 percent. “Once they choose us, they stay with us,” Slaughter said. “When they come to college, we bring them into a family atmosphere. People care about them, and they get to know people.”
One of VonThun’s fondest achievements was helping to reinvigorate the college’s agriculture fraternity, Alpha Gamma Rho, which had dwindled to seven members. VonThun was chapter president this year and now has 33 members. “It’s been a long road but it’s been really great to be part of the core group to rebuild,” he said.
