Engaging Youth in Agriculture, Both Near and Far

Liz Driscoll loves adventure, meeting new people and eating new foods. And she’s always up for building new skills and gaining new knowledge that will help her in her role as a youth development specialist in NC State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. When the opportunity to travel to Kenya came along, she decided to jump feet first into a growing CALS program known as CREdO.

Driscoll was among six faculty members who joined representatives of CALS’ international programs office in traveling to the African nation in May. The goal of the five-day trip was to develop partnerships that would address local and national challenges in Kenya through research, education and extension. 

Part of the college’s Connecting Research, Education and Outreach, or CREdO, partnership with Kenyan government agencies and two universities, the journey was a followup to last fall’s East Africa Symposium. The symposium brought several Kenyan faculty members and researchers to Raleigh to discuss collaborative research and capacity building with their NC State counterparts. 

The May visit to Kenya was a response to that meeting. CALS faculty members who made the trip had diverse expertise, from irrigation and aquaculture to human and animal nutrition. 

‘What Else is Possible?’

To the team, NC State Extension’s Driscoll brought 18 years of experience in 4-H youth programming for the departments of Horticultural Science, Crop and Soil Sciences, and Entomology and Plant Pathology. 

“I’ve been doing this work for a long time, and I feel like I was at a very good point and asking myself, ‘What else is possible? What else is next?’” she says. 

When the opportunity to travel to Kenya as part of the CREdO effort came up, she was excited to join in.

“I think we have so much to learn from each other,” Driscoll explains. “North Carolina has such a strong Extension system, and I’ve seen how things can be successful and where there’s room for growth. So I was excited to bring that extension experience and lens to Kenya, where there’s a shared willingness and excitement about growing their own extension program.”

She’s quick to add that with her and the rest of the traveling team, “It’s never about, ‘Let me come in with the things that I know.’ I’m here because I want to hear what’s going on, and if there are ways that we can work on things together, then let’s see what we can do.’”

Strengthening Communities by Investing in Youth

While in Kenya, Driscoll was struck by the interest county government leaders from Kenya’s rural areas showed in investing in young people and encouraging them to remain in their communities as adults. 

“It was an affirmation that we’re all working to try to engage young people in agriculture, both as careers and for making sure everyone has food on the table,” she says.

After visiting Nairobi and rural communities in western Kenya and getting to know colleagues from across CALS, Driscoll came away with several ideas for future partnerships. She’s especially interested in partnerships that involve providing extension programming to women farmers and bringing fresh produce from local farms to schools.

She also has an idea for possible youth exchanges between North Carolina and Kenya. 

Driscoll coordinates the North Carolina Youth Institute, a World Food Prize Foundation program that encourages young people to develop innovative solutions to grand challenges — “from malnutrition in Myanmar to soil erosion in India, to whatever they are interested in,” as she puts it. She sees opportunities to work with partners at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) to aid the foundation’s efforts to establish a Kenyan Youth Institute.

“My hope is that by the time this all comes together, I’ll have reached out to KALRO partners to ask if there’s anything we can do to help make it happen,” she says. “Does that look like young people from Kenya coming to North Carolina and vice versa? There are lots of possibilities.”

Valuing Different Expertise and Perspectives

Driscoll also hopes to encourage other members of the CALS community to become involved in CREdO and other international programs. 

To make a big impact, we need expertise from different program areas and partners with different perspectives.

“I think if there is an interest and a willingness to partner, then anyone can be involved,” she says. “So if you see a fit and have an excitement to bring something to the table, I think this whole team is very open to that.”

Alluding to the ethos of the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative, which she’s affiliated with, Driscoll adds, “We can’t solve any of these challenges ourselves. To make a big impact, we need expertise from different program areas and partners with different perspectives.”