Lake Wheeler Road farm in front of downtown Raleigh

CALS Impact Report 2023

In 2023, donors like you came together to lend their support and empowered us to continue to create unique, memorable, and extraordinary experiences for students, faculty, and staff. You inspire us to continue to do great work.

From the Dean

On behalf of all of us here at CALS, thank you for your support.

Whether it’s empowering the next generation by funding scholarship opportunities or advancing cutting-edge research in agriculture and life sciences, your gifts are a catalyst for change.

Thanks to generous donors like you, CALS received more than $38 million in fiscal year 2023. We awarded more than 850 scholarships, totaling over $1.8 million to 576 CALS students, a 20% increase in scholarship funds awarded over last year.

The research conducted by our students and faculty remains at the forefront of our college, and your dollars ensure that this research remains a powerful force for good.

As you know, our impact reaches far beyond the classroom. Because of your generosity, we delivered over 136,000 extension education activities last year, through more than 1,000 NC State Extension personnel in 101 local and statewide extension centers. Over 5,800 youth gained employability and career-readiness skills through impactful youth programs like North Carolina 4-H and FFA.

But philanthropy isn’t just about giving; it’s about giving back and empowering the next generation of leaders. Philanthropy brings us together as a community. Having just completed my first semester as dean for CALS, I’m inspired by all the investments made in our College and excited about the future. Thank you for all you do for NC State University and for the College.

Man in a suit leaning against a tree and smiling

Below is the annual CALS Impact Report, which highlights even more of the opportunities created by donors like you for our college, the state of North Carolina and beyond. Here’s to an extraordinary New Year, and as always – Go ‘Pack!

– Dean Garey Fox

Because of Your Support

a male undergraduate student in a greenhouse

Finding Opportunities for Growth

Brady Farlow knew about the impact of scholarships before he even came to NC State. A scholarship afforded him the trip of a lifetime — a month long adventure in Spain the summer after high school. This experience made Farlow a big advocate for both study abroad and scholarships. Farlow, a second-year horticulture and Spanish double major with a focus on plant breeding and biotechnology, is active on campus and the recipient of two highly soughtafter scholarships, the Thomas Jefferson Scholarship and the Dr. Caroline Laundon Family Extraordinary Opportunity Scholarship.

Discover scholarship impact

Debbie Hamrick taking a selfie in a field of flowers

A Plant-Filled Career

From magazine publishing to the North Carolina Farm Bureau Federation, Debbie Hamrick has enjoyed an impactful career in horticulture. The 2023 CALS Distinguished Alumni Award winner has turned an interest in plants as a child into a career that helps the agriculture community in North Carolina and beyond. Hamrick, a North Carolina State University alumna, is the director of specialty crops at the North Carolina Farm Bureau Federation, where she supports everything from pollinators to rural economic development.

Meet the CALS Disguished Alumni Award winner

Day of Giving: 2023

An Open-door Approach to Agriculture

When it comes to North Carolina agriculture, it’s fair to say that the multifaceted William Upchurch, 2023 CALS Distinguished Alumni Award winner, has been there, done that and has the T-shirt. Fittingly, he was wearing an FFA convention T-shirt recently as he recounted how he came to NC State. Growing up on the family farm in Cary, Upchurch didn’t plan to go to college, but two things changed his mind. To make sure he understood the hard work that farming involved, his dad assigned him the toughest jobs on the farm. Meanwhile, he was active in FFA, culminating in his election as state FFA vice president.

Meet the CALS Distinguished Alumnus

The Keys to Success: Support, Experience and Opportunity

In the summer of 1995, alumnus Josh Allen spent a lot of time in farm fields. Still an undergraduate in the Agricultural Institute (AGI), he accepted a summer internship with Coastal AgroBusiness and got his hands dirty. For a few months he scouted crops and helped the company’s customers – mainly farmers – make decisions about growth regulators and pest control. Allen credits that internship with crucial experience that helped him start his career. Now the director of operations, Allen wants the same experience for students coming through AGI today.

Learn more about his life-long passion

Student Impact

trees line Nash Square in downtown Raleigh

The Gift of Green Space

The green canopy of oaks shades pedestrians as they stroll on brick pathways around monuments in Nash Square in downtown Raleigh. Designed as a city park in 1881, Nash Square was one of the city’s first urban gardens and remains a sanctuary for professionals, families, and visitors to North Carolina’s capital. Its original trees, walkways and flower beds were conceived and laid out by Henry Steinmetz. Steinmetz’s legacy lives on not just in Nash Square, but at NC State through the Henry Steinmetz Endowed Horticultural Scholarship Fund. Awarded to undergraduate students enrolled in horticultural science, the scholarship ensures that the next generation of horticulturists will have less financial burden to bear

Read Steinmetz’s legacy

Imani Madison holding a pipette in a lab

A Passion for Plant Research

On a visit to North Carolina State University, while exploring graduate programs several years ago, Imani Madison listened as farmers at a local farm talked about how NC State researchers had improved the flowering of the tobacco plant. She enrolled in NC State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and went on to earn her Ph.D. in plant biology in 2022. Her doctoral dissertation focused on how stress and other external factors affect the development of plant cell tissues.

For that work, Madison was recently recognized with the 2022 Kenneth R. Keller Research Award, which acknowledges excellence in Ph.D. dissertation research in CALS.

Explore her career path

NC State Extension

Inspiring Future Leaders in Agriculture

Professional Development

The CALS Alumni and Friends Society and CALS Academic Programs partnered to connect CALS large and dedicated alumni base to the college through the CALS Alumni for Student Success (CASS).

The initiative servers to purposes: to develop an alumni recruiting network and to provide career coaching for students.

Recruiting: Alumni serve as a point of contact in their area for prospective CALS students by attending local events to promote CALS to schools and community groups.

Career Coaching: Alumni will be matched with current CALS students to develop a one-on-one relationship and support the student with information, advice and encouragement as the student works toward a defined career goal. Alumni career coaches will also take part in networking events and informational panels hosted by CALS Career Services.

CALS Tailgate 2023

Across the State

Dean Fox State Tour

See where the Dean will go next

Apiculture at NC State

Bee the solution

CALS Reach Beyond Campus

Discover work beyond the labs and classrooms

Research and Industry Impact

Undergraduate student Zach Gabor works in the Robert H. Feldmeier Dairy Processing Lab in Schaub Hall; Gabor works with milk products and Howling Cow ice cream. Photo by Marc Hall

A Lasting Legacy for Dairy Science

Four graduate students became part of a living, working legacy this fall. Tina Truong, Kai Ow-Wing, Yufeng Lin and Tyler Jarrard are the first recipients of the William E. Younts Jr. Dairy Science Graduate Support Endowment, benefitting graduate students as they pursue their advanced degrees focusing on dairy processing and or dairy food manufacturing with the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences. In the process, they are fulfilling the legacy of the award’s namesake and his son, Bud Younts, who made the endowment possible.Read the full story .

N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative

JTI Partners with N.C. PSI to Advance Sustainability and Innovation in Agriculture

The Philanthropic Pioneers of Plant Sciences

Linda Trolinder’s mother Norma is, in fact, a pioneer and a fantastic scientist. As one of few women of her generation in the field of plant sciences, Norma Trolinder received the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Early Career Scientist of the Year, Southern Region Award in 1991 for her research in genetic cotton engineering. Her patented technologies are what make genetically modified cotton possible. With her specialty in in-vitro biology, Norma taught at Texas Tech University, worked as a research scientist for the USDA and founded two biotech companies throughout her robust career. Learn the full story.