Lake Wheeler Road farm in front of downtown Raleigh

CALS Impact Report 2024

In 2024, 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 at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, thank you for your support. In Fiscal Year 2024, you’ve contributed more than $58 million to support CALS students, faculty, research and Extension efforts. As a result, CALS is on the front lines of future-proofing the food supply and advancing technologies that revolutionize how healthy food nourishes our communities.

Thanks to generous donors like you, we awarded 950 scholarships last year to develop tomorrow’s workforce and students received hands-on training in data science, artificial intelligence and more to address emerging agricultural challenges, like shrinking farmland. Through your support, we delivered more than 26,000 Extension education programs last year statewide, and over 180,000 youth gained employability and career-readiness skills through North Carolina 4-H and FFA.

Additionally, Extension personnel have been instrumental in helping Western North Carolina’s counties recover and rebuild their farms, communities and livelihoods. Our Extension teams will continue assessing needs and finding ways to revitalize our communities and our farms.

Philanthropy isn’t just about giving; it’s about empowering the next generation, driving resiliency and innovation, and championing agriculture and life sciences. Philanthropy brings us together as a community, and I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of the ‘Pack with you.

Here’s to an extraordinary New Year, and as always —
Go ‘Pack!

– Dean Garey Fox

Learn about the Dean’s 3 pillars

Because of Your Support

878

Number of Endowments Benefiting CALS

$295,336,167

Total Endowment Value as of FY24

52

Number of Endowments Benefiting Graduate Students

7,922

Number of Gifts in FY24

$58,149,453

Total Donations Received in FY24

Day of Giving 2024

468

Alumni Donors

1,670

Total Donors to CALS

38%

Increase in Giving from 2019

$6.8M+

Total Amount Raised for CALS

$254,816

Outright Gifts on Day of Giving

$46.6M+

NC State Total Amount Raised

The Ripple Effect of Support

Beth Farrell, the granddaughter of dairy and burley tobacco farmers who were closely connected to their local Extension office, had a relationship with NC State long before she became an undergraduate student in the late 1990s. Her dad instilled in her that college was necessary, and that she would have to find a way to pay for it.

Workforce Development

NC State Extension

View the Extension Annual Report

26,000+

Extension Educational Programs Provided Statewide

1,000+

NC State Extension Personnel

102

Local and Statewide Extension Centers

27:1

Economic Return on Annual Government Investment

$2.1B

Extension’s Annual Economics Impact on North Carolina

188,255

Number of Youth Participated in 4-H Activities

Developing Life Skills for Youth

NC State’s Betsy-Jeff Penn 4-H Center Turns 60

Six decades ago, philanthropist Betsy Penn envisioned a place where young people throughout North Carolina could learn about nature. She constructed a facility on nearly 200 acres in Rockingham County and donated it to the state of North Carolina in 1964 in honor of her late husband, Jefferson Penn. Now known as the Betsy-Jeff Penn 4-H Educational Center, the facility – operated by NC State – provides research-based educational experiences that develop the life skills necessary for youth to become productive members of society.

Matchmaking for Career Success

CALS Alumni Power Career Success for Students

When NC State University undergraduate Sarah Bailey and alumna Nicole Youngblood first met at N.C. Cooperative Extension’s Johnston County Center, it seemed like destiny. Bailey, from Mooresville, North Carolina, enrolled at NC State through a dual enrollment community college program and is now majoring in soil science with a minor in extension education. Transferred credits gave her an academic edge. However, she needed to gain the networking skills to get her plugged into CALS and pursue her career interests.

Student Impact

3,811

Students in CALS

598

CALS Students Received Scholarships in FY24

917

Total Awards Made

$1.9M+

Scholarship Funds Awarded in FY24

Hardworking Heroine

As an undergraduate, Callie Lewis Bryan challenged herself to try for scholarships she felt were a stretch. She received a full ride scholarship, funded by a gift from Dan Warren and was the first recipient of the Jarvis Warren Family Animal Industry Scholarship Endowment, named in honor of Dan’s father. “It wasn’t anything like a grand gesture. It was an email, and I was at work and I called my mom, crying, to tell her I actually received a full-ride scholarship from NC State. It was amazing! And it was a privately donated scholarship from CALS,” she said.

A Decade of Opening Doors

Since Joe and Debbie Gordon launched the Farm-to-Philanthropy Program in 2014, more than 700 students have gained access to NC State and CALS through the spring admissions program. In that time, the endowment has also provided a full-ride scholarship to four students. The goal for the Gordons’ initial $3 million gift was to expand access to NC State for qualified students and provide financial support to help some students graduate with limited debt. The Gordons hope to see the program and endowment grow so more students, particularly those from rural communities, have the opportunity to join CALS.

Championing Agriculture and Life Sciences

CALS Tailgate

85

Gallons of Howling Cow Ice Cream Served

17

CALS Departments and Programs Represented

Celebrating a Century of Greatness

A Century of Poultry Science

NC State celebrated a century of the Prestage Department of Poultry Science. Ongoing work to establish a future-proof food supply, prepare graduates for in-demand jobs and advance research on sustainable production took center stage at a recent gathering at the Park Alumni Center to mark the anniversary. Today, North Carolina is the nation’s top poultry state, driving exports and job growth. The state houses operations from large companies and small producers that are a staple of many communities.

A Century of Crop and Soil Sciences

The NC State University Department of Crop and Soil Sciences has a rich 100-year history of growing agricultural and environmental sciences in North Carolina and around the globe, but the department has never rested on its laurels. Its focus has been, and will remain, on the future. Professor Bob Patterson, who was a student in the 1950s and joined the faculty in the 1960s, hopes that a common thread from the department’s earliest days will carry forward.

Driving Resiliency Through Innovation

Apiculture at NC State

Join the Hive and Support the NCSBA Faculty Award in Apiculture.

Bee the Solution

NC State Breaks Ground on New Apiculture Research Facility

The future for bees is brighter with the recent groundbreaking of NC State University’s new 5,000-square-foot apiculture research facility. With bees’ health and well-being under threat from a myriad of factors, ranging from mites and disease to climate and weather, it couldn’t come at a better time.

Learn more

24

Pollinator Sites Across Campus (Certified Bee Campus USA)

$750K+

Raised for the North Carolina State Beekeepers Association Faculty Award in Apiculture

Giving for a Sustainable Future

Jude Samulski calls genome editing “the next wave of technology to feed the world.” Samulski contributed $3 million to create the Roberts and Mikhail Distinguished Chair in Plant Genome Editing, an endowed position that will serve as director of the Genome Editing Center for Sustainable Agriculture (GEC) at NC State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Endowing the distinguished chair is a first step in recruiting a team of genome-editing experts to conduct vital plant sciences research that will help future-proof our food supply.

Innovations Driving Resiliency

50

Patents Filed

59

Intellectual Property Disclosures

28

Patents Issued

1,186

Peer-reviewed Research Publications

$121.6M+

Grants Awarded

Illuminating Science

Student Takes Research to Next Level With New Harold Swaisgood Biochemistry Mentorship Fund

Sowing Seeds of Success

Professor’s Legacy to Continue Through Endowed Professorship

CALS Magazine 2024

Read the latest issue

AI for Agriculture

A robot named BenchBot 3.0 has taken its place at the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative. It’s just one of the data-gathering devices that will be tied into the power of N.C. PSI’s newly acquired supercomputer, the NVIDIA Grace Hopper 200, to create AI for agricultural applications.

Planting the Future

NC State University graduate student Weilong He, with support from the Trolinder graduate student endowment, is focused on creating high-tech solutions that can help breeders save time and identify problems faster.

Startup Incubator and Seed2Grow Program

The new startup incubator at the N.C. PSI provides entrepreneurs from two companies with office and lab space. Seed2Grow helps entrepreneurs bring plant science discoveries into the marketplace to advance agriculture.

New Collabs on AI and Machine Learning

CALS IT and the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative’s Makerspace are collaborating with Lenovo to advance improvements in sensor data collection and artificial intelligence innovations.

If you can spend a good 80% of your time in what you’re called to do, you’ll have a successful, fulfilling life.
Dallas Barnes
2024 CALS Distinguished Alumni Award winner

Jump in and Do It

Transforming from scientist to entrepreneur was a family affair for Giles Shih. The founder and strategic advisor of Big Ripple Innovations and co-founder of BioResource International Inc. (BRI) launched his successful international business career at NC State.

Find What You’re Called to Do

As an undergraduate entering NC State in the mid-1970s, Dallas Barnes wasn’t sure what his purpose was. Coming from a long line of peanut and ag industry business leaders, Barnes started taking courses in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.