Charles City’s Anderson, Ruzicka participate in virtual World Food Prize event, earn scholarships

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Charles City High School juniors and FFA members Gillian Anderson and Cael Ruzicka both participated in the 9th annual Iowa Youth Institute, hosted by the World Food Prize Foundation last week.

Each year, the World Food Prize Youth Institutes convene high school students, teachers and experts to explore and solve local, national and global hunger and food security issues. In order to be a part of the Iowa Youth Institute, students research and write a paper on a global challenge related to hunger and food insecurity.

A total of 264 students and 110 teachers from 93 Iowa high schools participated in the virtual, day-long event this year, which was the first of its kind for the Iowa Youth Institute, supported by more than 90 experts from across Iowa.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Foundation shifted to a virtual platform this year, in order to make the institutes more accessible online.

Anderson wrote her paper about Conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ruzicka wrote his paper on Water Scarcity in Uganda.

The students submitted their papers and were accepted to take part in the Virtual Institute. They both presented and answered questions about their research. They also each received $500 scholarships to the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Both students are FFA officers and involved in many activities at Charles City.

Thousands of students have taken part in the Iowa Youth Institute since its start in 2011, and more than 2,000 Iowa high school students have been invited to the Global Youth Institute. Charles City FFA advisor Bret Spurgin sponsored Anderson and Ruzicka.

Currently, 25 states, the Netherlands and Honduras host Youth Institutes, where students can be selected to serve as delegates at the Global Youth Institute as part of October’s Borlaug International Dialogue.

The World Food Prize is the foremost international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world. The prize was founded in 1986 by Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, recipient of the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize.

This one-day event is offered at no cost to teachers or students. More details are available at www.worldfoodprize.org/iowayouth.