The Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology
Plant Science students selected as Greenfield Scholars
(July 19, 2016) -- Fresno State seniors Aldo Garcia, May Yang and Yue Wu were among six undergraduate students selected nationally to the Greenfield Scholar
program by the American Society of Agronomy and the International Certified Crop Advisor
program.
The program judged students on their grade point averages, prior experience and awards,
career goals and educational and certification plans to become crop advisers or professional
agronomists.
Award recipients will travel to the society’s annual conference Nov. 6 to 9 in Phoenix
with 7,000 scientists, professionals, educators and students, and will be matched
with mentors to develop leadership skills.
All three Fresno State students are plant science majors in the Jordan College of
Agricultural Sciences and Technology and active members of the Fresno State Plant
Science Club and tri-societies agronomy, crop and soil science association.
Garcia (Shafter) is working this summer at the Fresno State Horticulture Unit and
the Dupont Field Station in Madera and has interned at Wonderful Orchards and Grimway
Farms. He serves as vice president of the Fresno State Plant Health Society, co-president
of the Plant Science Club and senior chair of operations of the FFA Field Day Committee.
A member of the Fresno State soil judging team that competed at nationals in April,
he assists professor Dr. Anil Shrestha and plant science students on research projects.
Wu (Ningbo, China) received the Fresno State Provost’s Undergraduate Research Award
in 2016 for her experiment on determining salinity tolerance of sorghum during seed
germination. She competed at the California Plant Soil Conference research poster
competition in January. She has volunteered for various activities with the California
Women for Agriculture Central Valley Chapter and state FFA judging contests hosted
at Fresno State.
May Nhia Yang (Fresno) works at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension
Center with area Southeast Asian farmers to develop improved farming methods. She
conducts research with Shrestha on insect-weed interactions and specialty crops funded
by a USDA research grant. She also works at the Fresno State Horticulture Unit, and
she received the Ag One David L. and Bernice Fraysher scholarship and American Society
of Agronomy California Chapter scholarship.
In 2015, Fresno State plant science student Sarah Parry was one of five students nationally
selected as a Greenfield Scholar, and Julie Pedraza was named a Golden Opportunity
Scholar by the same organizations.