CGA senior to travel to Iowa to compete in international round of the World Food Prize

The students also will be able to attend the Borlaug Dialogues, named for Norman Borlaug, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his part in the Green Revolution, which dramatically increased crop yields and reduced the threat of starvation in many countries.

Borlaug, who died in 2009, took the money he received from winning the Nobel Prize to create the World Food Prize in 1986 to recognize scientists and others who have improved the quality and availability of food.  

John Ruan Sr., an Iowa businessman and philanthropist, created the World Food Prize Global Youth Institute in 1994 to foster interest in science and agriculture and increase awareness of critical issues of food security among high school students. His son, the late John Ruan III, a 1961 graduate of Troop B and a former member of the Culver Educational Foundation Board of Trustees, served as chairman of the World Food Prize Foundation for two decades.

“Norman Borlaug and John Ruan Sr. felt very strongly that youth would be a part of changing the world and improving food access. So very early in the World Food Prize history they founded the Global Youth Institute, which would bring high school students in to the conversation and encourage their research into food security, food access, improving crop yield,” Hodges said. “At the Global Youth Institute students feel that empowerment and the serious attention given to their ideas.”

Hodges said the Ruan family provides Culver students a special connection to the Global Youth Institute.

“It feels like we’re carrying a legacy of investment, of time, money, effort and building global relationships,” Hodges said.

Students are invited to attend the Global Youth Institute based on the quality of their research and their presentations at regional levels. Six Culver students presented their papers at Purdue University in April and Helms was selected to advance. All six students were recognized as Borlaug Scholars, which makes them eligible for scholarships, internships and other opportunities.