Anoka High School STEAM student Joseph Morphew participates in Minnesota Youth Institute
(06/18/2020) Anoka High School sophomore and STEAM student Joseph Morphew was one of 55 students from across the state to participate in the Minnesota Youth Institute this spring, where he engaged with leaders in science, policy and industry to discuss the world’s most pressing challenges in hunger and poverty.
To participate, students were invited to research and write a paper on a global challenge affecting food security, and then provide recommendations on how to solve the problem and better the lives of a typical family in another country.
Morphew was one of the 55 chosen to participate in the day-long virtual event, held May 18, which was hosted by the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, and the World Food Prize Foundation. During the event, students presented their solutions in roundtables, allowing them to reflect on their unique role in addressing challenges related to agriculture, policy, science, industry, and hunger relief efforts in the United States and abroad.
For their participation, the students like Morphew are recognized as Borlaug Scholars and are now eligible for special scholarships, internships and other professional opportunities, including paid Wallace-Carver Fellowships at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A select few also will advance to the World Food Prize Global Youth Institute, a gathering of more than 1,000 world leaders working to advance food security, agriculture and human development.
The Minnesota Youth Institute is a program of the World Food Prize. The World Food Prize was created in 1986 by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Dr. Norman Borlaug, the University of Minnesota alum credited with saving more than one billion lives. It is the foremost international award recognizing individuals whose achievements have advanced human development by increasing the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.
High school educators and students interested in participating in the 2021 Minnesota Youth Institute can visit http://mnyi.cfans.umn.edu/ for more information.