Before this summer, Kayla Adams couldn’t have told you much about grain.
In fact, agriculture — at least in terms of farms, fields and grains — was pretty far from her mind, as an undergraduate student at Central State University in Ohio, hoping to become a veterinarian one day.
But now she’s almost an expert on Kernza, a new kind of perennial grain with a lot of promise, and could probably tell you more about the crop than most farmers around the state.
A summer research program is bringing in promising students, like Adams, from Historically Black Colleges and Universities around the U.S. to Kansas. Many of them are finding career possibilities in a pathway they never would have before thought possible.
“It’s about giving all students the ability to navigate through the College of Agriculture, graduate, be productive members of society either in the workforce back on the farm or in research with people who are different,” said Zelia Wiley, assistant dean for diversity in the K-State College of Agriculture and the university’s Research and Extension branch.
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