New Jersey Youth Institute World Food Prize
Overview
The New Jersey Youth Institute is a transformative experience at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences for high school students. In collaboration with the World Food Prize Foundation, students from New Jersey come together and learn about critical global issues, network with local leaders, engage in hands-on-activities, and explore exciting ways to become effective change agents in their own communities.
Select students attending the New Jersey Youth Institute will be invited to attend the Global Youth Institute in Des Moines, Iowa. High school students from across the U.S. and abroad gather during the event to study and write about a pressing global food issue and present their papers to distinguished global leaders and fellow students. While at the symposium students also have opportunities to attend trainings/educational programs, go on field trips, and participate in a team service project. All expenses, except travel, are provided by the World Food Prize.
Testimonials
How does the event create conscientious global citizens and inspire tomorrow's scientific humanitarian leaders? Here's some answers from students like you:
Being here is a great opportunity for students to come together and talk about world issues, become more informed, and develop solutions for the future.
Isabella
Ridge High School
More than learning public speaking, this event is important to attend. It gives a bigger picture of careers and what to pursue when we’re older. We’re so used to scrolling social media, but when you get to hear different perspectives in person, it opens up ideas of what I can do to help.
Dhruv
Holmdel High School
The people here are friendly and nice, which makes this event a great way to discuss food scarcity and sustainability. I was encouraged to research and teach my peers across the state of New Jersey about typhoid fever’s impact on Bangladesh.
Jamie
Monmouth County Academy of Allied Health & Science
I think it’s important to attend this event because we get to hear everyone’s idea. We get to see the different kinds of research completed and we get to present our own research. I learned about different kinds of ways to affect water issues I never knew about before.
Jay
Academy of Allied Health and Science
This is important because it helps me get a lot of insight from other countries and shows me how other groups are affected by so many issues that impact their food security, and how we can better benefit from hearing each other’s ideas.
Analee
Payne Tech
Program Benefits
- Students who participate in the New Jersey Youth Institute earn recognition as a Borlaug Scholar and qualify for internships and further opportunities.
- Students present research and recommendations on ways to solve key global challenges in a short speech and small group discussions with statewide experts.
- Students connect with other student leaders from across New Jersey to share ideas, identify solutions to these problems and build lasting friendships.
- Participants explore the issues, current research and opportunities to make a difference at Rutgers University.
- Participants interact with global leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs in New Jersey working to end hunger and poverty and improve food security around the world.
Eligibility
Ninth through twelfth grade students are eligible to apply.
How to Participate
- To participate in the New Jersey Youth Institute, students research a global issue and write a paper under the supervision of a teacher or mentor (using these downloadable guidelines [PDF]).
- Papers must be submitted to the World Food Prize via the World Food Prize website.
- Registration and paper submission due online by February 7, 2025.
- There is no registration cost to participate in the Institute.
Further Opportunities
Borlaug-Ruan International Internships
The Borlaug-Ruan International Internship is an all-expenses-paid, eight-week hands-on experience for high school students to work with world-renowned scientists and policymakers at leading research centers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Borlaug-Ruan Interns get a firsthand view of pressing food security and nutritional problems in poverty-stricken areas and take part in groundbreaking research.
USDA Wallace-Carver Fellowships
The USDA Wallace-Carver Fellowship is a paid summer research or policy placement for college students at a U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratory, agency, or at USDA headquarters in Washington D.C. Wallace-Carver Fellows analyze agricultural and economic policy; assist in the management of food, nutrition and rural development programs; and take part in groundbreaking field and laboratory-based research. Fellows travel to Washington DC as part of their fellowship for a week-long high-level leadership program hosted by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
Partners
World Food Prize NJ Youth Institute (NJYI) Global Food Security Seminar Series
Through this seminar series, learn about topics related to issues that affect global food security for families and their communities. Experts in the field give a 30-minute presentation followed by a 15-minute "Ask the Expert" Q & A session.
