Before last summer, Vera Swanson's only exposure to plant sciences had been through classes in introductory biology. That changed big-time when Swanson, a junior majoring in environmental sciences and Russian, signed on to intern at the CALS-based Arlington Agricultural Research Station as a crop scout.

Crop scouts are used in agricultural management to diagnose stress factors in a field-such elements as potentially negative soil and climate conditions, the presence of pests, and threatened crop performance-and determine which management practices are appropriate for the goals of a specific plot. As part of her training, Swanson spent copious hours learning to identify weeds by walking through the fields and the Weed Garden, which displays dozens of invasive plants accompanied by their names.

Swanson paired her internship, which was run through the Department of Agronomy, with an independent research project involving biofuel crops being tested at Arlington. For that work Swanson drew on her growing knowledge of weeds to test the effect of three biofuel crop systems-native prairie, switchgrass and continuous corn-on the soil's weed seed bank, or the viable seeds present in the soil and its surface. The project involved working one-on-one with research scientists in Randy Jackson's grassland ecology lab. Jackson is running the crop trials through his affiliation with the UW's Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, housed in the Wisconsin Energy Institute.

The intense focus on plants got Swanson thinking a lot more about soil. "It is such a finite resource, yet so much of what we depend on comes from it-our food, clothing, and the materials that we build with," says Swanson.

It also got her more interested in food systems, to the point where she chose to make horticulture a disciplinary focus within her major and a possible new career direction. "I'd love to work for an organization where I would be able to complement my interests in agriculture, development, and language within a global context," she says.

Swanson's path exemplifies the power of "beyond classroom" experiences to dramatically shape, and in many cases transform, a student's education and career goals. These experiences-which include internships, research projects, study abroad, honors thesis stipends, field courses and more-are the hallmark of a CALS education.

"They're a big part of what makes CALS CALS-and they offer our students a major advantage in both their personal and professional development," says Sarah Pfatteicher, the college's associate dean for academic affairs. "Our goal is to ensure that each student can participate in at least four of these important opportunities."
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3.12.2015