Tom Vilsack interacts with students in Ag labs while touring facility
A lot is said about the need to give students better access to STEM education. That’s science, technology, engineering and medicine. Tom Vilsack refers to it as STEAM.
(PICTURED) From the left in the Food Science Lab are Chelsey Warner, Andrea Barga, Austin Secor, Brady Wilson and Lane Hacker with agriculture faculty member Harold Thirey and Secretary Tom Vilsack. Chelsey and Andrea are discussing the process of making ricotta cheese using lemon juice to curdle the milk and separate the curd from the whey. Later, Austin, Brady and Lane demonstrated the process of food dehydration using apple slices, by placing them in the dehydrator for two days to dry down.
“I put the ‘A’ in it for agriculture,” the Secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture said when visiting Wilmington College Sept. 22 to highlight completion of the Center for the Sciences and Agriculture (CSA), which was financed through a $19.7 million, low interest, USDA loan over 32 years.
Vilsack was impressed with the College’s commitment to agriculture — it’s WC’s largest major with more than 25 percent of main campus students enrolled in the field — and how the CSA will enhance their education.
“This facility allows students to have a better hands-on experience,” he said, noting the CSA will attract good students. “They see a college that’s on the rise, a college that’s investing in itself and its students. It provides the technical space where they are able to learn important lessons.
“This facility is a value-added opportunity the College has created and we’re thrilled the USDA could be part of it.”
President Jim Reynolds said this facility was in the works for 20 years before the College “found a way forward financially” with the USDA loan. “The Center will play a big role recruiting and retaining students — and providing them with a transformational experience.”
Vilsack noted that the College’s project is one of 211 projects financed by a USDA Rural Development loan in Ohio since he became Secretary in 2009. He touted rural America as deserving of the investment since, in essence, constituting only 15 percent of the population, “Rural America feeds us, powers us and provides our water.”
He cited the importance of agricultural education by noting how, since he was born in 1950, the United States has gone from 25 million farmers in a population of 125 million to 2 million in a population of 322 million — while increasing production by 170 percent on 26 percent less land.
“That’s American innovation and efficiency,” he said. “What a remarkable thing that is. Rural America is an incredible place.”
