Three students from Platteville, Steven Wilkens, Branden Furseth, and Bryan Parr traveled to New Orleans to attend the Crop Science Society of America’s annual meeting that was held Nov. 2 to 8.

While in New Orleans they attended special series of talks. One was with Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the President of Iceland, regarding Global Warming. Other notable speakers included Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Norman Borlaug, Iajuddin Ahmed, the President of Bangladesh and representatives from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The annual meeting included the organizations American Society of Agronomy, CSSA, Soil Science of America, and Students of Agronomy, Soils and Environmental Sciences. The CSSA gave out a Golden Opportunity Scholarship award to each student.

Wilkens, Furseth, and Parr were “three out of 15 students that were selected to attend the worldwide conference,” Wilkens, a senior, soil and crop science and horticulture major, said.

This year marked the 100th anniversary of the ASA meeting.

“The annual meetings consist of professionals speaking about newly developed research that they have been working on. This ranges from a great many topics since there are essentially four different societies coming together for a week,” Parr, a junior, soil and crop science major, said.”

The conference “was a very eye-opening experience,” Parr said. “I was approached by some academia professionals about entering graduate school at their university because they liked things that I had to say.”

“The Golden Scholar Program was probably one of the most significant things that I have ever done for my future career,” Furseth, Soil and Crop Science major, said. “I was able to network with peers and some big wigs. I made many new friends and met people such as Dr. Norman Borlaug, Pedro Sanchez and the President of Bangledesh. I was able to really get my name out there for future jobs and graduate school.”

The Crop Science Society of America is a professional society for crop science major’s primarily. It is linked to the Platteville Agronomy Club.

For students who are interested in this opportunity, watch for scholarships that come out, said Parr. The Golden Opportunity scholarship has only been given out for two years. This year the Golden Opportunity Scholarship was given out by the CSSA.