Students Learn from a Borlaug Field Prize Winner about Feeding the World

Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research winner Eric Pohlman tells students at Roosevelt about his humanitarian organization, “One Acre Fund.”

Eric Pohlman isn’t used to talking to crowds, but being the 2015 Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research recipient has a way of pushing you out of your comfort zone.

“This is definitely very different,” Pohlman said after a presentation to several dozen Roosevelt High School students in the school library. He told them he only gets back to the United States for a few weeks each year.

Pohlman is used to spending most of his time in Rawanda working with family farmers for the humanitarian organization he co-founded, “One Acre Fund,” which in six years has grown to 1,000 field-based staff and 130,000 farm families.  But the son of a high school teacher, Pohlman seemed humble and at-ease with the students, who he said asked insightful questions about his activities in Africa.

While the well-traveled Pohlman found himself in new territory, Junior Sam Billingsley found new career possibilities in Pohlman’s work.

“What he does is what I wish I could do,” Billingsley said.  Billingsley had previously wanted to travel internationally helping countries deal with disasters.  He said he hadn’t considered the help he could provide to people struggling to stay alive daily.

“It was an amazing presentation,” he said.

Helen Black thought so, too.  The junior didn’t realize just how much Americans were doing to help the hungry feed themselves internationally.

“I didn’t know we knew that much about how to solve hunger,” she said, “and hearing about it in person makes it a more appealing career choice. I might look into it.”

It’s comments like that which bring a smile to Casey Dunley’s face. Dunley, a Gifted and Talented Consultant with DMPS who helped organize Pohlman’s visit, said face-to-face interaction with other young people who’ve had amazing career experiences helps her students envision themselves doing something incredible with their lives.

“Anytime we can bring adults in who are telling their life story, and they’re young and passionate about what they do, we don’t know how many kids that’s going to light a flame in,” Dunley said.

To learn more about the Borlaug Field Award, and all of the activities taking place in Des Moines this week, click here.