It's only been a few weeks since she arrived on campus to begin her graduate studies within Ohio State's Department of Agricultural Communication, Environment, and Leadership, but Joyce Mwakatoga is already diving into all of the opportunities to get involved that Ohio State University and the City of Columbus have to offer. Here is just a short overview of what she has experienced during her short time on campus!
2014 Farm Science Review
The demonstrations we had the chance to see really showed how “big farming” occurs in the United States. Though I’ve gone through agricultural classes throughout my academic studies, I’ve never seen big farm machinery like the ones I saw at the Farm Science Review. I was happy to see most of the brands I’ve encountered in my classes - John Deere, Kubota, New Holland, & Cat (Caterpillar), which my mother owns.
The Amaranths weed in Ohio: A Serious Threat to Agriculture
Amaranths are one of the most common vegetables in my country of Tanzania, and we had never had serious issues with it in our plantations. It actually is highly recommended to pregnant women because it highly rich in iron. We learned about it in school and became to know it as "pig weed", but this was the first instance I've heard of it being a threat to crops.
Ohio State Football - American Football!
I am not much of a friend of any kind of game, football especially (soccer, basketball, nor any type of a game). However, going to the Ohio State Football game was such an amazing experience. Even though I was unfamiliar with any principles of the game, I was still able to smile and shout "OH"-"IO" along with other fans. I love the fact the game was only one part of this experience, as there was a lot to enjoy outside the actual game like the Ohio State Marching Band's performance. The band was able to form different words and signs in the field as they marched, which I found particularly lovely.
Tour of the Ohio State Capitol Building
We found out a lot of information about the state of Ohio through the tour of the State Capital Building, which was organized by Office of International Affairs at Ohio State. The tour was a part of the International Student Tour of Columbus that the office organized to introduce international students to the city and state that they now live in!
Joyce is a graduate student sponsored by the Innovative Agricultural Research Initiative (iAGRI), a Feed the Future project in Tanzania funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and led by The Ohio State University. This major food security project seeks to prepare the next generation of agricultural scientists, leaders and food system institutions in Tanzania through graduate degree training, collaborative research, and human and institutional capacity development (HICD).