Inspiring Students to Pursue Agricultural Careers

Opportunities to gain experience in a laboratory or with cutting-edge technology are often reserved for students pursuing graduate degrees. The North Carolina Plant Sciences Initiative (N.C. PSI) is helping change that.

In its state-of-the-art facilities right on NC State’s Centennial Campus, it provides undergraduates across many disciplines with career-relevant opportunities. The initiative, which focuses on connecting growers with researchers, also partners with North Carolina high schools.

Whether you’re in high school or college, there are ample opportunities to learn how to conduct research, harness cutting-edge technologies and plant seeds for a rewarding career in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, agriculture and related fields.

Finding Purpose in Plant Sciences

Olivia McCormack, a biochemistry major from Asheville, needed an internship. 

She had enrolled in a plant physiology class to fulfill an elective toward her undergraduate degree when she spotted a posting for N.C. PSI Demo Lab interns. She applied and got the internship, but she didn’t anticipate how the experience would reshape her academic path.

McCormack, now a senior, hosts about one field trip a week, guiding middle and high school students through tours of the Plant Sciences Building’s greenhouse and research labs. At the Demo Lab, she and a team of undergraduate students make plant science relevant and accessible for younger students. She can relate — when she was their age, she didn’t think much about the vital role agriculture plays.

“It’s been enlightening for me, because … the Plant Sciences Initiative is very connected to agriculture, especially in North Carolina, which was something I was completely unaware of until I started working at the Demo Lab,” McCormack said. “I just didn’t know how big a deal agriculture was in North Carolina.

“So it’s been really cool to teach [visiting students] about the science and something really practical, like how this helps with our food.”

The interdisciplinary approach at N.C. PSI opened McCormack’s eyes to how science can intersect with many other areas and disciplines — an enthusiasm she shares with younger students who might, for example, be interested in art and design. She described lab exercises they lead students through that demonstrate those intersections, such as dyeing tote bags with natural, plant-based dyes to explore their scientific properties.

“We show them the possibilities of science, and how many different interests can all be connected to plant science,” she said. 

One hands-on experiment McCormack leads involves building gravity circuits with a watch battery, copper tape and a tilt sensor containing metal balls. When the tilt sensor is upright, gravity aligns the metal balls, completing the circuit and turning on the light bulb. Tilting the sensor breaks the connection, turning off the light and demonstrating how gravity can affect the flow of electricity. From the experiment, students learn that plant roots are also affected by gravity and how tiny starch granules called statoliths sense which direction to grow.

“We watch them engage with the experiment and try something that they didn’t think they would be capable of, and then they realize, ‘Oh, wait, I can actually do this.’ They can actually make a little light bulb light up, just from a few things,” said McCormack. 

She had her own lightbulb moment when she started her internship. McCormack initially enrolled at NC State with the goal of securing a stable job in the pharmaceutical industry. But her involvement in plant sciences made her rethink a possible career path in agriculture — one that genuinely excited her. 

“After working at the Plant Science Initiative in my first semester, I really got to see agriculture and how science can connect to that, and I honestly just kind of fell in love with it.”

She added a second major in biological and agricultural engineering technology, and is interested in exploring how technology and design can make farms more efficient and sustainable. She sees it also as a future-proof career path that keeps her local. 

“Everyone has to eat,” she said, “and so it’ll always be an industry that needs improvement and help, especially as populations keep growing and climates get more difficult. I definitely feel very called to be here in North Carolina.”

In addition to working in the Demo Lab, McCormack currently helps manage the research mentorship component of NC Youth Institute, a program affiliated with the World Food Prize Foundation. As a coordinator, she matches around 100 high school students from across North Carolina with graduate student mentors. Through role models like McCormack, high schoolers are introduced to the future of innovative agriculture in our state and to exciting, high-demand STEM career opportunities in plant sciences.

“I think the Plant Sciences Initiative being able to reach high schoolers — because we have students from the mountains, we have students from the coast that we’re reaching, especially with the Youth Institute — is really important,” McCormack said. “We constantly need more people in science and agriculture here in North Carolina because there’s so much agriculture here. It’s one of our biggest job sectors.”

Mentorship and Collaboration

N.C. PSI works on challenges ranging from the need to grow more food on less farmland to agricultural threats such as climate shifts, water availability and disease. 

To do this, N.C. PSI brings together people who want to Think and Do — across disciplines and academic degrees.  

Grace Vincent sought a Ph.D. program in electrical engineering where she could bridge data science and AI methodologies to address real-world problems. “I don’t have a background in electrical engineering, but I found a lab that still did work very similar to what I was interested in, and a professor who supported my ideas.”

Cranos Williams, Goodnight Distinguished Professor of Agricultural Analytics and an N.C. PSI platform director, assured Vincent that there was a home for her computational work. She now leads a research project using advanced imaging technology to identify and assess crop diseases in corn and tomatoes. Her goal is to develop practical tools for farmers and breeders.

N.C. PSI also provided a space where Vincent can work with undergrads — and extend the same supportive spirit she received. Reeves Caporicci, a junior majoring in plant biology with a minor in horticulture, worked with Vincent and learned to conduct scientific research on pathogens affecting tomatoes.

Caporicci helped plant and care for greenhouse tomato plants, monitoring their germination and growth. Under Vincent’s mentorship, Caporicci inoculated the plants by spraying them with selected pathogens and learned how to use AI and advanced imaging technology to collect data on plant diseases.   

“This experience was valuable to me because I learned how to adapt to different methods of data collection and procedures,” said Caporicci, who has gained valuable, career-ready tools in research and technology.

Such opportunities for mentorship, networking and mutual learning are literally built into the Plant Sciences Building. For example, Vincent can coordinate with greenhouse technicians and horticulture researchers to develop protocols, capture data upstairs and analyze it at her desk downstairs. 

“I wasn’t having to drive across town to a different greenhouse,” she said. “I was able to go monitor my plants as they were growing on a lunch break or on breaks between meetings, and then return to my desk to quality-check and analyze data — all without leaving the building.”

Coming from a computational background, Vincent appreciates how the space enables her to see where the data comes from and sometimes get her hands on the very thing she is studying.

“I think back to when I was an undergrad doing research projects and what I thought I would have wanted. I think N.C. PSI resources in general provide a lot of that — having space for meetings, access to high-performance computing and the opportunity to get your hands dirty,” Vincent said. 

Developing Future Solutions 

NC State is preparing the next generation of innovative leaders and versatile problem-solvers.

N.C. PSI, co-administered by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Office of University Interdisciplinary Programs, helps students leverage their interests and skills to gain practical experience through research projects and experiential learning initiatives.

The urgency of agricultural innovation isn’t abstract for the students and researchers at N.C. PSI — it’s a defining challenge of their generation. Vincent, McCormack and Reeves are three students among thousands who are using their curiosity, creativity and commitment to build better food systems and sustainable farming practices. 

Through their work with N.C. PSI, they’re helping a new generation find the passion and commitment to solving these problems for all of us in and outside of North Carolina.

Get Involved with the N.C. PSI

• High School Students: Take part in the NC Youth Institute to explore ways to solve global hunger by engaging in agricultural and food systems research, then join us at NC State for a two-day to share your research and participate in workshops, field trips and more.
  
• NC State Undergraduates: Apply to work in the N.C. PSI Demo Lab, learn about N.C. PSI internship opportunities, compete in our three-day Hackathon or volunteer to help with the annual Plant Science Outreach Day, which brings 100 high school students from across the state to explore hands-on, interdisciplinary science.
  
•  NC State Graduate Students: Share your interdisciplinary research at the BRIDGE Symposium, apply for an N.C. PSI internship, become a mentor for the NC Youth Institute and check out our fellowship and awards program to win funds for your research.
  
• Middle or High School Teachers: Schedule a Friday morning field trip for your students to the Plant Sciences Building, explore our K-12 lab protocols or contact us for info about summer professional development opportunities.

Contact N.C. PSI Education Program Manager Sarah Dinger for details about our educational opportunities.