LAS honors 4-H students with Future Discovery Awards
Author: Stacey Maifeld
Each year, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences recognizes exceptional 4-H projects at the Iowa State Fair with the LAS Future Discovery Awards.
These awards honor 4-H youth whose Iowa State Fair projects demonstrate innovation, curiosity and scholarship that is foundational to a liberal arts and sciences education. This year’s 2021 recipients included research on a diverse range of timely topics, such as Iowa’s 2020 derecho and the relationship between social media and voting.
The LAS Future Discovery Award is a $500 scholarship, awarded to each recipient upon the student’s enrollment at Iowa State in a liberal arts and sciences major.
LAS faculty and staff select each year’s award winners. This year’s judges included Dan Rice, LAS transfer relations coordinator and outreach advisor; Terry Kruse, LAS unit advisor; Eric Merten, LAS recruitment coordinator; Erin Valerio-Garsow, LAS academic advisor; and Jeffrey Wheatley, assistant professor of philosophy and religious studies.
“We hope the Future Discovery Award encourages all 4-H students to look to Iowa State University and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences as the place to seek a college degree,” Rice said. “The wide variety of majors in college are all well-represented in the topics these young adults have investigated and researched. I invite different judges each year, and they are always impressed with the quality and variety of the 4-H projects.”
2021 LAS Future Discovery Award recipients
- Rachel Aird, Muscatine County, “Think You Don’t Like Classical Music”
- Macy Bristle, Boone County, “Derecho!”
- Zachary Campbell, Story County, “Oracle Discord Bot”
- Aaron Carlson, Jefferson County, “BeyBlades”
- Zachary Harnden, Dallas County, “Social Media and Voting”
- Maeve Janssen, Marshall County, “The History of a Dress”
- Jarret Jordahl, Franklin County, “Iowa Toads and Frogs”
- Madelynn Schuh, Johnson County, “Social Interaction and Complex Trauma”
- Addison Wicklund, Winneshiek County, “Life Through Deaf Eyes
- Noah Yeager, Polk County, “Budget to Boston”