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The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences presented its annual LAS Future Discovery Awards at the 2022 Iowa State Fair, recognizing 4-H projects that focused on a wide range of topics.

The awards honor 4-H youth whose Iowa State Fair projects demonstrate the innovation, curiosity and scholarship that is foundational to a liberal arts and sciences education. The 2022 recipients of the LAS Future Discovery Awards included projects on the physics of baseball, communication in rural Iowa, and music composition.

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. This award program also helps highlight the connections between the research topics of 4-H youth and the diversity of academic majors in LAS.

LAS faculty and staff select each year’s award winners. This year’s judges included Dan Rice, LAS transfer relations coordinator and outreach advisor; Eric Merten, LAS recruitment coordinator; and Rich Pope, a member of the 4-H judging team.

“As in past years, we were impressed with the quality of 4-H exhibits,” Rice said. “The new renovations in the 4-H exhibits building are fantastic. It is a great space for the 4-H displays and a great experience for fairgoers to view winners.”

2022 LAS Future Discovery Award recipients

• Hunter Deckard, Franklin County, “Baseball and the Bat”
• Zachary Proctor, Davis County, “Communication Technology Impacts Rural Iowa”
• Flockhart Jacie-Aspen, Dallas County, “America’s Literacy Crisis”
• Nancy Van De Walle, Bremer County, “Disease Transmission: Zoonotic”
• Hannah Rodgers, Washington County, “Pencil Drawing of Runner”
• Cael Mess, Scott County, “Bass Guitar Build”
• Ali Hanesn, Page County, “Matilda Jr. Experience”
• Rachel Rudacille, Appanoose County, “Composing Music: Savannah”
• Anna Becker, Benton County, “Boy Pitching Baseball”
• Brock Jean, Dallas County, “The Bank is Open”