Sokneang Sam, a 3rd year Food Engineer from the Faculty of Agricultural, Food Sciences and Environmental Management participated the Youth Ag Summit, which was held between 4th-6th in Brasilia, Brazil.
The programme she joined was fully funded by Bayer Company for 100 delegates from 45 countries around the world. She had a chance to meet the Head Director of Bayer Crops Science and the founder, too. It was a really great opportunity for students in the Agriculture sector. If anyone would like to ask for more information, she is free answer their questions as a YAS alumni member.
Here is a report with her:
How did you learn about the opportunity?
I am part of the UN Online volunteer as a translator so I have a good network related to youth opportunities around the world.
The Youth Ag Summit is held every two years staring from 2013 which was held in Canada and then in 2015 in Australia and in 2017 in Belgium and this year in Brazil. Actually, I am the first representative of my country, Cambodia in this event.
How can you get in touch with Bayer?
I developed a close relationship with them only after I got selected as the delegate of this event.
What were the requirements for the application?
You have to be between 18-35 and you should have some background in agriculture or in any other related fields. You have to submit a 3-minute video that describes you and the project you want to pitch at the event.
What experiences did you gain there, what were your impressions, how can others take advantage of similar opportunities in the future?
As a young student joining such a professional event, I have learned so much in agriculture, especially in innovation, technology and leadership. One important benefit of this event was that I had a chance to interact with other 99 youth leaders from around the world and we got into a really strong networking. They also organised a farm visiting, where I had a chance to see one of the biggest farms (SLC Agriculture) in Brazil and learn orally at the farm. The program gave us the opportunity to connect with people through social networking. We gained the opportunity of building our future career in Agriculture and Food production, which was offered by partner companies such as PepsiCo, Bayer Crop Science, Nufflield. And last but not least, we can apply for scholarships to furhter our education in the future.
However, the application process is quiet hard since they only select the best delegates who have passion and deep thoughts of the project, which is related to the 17 SDGs that mainly focus on 2nd goal, Zero Hunger and Sustainable farming. For example, mine was about using insects to produce food product.
You can find more information from this website : www.youthagsummit.com/
And here is the official video of the event:
https://www.facebook.com/YouthAgSummit/videos/563516827757221/
