By : Jasmine Thomas
A group of students majoring in agricultural economics recently participated in a San Antonio, Texas competition sponsored by the Southern Agricultural Economics Association. The national SAEA Quiz Bowl consisted of more than 200 students from 21 universities from all over the nation. These students compete in this battle of the minds to display their knowledge about the business of agriculture and have to come up with plans to solve real world issues. The SAEA conference was held from Feb. 6-9.
The Fort Valley State University team attends this conference every year. This year senior Sierra Ayers made it to the eighth round. The competition has 12 rounds total.
“I am so proud to be a part of this team, we were the only HBCU in attendance at the conference, so to have placed was truly an honor,” said Ayers.
According to the association, this year students from 21 universities participated in the quiz bowl. At least six of these universities had not sent students to compete before. Of those sending students this year, 11 of the universities were 1862 Land Grants, Fort Valley State was was the only 1890s land grant institution and the others were regional state schools. The student numbers were the highest they have ever been at 126 students with the next highest year being 94. Most of this increase can be explained by the number of students brought by universities participating in the quiz bowl for the first time.
