Californian wins national collegiate discussion meet

» March 1, 2006 «

For the second time in three years, a California college student has won a national discussion contest sponsored by the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Beth Sequeira

Beth Sequeira, a senior at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, won the National Collegiate Discussion Meet. The contest occurred this past weekend at the nationwide Young Farmer and Rancher Leadership Conference in Des Moines, Iowa.

Sequeira competed with 25 other college students from across the United States, discussing topics that included protecting farms and ranches from terrorism, enhancing the public perception of agriculture and, during the final round, the need to assure that enough workers will be available to harvest the nation's crops.

A senior at Cal Poly, Sequeira will graduate in June with a degree in agricultural communications. She grew up on her parents' walnut farm in Kings County and has spent two summers working as an intern in the California Farm Bureau Federation in Sacramento.

As winner of the National Collegiate Discussion Meet, Sequeira earned $2500 from the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture. She qualified for the national competition by winning the Collegiate Discussion Meet held last December at the California Farm Bureau Annual Meeting in Monterey.

Another Californian, Molly Fagundes of California State University, Fresno, won the nationwide collegiate competition in 2004.

Discussion Meet activities encourage young farmers and ranchers, and college undergraduates studying agriculture, to analyze agricultural issues and arrive at solutions. More information about the Discussion Meet may be found on the California Farm Bureau Web site at www.cfbf.com/programs/yfr.

Contact: Dave Kranz
Phone: 916/561-5550
news@cfbf.com

Permission for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm Bureau Federation when reprinting this item.