Commencement is always one of my favorite times of the year! It’s incredibly rewarding to be able to celebrate our seniors and highlight their accomplishments. In our Senior Spotlight section below, we feature a senior from each of our 14 degree programs – please read more about their involvement and how CAFNR has helped prepare them for the future!

We had an exciting addition during this year’s commencement ceremony, as we invited two graduates to share their Mizzou and CAFNR experiences. I want to thank Joe Butler (plant sciences) and Lauren Chong (biochemistry) for speaking!

Also, we’ll be pressing pause on LATitude for the next two months. The newsletter will return in August, with the same important content highlighting our students and their achievements.

Bryan Garton
Senior Associate Dean
Director of Academic Programs

We’ve been excited to spotlight a graduating senior from each of our 14 degree programs during the past two weeks! Read all of our senior spotlights on the CAFNR website.

CAFNR welcomed two students from Ecole d’Ingénieurs de PURPAN this year – Anne-Fleur Le Segretain du Patis (left) and Domitille Tissier

Keegan O’Toole and Rocky Elam, NCAA Div. I Wrestling All-Americans, work hard to balance their sport and their studies

Grace Anderson has gained incredible hands-on learning experiences through Tiger Garden

AG_ED_LD 4340 course has given students the chance to connect with industry partners and develop educational programs

Two CAFNR graduate students helped Mizzou capture men’s and women’s disc golf national championships

• Kristen Barwick, sophomore biochemistry major, was a recent recipient of the 2022 American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF). She is a Freshman Research in Plants (FRIPS) alumna and has worked in the lab of Antje Heese, associate professor of biochemistry, since 2021. Barwick will conduct her research project, titled, “Expressing and purifying the Arabidopsis EPSIN1 ENTH domain for antibody production,” in Heese’s lab this summer. Barwick will receive a $4,000 summer stipend, membership in ASPB, and $700 (paid to the mentor) for materials and supplies. The fellowship also provides a $575 stipend to support student travel to Plant Biology 2023, the ASPB annual meeting, which will be held in August in Savannah, Georgia. Barwick will present her SURF project as a poster at the international meeting.
• The second annual Division of Applied Social Sciences (DASS) Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (IDE) Awards Ceremony was held in mid-May and honored students, faculty and alumni. The awards were presented by the DASS IDE Awards Committee. Awardees include: Aniyah Jones, senior in hospitality management; Barituka Bekee, doctoral candidate in the environmental and development emphasis area of the Division of Applied Social Sciences; Garren Wegener, master’s student in agricultural and applied economics, and data science and analytics; Dae-Young Kiim, professor of hospitality management and graduate program coordinator; and Jenifer Pilz, coordinator of the School of Visual Studies Computer Labs and director of Africa Hub.