The Young Professional Achievement Award recognizes alumni for their early professional accomplishments. This award provides recognition for these individuals and serves as a stimulus toward further efforts by younger alumni. Nominees are to be 35 years of age and younger at the time of receiving the award. We checked in with them to see what they have accomplished since earning their award and what it meant to them. Hear from a few of our honorees below.
Joshua Jennings
BS ’00 Animal Sciences; ASC ’00 Livestock Production and Management, Beef and Sheep
Young Professional Achievement Award, 2015
Q: What has been your greatest achievement and/or milestone since receiving your alumni award?
A: Since receiving the award in 2015, Global Impact STEM Academy has expanded its programing to reach more students. In 2015, we served students in grades 9–12, offering a STEM educational experience immersed in the field of agriculture. In the fall of 2017, we completed another facilities project to expand to grades 7 and 8.
Q: What other thoughts do you have about your CFAES alumni experience?
A: I have appreciated the work of CFAES alumni, and am glad to say that our school has a number of students now attending CFAES and that those students will be future contributing alumni.
Allison Specht-Jaynes
MS ’07 Agricultural Economics, BS ’04 Agribusiness and Applied Economics
Young Professional Achievement Award, 2014
Q: Describe what receiving a CFAES Alumni Award meant to you.
A: Since graduating from Ohio State, my goal has been to make a positive impact in the food and agricultural industry. From advocating for agricultural policy early in my career to supporting new products and markets for agricultural commodities later in my career, I feel it is important for our industry to always be looking ahead and exploring the next opportunity. Receiving the CFAES Young Professional Achievement Award was a meaningful moment early in my career and affirmed the fact I was fulfilling my personal mission.
Q: What other thoughts do you have about your CFAES alumni experience?
A: I am forever grateful I selected an undergraduate major and a graduate degree program in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. CFAES does an outstanding job of creating an inclusive culture among their alumni and remaining connected. CFAES is more than a college—it’s a family, a support system, and a network. Over the years, I’ve remained engaged in department activities and speaking to students. I look forward to continued opportunities to further my involvement.
Tim Barnes
BS ’72 Animal Sciences
Young Professional Achievement Award, 1984
Q: Describe what receiving a CFAES Alumni Award meant to you.
A: I was very honored to receive the CFAES Young Professional Award. It truly was a great surprise to receive this award. My early efforts and commitments to the livestock industry were a foundation for my future leadership and involvement in local, state, and national organizations.
Q: What has been your greatest achievement and/or milestone since receiving your alumni award?
A: I have been blessed to have a supportive agriculture family that has allowed me to be involved in sheep, swine, Farm Bureau, FFA, and 4-H leadership positions. Two of my top honors are: first, being a member of the Ohio State University Department of Animal Sciences Hall of Fame; and second, receiving the Charlie Boyles Ohio Master Shepherd Award from the Ohio Sheep Improvement Association.
Dr. Nutsuda Sumonsiri
PhD ’12 Food Science and Nutrition
Young Professional Achievement Award, 2018
Q: What has been your greatest achievement or milestone since receiving your Alumni Award?
A: After receiving the Young Professional Achievement Award, I was promoted from assistant professor to associate professor at King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok and was selected to receive a Researcher Connect-OHEC Talent Mobility grant in 2019.
Q: Do you have other thoughts about your time at CFAES?
A: The knowledge, skills, memories, opportunities, and everything I received from my advisor, professors, and peers at the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, The Ohio State University, were extremely valuable and made me what I am today. Thank you.
Warren Boerger
BS ’91 Agricultural Economics
Young Professional Achievement Award, 1998
Q: Describe what receiving a CFAES Alumni Award meant to you.
A: I was honored to receive the Young Professional Achievement Award from CFAES early in my career. The surprise of being contacted as a recipient from an anonymous nomination was humbling for someone who simply wants to contribute to the industry and represent my family and alma mater well.
Q: What has been your greatest achievement or milestone since receiving your Alumni Award?
A: Since the award, I have been blessed with the opportunity to live abroad and visit several agricultural areas around the world while holding a variety of roles, including sales, marketing, information technology, digital, and management. Each role provided me the opportunity to meet and work with a variety of great people focused on the challenges and opportunities in agriculture. The greatest achievements I will remember the most are those times when I helped someone develop and progress their career or business.
Scott Higgins
BS ’84 Agricultural Economics
Young Professional Achievement Award, 1994, Distinguished Alumni Award 2011
Q: Describe what receiving a CFAES Alumni Award meant to you.
A: Receiving the Young Professional Achievement Award recognition in 1994 was truly an honor and a privilege that I never expected. It was a humbling moment when I was notified of the award, and it was extremely gratifying to know that others were watching as I worked hard to make a difference for dairy farmers and the dairy industry in the first 10 years of my career upon graduating from The Ohio State University.
Q: What has been your greatest achievement since receiving your alumni award?
A: While I have several very satisfying achievements during my career, I am most proud of leading a partnership in the dairy industry that developed and launched the first line of flavored milk packaged in a round, resealable, recyclable, single-serve, 12-ounce plastic bottle. Some of you may recall the introduction of Moo Kooler in 1996. That innovation and marketing launch for single-serve milk was successful and instrumental toward inspiring further innovation for milk and milk packaging in the United States.
Elizabeth Hebron
MS ’01 Agricultural Economics, BS ’96 Agribusiness and Applied Economics
Young Professional Achievement Award, 2007
Q: Describe what receiving your CFAES Alumni Award meant to you.
A: To this day, I am still shocked at receiving this award! Knowing all the outstanding work of my fellow classmates and then young professional colleagues, I was honored and humbled. This award helped to bolster my confidence in my career path and is something I will always cherish.
Q: What has been your greatest achievement since receiving your Alumni Award?
A: I was raised to help my fellow neighbor and have carried that tenet into my professional career. As a government affairs professional, I quickly learned that working in partnership with like-minded allied organizations or “neighbors” was the key to success. My greatest achievements include building strong relationships with partner organizations that have helped to advance public policies benefiting agriculture, the environment, and all people.
Judith R. Lindsey
BS ’85 Horticulture
Young Professional Achievement Award, 1995
Q: What has been your greatest achievement or milestone since winning your Alumni Award?
A: There have been times I have looked back on receiving the Young Professional Achievement Award and wondered if I have let the university down in the years since as I have not invented some new food preservation process, contributed to solving world hunger, or taught the next generation of food scientists. But “by small and simple things, great things are brought to pass,” and those small and simple things are my greatest achievements since winning the award. I have helped numerous product developers better understand their consumers and get comfortable allowing the consumer to be part of their team, I have been the chair of the IFT Sensory Division and helped the members recognize that they have a responsibility to help other food scientists improve their work by applying sensory science principles, and I have developed a short course that brings food scientists together to learn from experts and each other what tools they can employ to build better products for their companies and consumers. My greatest achievement since winning the Young Professional Achievement Award in 1995 has been to stay engaged in the promotion of Ohio State and the field of food science by sharing my knowledge and experience with others so they can use it as a foundation upon which to achieve even greater things. I believe a milestone is that after 35 years of achieving my degree, I still love my career choice and would not change my path in any way. I willingly talk to any high school students or young professionals about how Ohio State and a degree from CFAES will be the best decision they could make when thinking about their future in the world.
Dr. Christine Taylor Waddill
PhD ’78 Plant Pathology, MS ’76 Plant Pathology
Young Professional Achievement Award, 1984
Q: What are your thoughts about your CFAES alumni experience?
A: I believe that the opportunities that I received at The Ohio State University prepared me for a diverse career in academia. My major professor for my master’s degree had a primary appointment in Extension, and this afforded me the opportunity to connect with both other Extension faculty, county agents, and clientele at an early stage in my career. My two PhD advisors were located at Wooster, so I did a lot of my dissertation work there. Back on main campus, I served as a teaching assistant in several classes in my department. I feel that these experiences truly made me competitive for my first position at Michigan State. As stated previously, receiving the Young Professional Achievement Award from Ohio State was an inspiration to keep working towards a successful career in academia.
Do you know of a deserving CFAES alumni or supporter of the food, agricultural or environmental industries?
Nominate them for the 2022 CFAES Alumni Awards! Nominations are due Wednesday, June 30, 2021.
Nomination forms found here.