The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences 45th Annual Field Day, held March 6th, featured 11 virtual contests, allowing 1,104 Future Farmers of America and 4H students to compete in a very complex event which involved a lot of extra work by all Advisors and Coordinators to make changes, create online content, shoot and edit videos, create new rubrics and more.

FST Professor Bwalya Lungu was the Food Science Faculty Advisor for the event.  Melissa Huang, Food Science student, served as one of three Student Coordinators (with Kate Basmadjian and Annika Ransberger) for the food science contests, and was the Student Recipient of the 2021 Brad Davis Award for her exceptional contributions to the event.  Congrats to all for their hard work! 

The awards were presented by Andy Kennedy, Director of Grower Relations at the Mariana Packing Company in Vacaville.  Here are some of his comments about Melissa, excerpted from the Appreciation Event video which you can view here (Zoom login required). 

“Melissa Huang, second-year returning Student Coordinator, has done a great job of supporting our new coordinators and creating a collaborative environment. She built a strong working relationship with the Faculty Advisor and volunteer judges; she always responded to questions from teammates within a day and was able to juggle emails and planning with all her other commitments seamlessly. She exhibited confidence to advocate for what worked and also had the willingness to change what didn’t work. In response to the restrictions brought about by the pandemic, Melissa was able to restructure the contests this year to eliminate the need for volunteers. Her team felt secure going into field day, despite all the changes.  We’re grateful for her leadership and support -  please join me in congratulating Melissa Huang as a student recipient of the 2021 Brad Davis Award”.