By Lily Rutherford
The Smith Center for International Sustainable Agriculture has seen an incredibly successful 2025. From a groundbreaking program launch to new experiences in over five countries across the globe, the Smith Center’s team has made history for UTIA’s international footprint.
In January 2025, the Herbert College of Agriculture and the Smith Center launched a pilot study abroad program to Costa Rica. The program is designed specifically for first-year students, immersing them in an international context for agriculture and natural resources within their first academic year at UT.
First-year students had the privilege of exploring places like the Tirimbina Biological Reserve and various cloud forests early on into their college experiences. This opportunity also gave them early first-hand insight into their desired fields of study.
This program also provided students with new lifelong perspectives. One student stated, “I have to say, outside of all the amazing activities and experiences, what I was most surprised by was how much easier it was to learn and retain information while I was there seeing and experiencing it all.” Realizations like this can be even more influential to students during their first year in higher education.
Following the launch of this program, the Smith Center provided coverage on other important happenings within the UTIA community. Most notably, this included UTCVM’s increase in their international opportunities for veterinary students, helping them grow global in their own career paths.
Come March 2025, the Smith Center’s own Hans Goertz traveled to Kenya to continue cultivating our network of partnerships in East Africa. He, along with a delegation of other UTIA faculty, toured livestock production facilities and addressed issues they found related to research and extension gaps.
The group also met with alumni from the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service’s exchange programs and collaborated with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) on a red meat value chain workshop. These Kenyan partnerships helped maintain the Smith Center’s mission to strengthen international relations and expand global engagement opportunities for UTIA faculty, staff, and students.
Also in March were a handful of study abroad programs. These included host countries like Guatemala and a second program in Costa Rica.
In Guatemala, students studied food, agriculture, and natural resource challenges with activities like harvesting coffee cherries and handmaking corn tortillas with local producers. Students on this program noted how it allowed them to learn by doing and emphasized their enjoyment of seeing new facets of their field from an international perspective.
Participants of the Costa Rica program were able to see toucans and monkeys in their natural habitats and interact with hummingbirds in a hummingbird garden. One student described the program as being everything they expected and more, adding how they enjoyed having the chance to see, up close, the impact of these places on Costa Rica and the global economy.
In the summer, the Smith Center had the pleasure of interviewing Julie Sheldon, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences and alumna of the Smith Global Leadership Fellows program. Sheldon provided insight into her time as a Smith Global Leadership Faculty Fellow, mentioning how the program encourages her to be global.
She also said that her experience has made her want to take students abroad to make a lasting impact by “coming back with those stories and skills to inspire them to expand their horizons and try things and go to new places and learn.”
Also over the summer, various study abroad programs took place. In fact, the Smith Center’s own Kristen Graas took part in a program to Croatia and other programs to England and Scotland ran during the same semester.
The Croatia program exposed students to different parts of the country, giving them varied opportunities to interact with European digital agriculture systems up close. While abroad, participants visited UNESCO World Heritage Sites and intermingled with students from FAZOS (Faculty of Agrobiotechnical Science Osijek) to exchange experiences.
Kristen Graas, a graduate student with the delegation, explained what the program meant to her. “Meeting locals to me is the most important part of going abroad. Learning their culture through conversation and food is the whole point of leaving home. Everyone we met was so wonderful.”
The program exploring England and Scotland walked students through numerous gardens across the region and allowed them to directly engage with plant science studies in a way a classroom setting could never offer.
Favorite aspects of the program from students included seeing Great Dixter, learning about Cristopher Lloyd, visiting the Aigas Field Centre, and simply exploring new cities. One student commended the program’s ability to develop participants’ problem-solving skills. She described how it was “an amazing experience and you learn a lot about yourself as well as working with others.”
Towards the end of the summer, Hans Goertz traveled to North Africa. He took part in a two-way exchange with scientists from multiple African countries, helping to develop UTIA’s global development and further its international relationships. He visited places like Algeria and Morocco, and he cultivated an opportunity for UTIA mentors to check on fellows’ progress.
Around this same time, the Smith Center also hosted two international interns. Juliana Fernanda Castañeda Lopez and Javier Andrés García Piñeros, both students of UniAndes in Colombia, furthered their research here at UT. With studies relating to vector-borne diseases, venomous insects, and infectious diseases, they were able to gain insight into their respective interests and expand their global experiences while in the U.S.
With its signature event of the year, the Smith Center hosted its annual International Showcase in September. The showcase surpassed all expectations with an attendance of over 250 people and immense support from friends of the Smith Center. Organizations like ECHO, Peace Corps Prep, and the Center for Global Engagement encouraged global interactions with students, and attendees explored the International Photo Contest while enjoying fresh ice cream provided by the UT Creamery.
With all of this, the Smith Center has had a phenomenal year and thanks everyone for their continued support. We can’t wait for another amazing year and opportunity to #GrowGlobal in 2026!