Update

Six minority students at Oregon State University will get closer to achieving
their career dreams through OSU and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Multicultural
Scholars Program.

USDA grants will provide each student with four years of tuition, a paid summer
internship, and a trip to a national career conference, all part of the mission
to promote multicultural diversity in agriculture, especially in high level
positions where minorities are underrepresented.

Two of the USDA Multicultural Scholars have specific goals that are rooted
in migrant worker communities where they hope to make a difference. Emily Escobedo
foresees a career in protecting migrant workers and their families from exposure
to pesticides; Omar Miranda-Garcia will focus on improving the health and nutrition
of minority populations.

All six students are part of OSU’s
Bioresource Research Program (BRR), a nationally
recognized undergraduate program that engages students in high level, real-world
research in agriculture, natural resources, and human health. In addition,
OSU supports minority scholars through the student organization Minorities
in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS). MANRRS provides
leadership training, peer mentoring, and the opportunity to make connections
during its national career conference.

“We know that bioresource research training is really valuable to under-represented,
first-generation diversity students,” said Wanda Crannell, who advises students
in the BRR and MANRRS programs. “Pursuing a tougher major with more breadth
and experience is going to make them more competitive in their careers.”

These OSU programs, and support from the USDA, have already made a difference
for pre-veterinary student Ashley Seeley. Unable to pay for a fourth year of
college, Seeley’s goal of becoming a Spanish-speaking vet in Oregon was in
doubt. As a Multicultural Scholar, Seeley is now looking forward to completing
her pre-vet-med program with a language immersion exchange in Spain and an
internship in applied genetics at the
OSU College of Veterinary Medicine.

Although the graduation rate is low for freshmen from historically under-represented
groups (within the Oregon University System, about 54 percent graduate within
six years), according to Crannell 95 percent of OSU’s MANRRS students have
graduated. The funding and support from OSU and USDA encourage minority students
to challenge themselves in research and leadership, and build the skills they
will need for successful professional careers.

Dioxin is a double-edged sword. Scientists at Oregon State University have
found that dioxin can be effective in fighting diseases triggered by faulty
immune systems. The only catch? Dioxin is toxic. It’s in the Vietnam-era herbicide
Agent Orange and can cause a disfiguring skin disease in humans.

So a team of OSU researchers led by toxicologist
Nancy Kerkvliet is searching
for a chemical that works like dioxin to fight autoimmune diseases, but will
not trigger new diseases.

Studying one type of dioxin referred to as TCDD, Kerkvliet unraveled dioxin’s
effect on the immune system of mice. First, it binds to a protein (AhR) found
inside a cell. The bound dioxin and AhR then pass into the nucleus, latch onto
DNA, and turn certain genes on or off. This process produces regulatory T cells,
which then shut down the immune system’s response, which in turn suppresses
the development of diabetes.

To help Kerkvliet find alternatives to dioxin, OSU cancer biologist Siva Kolluri
and his crew are screening 50,000 compounds in search of ones that function
like dioxin to induce regulatory T cells.

If they’re successful, their results could bring relief to people who suffer
from autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis,
psoriasis, and type 1 diabetes.

Kerkvliet and Kolluri’s work is supported by a $1.8 million grant from the
federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Clark Seavert is an economist. He studies agricultural finance, returns on
investment, production economics. You might think that Seavert is a bit boring,
a bit dry, a product of marble libraries and linoleum floors. You would be
wrong.

In 1984, Seavert enrolled in
Oregon State University’s Agriculture Program
at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande. He was one of the 27 freshmen that
made up the program’s first graduating class.

“I had family living in the area,” says Seavert, who is originally from North
Dakota and is now the director of OSU’s North Willamette Research and Extension
Center in Aurora. “At that time fishing and hunting were really important to
me, maybe more than school. It was the setting that drew me there—but the agriculture
program kept me there.”

This year, that program celebrated 25 years of partnership between OSU and
Eastern. By Rachel Robertson Multicultural Scholars Omar Miranda-Garcia and
Emily Escobedo have chosen a rigorous program of bioresource research to reach
their career goals and eventually to make a difference in migrant worker communities.

“When I got there, the class sizes were small, and the professors were passionate,”
says Seavert. Although he admits he was not the best student at the time, he
got the extra help he needed and formed close relationships with faculty.

When the OSU/EOU partnership began, there were only two teaching faculty and
a single degree with one minor offered. Today, the program supports nine faculty
members, 160 full time students, and one of the nation’s largest programs in
rangeland ecology and management. Degrees are offered in five different agriculture
and resource areas, with seven minors; and 500 students have received degrees
from OSU through this program.

Many graduates have stayed in eastern Oregon, according to Larry Larson, the
OSU Agriculture Program Coordinator at EOU. “They remain part of the agricultural
community and the land-grant mission of the state,” he says.

Then there’s Seavert: the student who joined the program for its proximity
to hunting and fishing and who once left a frozen lutefisk on a professor’s
desk over a long weekend. Seavert, when it comes down to it, is not boring
at all. “Really, though, the program was, and continues to be, a place where
students can have the laidback lifestyle of eastern Oregon while getting a
serious education that prepares them to excel in agricultural and natural resource
fields.”