After an engaging set of interactions in South Africa over the summer, several faculty from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) are planning new collaborations with colleagues from the University of Pretoria and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

The 2018-19 Academy of Global Engagement (Global Academy) traveled to South Africa during June 2019 to culminate the twelfth year of this annual faculty training program coordinated by the Office of International Programs. Accompanied by Dean Kim Kidwell and Melinda DelRossi, the group visited two campuses and immersed themselves in the South African context to build academic partnerships and lay groundwork for future projects that will benefit all.   

The ACES delegation’s first stop was in South Africa’s administrative capital, Pretoria, to visit the new Future Africa campus, a dynamic living, learning, and research environment where Africa’s leading scientists and scholars from around the world come together to address global grand challenges. In addition to housing Future Africa, the University of Pretoria enrolls nearly 60,000 students over seven campuses.

Read University of Pretoria’s news article on the Global Academy’s visit

Looking to the future, potential partnerships between ACES and the University of Pretoria could include:

• Using facial recognition technology to track livestock
• Addressing soil-water-plant nexus for human health and community development
• Biocontrol of plant diseases
• Data-intensive farm management

The group then traveled to the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), named for the northeastern province of South Africa. UKZN has an enrollment of more than 46,000 students on five campuses. As at Pretoria, the ACES group met with colleagues individually and in groups to find the best ways to position the two universities as partners moving forward.

Future potential partnerships between ACES and UKZN could include:

• Improving interpretation of soil health for small-scale producers
• Evaluating carbon and food web dynamics
• Looking for commonalities and ways to improve both countries’ extension systems

The immersion experience helps fulfil the Office of International Program’s mission to develop and maintain a platform of strategic partnerships for international engagement, while proving beneficial for the Global Academy scholars both professionally and personally. In addition to building global connections, the experience also built camaraderie among ACES colleagues, and offered the opportunity to experience this unique culture.

Below are some faculty reflections on the recent Global Academy experience:

“This experience was useful to me in a practical way. Since I already had a clear idea of what I wanted to do and had an existing collaborator, I was able to find the right people who offered me connections to farmers and funding sources,”  -- David Bullock, professor of agricultural and consumer economics and Global Academy scholar

“I really enjoyed getting to know my own colleagues better and seeing them outside of our academic environment. For me it really was a trip of a lifetime, learning about South Africa and its history. I had always thought of South Africa as a place of doom and misery, and I do realize that it still has a long way to go, but I now see it in a far more positive light than I did before. It is a beautiful country with ample resources, and it has huge economic potential. Universities such as UP and UKZN are contributing to a more fair distribution of resources through education. I hope to be able to begin a collaboration with one of the universities; we could learn a lot from each other.” - Tony Grift, associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering and Global Academy scholar:

“I very much appreciated the experience as it allowed me to meet colleagues from other departments (within U of I), with whom I may be able to collaborate in the future. This was a true team-building experience. Having had the support of our leadership team also re-emphasized the importance of the work that ACES faculty do at the local as well as the global level.” - Carmen Ugarte, research specialist in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences

The 2018-19 ACES Global Academy scholars included:

• Dustin Boler, Associate Professor (Animal Sciences)
• David Bullock, Professor (Agricultural and Consumer Economics)
• Brian Dill, Associate Professor and Department Head (Sociology)
• Tony Grift, Associate Professor (Agricultural and Biological Engineering)
• Grant McCarty, Extension Educator
• Carmen Ugarte, Research Specialist (Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences)
• Frank Zhao, Professor (Crop Sciences)

Additionally, the South African immersion trip included guest faculty and College of ACES administrators:

• Kim Kidwell, Dean, College of ACES,
• Alex Winter-Nelson, Associate Dean of International Programs, College of ACES
• Suzana Palaska, Associate Director, Office of International Programs, College of ACES 
• Melinda DelRossi, Director of Strategy, Planning, and Implementation, College of ACES
• Rodney Johnson, Department Head, Department of Animal Sciences
• Yvette Johnson-Walker, Lecturer, Veterinary Clinical Medicine and Coordinator for Diversity and Inclusion, College of Veterinary Medicine

The ACES Global Academy is a designed to increase the capacity for international activity by ACES faculty and University of Illinois extension professionals. The program includes a series of scholarly and experiential activities designed to enable participants to increase the impact of their professional work through global engagement. Prior to the immersion trip to South Africa, the scholars participated in monthly sessions on varied topics of interest relating to conducing international research and the historical perspective of higher education in South Africa. The theme for the 2019-2020 Global Academy is “International Partnerships for Digital Agriculture Research and Applications in Brazil.”