Capital Press supports top ag
students
May 27, 2005
Carl
Sampson
Capital Press Managing Editor
Kaylea Marie Foster was a senior at Henley High
School in Klamath Falls, Ore., in 2001 when something happened that would
change her life.
“The year I graduated was the year the water was shut off,” she said.
To protect endangered fish species, managers curtailed the amount of
irrigation water farmers depend on for growing their crops. As a result,
some area residents lost their farms, and others lost all or some of their
crops.
“It really changed my goals,” she remembered.
She had been interested in forestry as a career, but after she saw the
crisis that resulted, she decided instead to pursue a career in fisheries
biology and management.
“I had a lot of friends and family friends who were farmers and ranchers
who had a lot of bitterness” over what happened, she said. “I didn’t
blame them. Their livelihoods were affected.”
The daughter of Cindy and Larry Foster, Kaylea studied and worked at
internships in New Zealand and with the Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife in the Klamath Falls area, learning how the good biologists and
managers work to get to know farmers and their needs.
“I felt the really good biologists spent time integrating into the
community – like having coffee with them and learning about their
concerns,” she said.
Four years later, Foster is the top graduating senior in Oregon State
University’s College of Agricultural Sciences. On May 19, the 3.85
grade-point average student received the $1,000 Capital Press Award for
the Outstanding Senior in Agriculture at a ceremony on the university’s
Corvallis, Ore., campus.
She is one of four students in the agricultural and forestry programs at
Oregon State University, Washington State University, University of Idaho
and University of California at Davis who receive a $1,000 Capital Press
award each spring.
Foster plans to continue her studies, seeking a master’s degree in
hydrology. She’s most interested in high desert aquatic management.
“I’ve learned that it’s not so much about fisheries management but
water management as a whole,” she said after receiving her award.
In the meantime, though, she has other plans to address. She’s making
plans to marry her fiance, Joel Simonson, a graduate student in education,
later this year.
Our congratulations to Foster and her counterparts in Washington, Idaho
and California for all of their hard work. They make us proud to be able
to support agricultural education in the West.
Carl Sampson is managing editor of the Capital Press. His e-mail address
is csampson@capitalpress.com.
|
