You're 12 years old. You live in a mud hut with a tin roof in a desert. You eat one bowl of grain a day and you live among 70,000 refugees in a place known as "nowhere." These are recent memories for Maurice Aduto. It's also what drives him to seek opportunities and make a difference in his homeland of South Sudan, a country that gained independence in 2011 after a 22-year civil war. When Aduto was a young child herding cattle with his uncles, brothers and cousins the problems of Sudan's war seemed far away. His family lived in Chukudum, a village near the Uganda border in east Africa. The village was known for its fertile land and abundant harvests. Aduto has fond memories of the tranquil valley where he played. He also remember his British-trained elementary school teachers, who taught him the importance of education.

Steve Mickelson was three when he started singing in public. Known as "The Mickelson Five," he, his sister and three brothers sang at funerals, church events, community events and Farm Bureau meetings around Storm Lake where his family family farmed. His mother taught them show tunes, hymns and gospel music. Today Mickelson ('82 agricultural engineering, '84 MS, '91 PhD) tours with a professional gospel group when he's not busy in the classroom or chairing the agricultural and biosystems engineering department. He has been singing with "Higher Power" for about 16 years at churches and community events around the Midwest.

She'd been sporting a short Afro, and then showed up in class one day with 500 shoulder length braids woven into her hair. For Ebby Luvaga, a native of Kenya, Africa, the dramatic change in hairstyle was nothing unusual. But for a classroom of Iowa State University freshman, many from small rural Iowa communities, the shift was totally unexpected. "For some students I may be the first person of color they've interacted with," says Luvaga. "In this case, I remember the students were silent and just stared." So she opened her class time with a discussion about black hair care, letting students ask the questions they had on their minds.

The college's Agricultural Weekend Experience (AWE) gives students majoring in agriculture and life sciences the opportunity to interact with Iowa families and the agriculture community. Participants spend the weekend as guests on a working family farm. This fall, 11 students participated in the AWE program. Carly Martin, student intern in the college communications office, coordinated the program. The ISU Agricultural Endowment Board and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences sponsor AWE. Participants say the program helped broaden their understanding of agriculture.