Curtiss Hall has dedicated a wing on the ground floor to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The wing will be called the Monsanto Student Services Wing.

This new wing will include the main offices for many services in one location to provide easier access for students. Some of these will include student services, career services, study-abroad, global agriculture, and marketing and recruitment.

There will also be space for students to gather for club activities, more space to host job interviews and a special office to house the agriculture entrepreneurship initiative.

Wendy Wintersteen, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, explained that while thinking about the renovation, the focus needed to be on the students.

She helped plan the renovation of Curtiss Hall and trying to bring the building into the 21st century for students.

“They’ll walk into the building and essentially walk up one floor, and then they’ll be on the student services wing, and it’ll just be fabulous,” Wintersteen said. “All the windows are being replaced in the building; we won’t look like a shabby building. … Image is important, and Curtiss Hall will start to look like what it is: a great building and home to one of the best colleges of agriculture and life sciences in the nation. We’re thrilled.”

Bethany Olson, a senior in agricultural business, was chosen to speak at the dedication ceremony for the new wing.

“They came to me and knew that I was the student who was involved in all facets,” she said. “That addition of the wing affected me in all facets of my life because I studied abroad and I’m a student ambassador for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, so I spend a lot of time in the student services office and do a lot of work with them.”

She also explains that a major part of being a student ambassador is to bring the best and the brightest to Iowa State. This new wing really helps recruit new students.

“As a high school senior touring a college and you see an organization like Monsanto that has helped make something like this a reality for a college just gives the impression, hey, wow, they really think Iowa State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has something great going on and they believe in the future of Iowa State students.” Olson said.

The Monsanto Company received naming rights for this wing after a $1 million donation to its construction.

“Monsanto as an agricultural company is very interested in making sure we have the science and technology to meet the food needs of what is projected to be 9 billion people in 2050,” Wintersteen said. “I think they understand that Iowa State University, through the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, that our missions of educating the students who they will employ and do collaborative research with, that [Monsanto] will be engaged in addressing the needs of Iowa farmers and farmers nationally and globally that there is an aliment of common goals.”