The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is holding CALS Week to raise awareness for the agricultural community and bring together Iowa State students of all majors.

“The cool thing about CALS week is that we celebrate our college, but we want everyone else to come celebrate with us,” said Lydia Johnson, a senior in agriculture and life sciences and president of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Student Council.

Events of CALS Week are not limited to agricultural students but are open to the wider Iowa State Community.

“We’re all tied to agriculture by the food we eat every day,” Johnson said. “So, we can find ways to connect, whether you have a major in business or journalism or engineering, and connect whatever area you’re interested and passionate about to agriculture, to continue feeding and fueling our state.”

CALS Week offers a variety of events, including free lunch on the Campanile Monday through Thursday, lectures and speakers on a variety of agricultural topics and events centered around agriculture-related clubs. For a complete list of the events included in CALS Week follow this link to the CALS Student Council website.

“CALS really can be incorporated into any other major. You think someone with a political science major could add a minor in food science, work on food policy or really any other interchangeable thing,” Johnson said. “So, it’s exciting to see people that maybe have never even heard of CALS before and thought about a career in agriculture come and see what we offer and how they can be involved in that as well.”

The CALS Student Council was able to put on such a variety of events for the week partially thanks to Student Government, which offered $5,000 in special events funding for the week.

Students had a chance for free pizza on the Campanile in front of Curtiss Hall Monday. Madeline Espenscheid, a senior majoring in animal science, was present at the pizza lunch helping to run a booth for the Collegiate Cattleman student organization.

“It’s a lot of fun actually,” Espenscheid said. “You get to hang out with people in your major and you try to help promote agriculture.”

While many of the students at the lunch were part of CALS, there was also a multitude of students outside of the college. Connor Fehr, a senior in mechanical engineering, also made an appearance at the pizza lunch.

“I grew up on a farm, so I know a lot about it and enjoy farming,” Fehr said. “That’s why I went into engineering. I want to help the Ag Industry with automating things.”

As Fehr illustrates, agriculture is a field with many contributing disciplines and specialties. Without the various scientific and industrial advancements of the last century, producing the amount of food the modern agricultural field does would be impossible.

“I think a lot of people don’t understand how important CALS is and what they actually do to help feed the world and keep everyone going,” Fehr said. “We need everyone in every major; it’s good for everyone to get out and see what they can do and what they are doing in the world.”