Attending a forum may not sound special, but when an attendee is only one of six college students invited, it is.

Six students from across the nation were selected by the Farm Foundation to attend the 2016 Cultivation Forum in Tucson, Ariz. Iowa State’s own Trey Forsyth was selected as one of the candidates to attend.

The Farm Foundation is a non-advocacy public charity that focuses on the distribution of objective agriculture information. It accomplishes this goal by hosting symposiums, forums and workshops throughout the country in cities and rural communities.

Forsyth, junior in agriculture business, was first approached by Georgeanne Artz, assistant professor in economics, about the forum opportunity.

“It was another great leadership opportunity,” Forsyth said. “The focus of the conference was on international trade since that’s along the lines of what I’d like to go into.”

Artz is a co-faculty adviser for the agriculture business club in addition to her position as assistant professor.

“He’s got good experience in his background related to policy, he’s very active on campus and is a very good student,” Artz said in regards to why Forsyth was chosen as a representative by the Farm Association.

Forsyth also participated in the Land O’Lakes scholar program during the summer of 2015. The program took him to Africa, where Forsyth worked on a project concerning rural cooperatives. Local communities were having difficulty organizing themselves and completing a registration process, and Forsyth had a hand in developing solutions.

Forsyth walked away from the experience after learning valuable lessons regarding organization and communication skills, as well as information for a poster.

Forsyth was not alone in his experience in Africa. Carly Cummings, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences student council adviser, travelled with Forsyth to Africa.

“Trey [Forsyth] goes above and beyond to be the best leader that he can be,” Cummings said as to why Forsyth was chosen as a forum participant. “He really steps forward with any leadership role that he’s presented with the opportunity of fulfilling.”

The project Forsyth completed in Africa was used as the basis for an informative poster, which was in turn used as part of his application for the Farm Foundation nomination process. While there on Jan. 5 and 6, Forsyth presented his findings to industry experts and policy makers.

“I got to take the perspectives I learned through that internship and hear from different leaders … and figure out how international trade ties into global food security,” Forsyth said, reflecting on his experience at the forum.