UF Department of Agricultural Education and Communication

Summer has kicked off — and AEC students have a packed itinerary! 🌎✈️

Welcome to our Digital Summer Scrapbook series, where we’re following our students across the country and around the world as they dive into internships, fellowships, international adventures, and everything in between. This is going to be one exciting summer you don’t want to miss!

Our first stop takes us to 📍Washington, D.C., where PhD student Jose M. represented AEC as a Future Leaders Forum Fellow at the Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development (AIARD) 2026 Annual Conference. Over several action-packed days, Jose connected with community leaders and young professionals united by a shared passion for global agriculture — and the experience was eye-opening!

During his time in the capital, José had the rare opportunity to visit the World Bank Group, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, and the USDA, gaining an inside look at how some of the world’s most influential institutions tackle the challenges of international agriculture and rural development. He also found time to take in the iconic monuments that make D.C. truly unforgettable.

“It was great seeing the work so many different institutions are doing in international agriculture and rural development, and how a lot of the approaches are actually pretty similar. It really made me think about the importance of more informed and coordinated action. It was just really inspiring to see so much meaningful work happening with real impact on communities.”— Jose M.

Where are we off to next? Stay tuned to find out ☀️

From sunshine to shoreline, AEC showed up big at this year’s Conference in sunny St. Petersburg, Florida ☀️

From exploring different coffee spots, to catching home runs at the baseball games, AEC lit up the conference sparking fresh ideas and sharing knowledge 💡🌊

While we may not have brought home sunburns, we brought home loads of awards-
Congratulations to all our award winners and those who got special recognitions 👏

We are excited to announce a ⭐️NEW⭐️ faculty position opening on our team for Fall 2026!

The Lecturer/Instructional Assistant Professor position is a 12-month, non-tenure-accruing position with a 100% teaching appointment

This position will be teaching undergraduate courses-on campus and online- in Agricultural & Natural Resources Communication and Agricultural Leadership Education

📅 For full consideration, please apply by June 11,2026
📍Gainesville, Florida
🔗Apply here: https://explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/539994/lecturerinstructional-assistant-professor

Know someone who would be a good fit for this position? We invite you to share within your networks!

Same goal, different energy and both ways get the point across… it’s great to be an AEC gator 🐊✨

Today, for Teacher Appreciation Day, we want to spotlight a special group—AEC’s future student teachers! Recently, our future agricultural educators matched with the programs where they’ll take part in their student teaching experience, and today felt like the perfect day to celebrate them.

“I am incredibly excited to begin my student teaching experience at LaBelle High School, where I will have the opportunity to grow both as an educator and a learner,” AEC student Kayla Tallant says. “I’m especially looking forward to gaining a deeper understanding of South Florida agriculture and how it connects to the students and community I’ll be working with.”

During their student teaching experience, AEC students learn and grow under the guidance of a cooperating teacher through a partnership program designed to prepare students for their future classrooms.

“I am super excited to get to learn from my cooperating teacher and gain insight from her experience, guidance, and passion for agricultural education,” Kayla says. “I look forward to building relationships with students, creating an engaging classroom environment, and embracing every opportunity to grow into the teacher I aspire to be.”

Congratulations to all of the future AEC Ag Edu-Gators, our new student teachers! Thank a teacher or future teacher in the comments below. 📚🐊✏️🍎

Congratulations to all of our Spring 2026 AEC grads! We are so proud of each and every one of you and excited to cheer you on during the next steps on your journey. Send us your favorite photos from graduation for a chance to be featured!

A huge thank you goes out to everyone who was a part of AEC’s “Golf for Good” tournament! This year, AEC’s Communication and Leadership in Groups and Teams class, AEC 4434, partnered with sponsors and local nonprofit Working Food to give back to the Gainesville community.

The tournament raised over $1,800 for Working Food’s Giving Garden Farm. We’re already looking forward to next year!

Special thanks to AEC student Cole Groth for capturing these images of the event.

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Suheily Ventura-Martinez, an AEC student whose undergraduate research is making a big impact both here and abroad. Suheily’s project, entitled “Evaluating Rural Health Disparities in Colombia: Identifying Barriers and Strategies to Advancing Refugee Health,” used field-based research in rural communities near Medellín, Colombia, to examine how agroecological practices and healthcare access influence farmer identity, motivation, and community well-being.
“I worked directly with farmers and local clinics to develop survey instruments to better understand how agroecological practices and healthcare access influence motivation, identity, and service delivery,” Suheily explains. “Additionally, I helped conduct semi-structured interviews in which farmers engaged in open dialogue about their experiences, values, and challenges, strengthening the project’s qualitative and intercultural research outcomes.”
Suheily stresses the importance of studying community-driven solutions in agriculture and healthcare, which leads to more inclusive and effective approaches to sustainability, outreach, and resource management.
“This research is important to me because it not only gives rural communities a voice but also shows how people with limited resources and opportunities make the best of their situation to maintain a sustainable lifestyle,” Suheily says. “These practices are not only environmentally sustainable; they also support cultural identity, resilience, and community well-being in ways that are often unseen outside the communities themselves.”
Suheily says that her AEC degree program helped develop her cross-cultural communication skills and attention to detail, which will aid her future career. �“Through my program, I learned to step back, recognize nuance, listen intentionally, and synthesize complex ideas in ways that respect community values and support the development of practical and effective tools,” Suheily reflected.
Congratulations, Suheily, on an incredible research project and a job well done! Scroll through this post to see some photos Suheily shared with us from her time completing this project.