The Harry R. Hughes Center for Agro-Ecology, Inc. (Hughes Center) in partnership with the University of Maryland Agriculture Law Education Initiative (ALEI), has chosen two students for the 2018 Russell Brinsfield Summer Internship Program.
Danielle Naundorf of Worton (Kent County) and Alison Venable of New Market (Frederick County) will join the Hughes Center staff along with Sarah Everhart of ALEI on campus at the Wye Research and Education Center in Queenstown this summer.
A key task for Naundorf and Venable will be to finalize and promote a project started during last year’s internship, the Agricultural Conservation Leasing Guide — a resource implementing conservation practices on leased land. The interns will also be supporting the missions of the Hughes Center and ALEI by creating new, innovative resources to strengthen Maryland’s farming community.
In its second year, the goal of the internship is to mold the next generation of leaders who can productively work across environmental and agriculture sectors, while providing services to both the Hughes Center and ALEI. Candidates are chosen for two roles — one student who specializes in law and another who specializes in the environmental/agriculture field.
Naundorf, a graduating senior at the University of Maryland, College Park, was chosen as the internship’s environmental/agriculture intern. Naundorf is in the Honors College at UMD and is double-majoring in animal sciences and economics and minoring in global poverty.
“Danielle is a motivated and mature student who has only begun to tap her intellectual and professional potential,” said Dr. Suzanne Dorsey, Hughes Center executive director.
Venable is a first-year student at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and a member of the Maryland Environmental Law Society. Prior to law school, Venable studied at American University School of International Service and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in international studies, with a minor in education studies.
“Alison Venable is a student of distinction at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. When she is not in the classroom, she spends her time using her legal knowledge to help others in her community,” Everhart said. “I am confident her legal know-how and passion for legal outreach will be extremely beneficial to the Brinsfield Internship Program.”
“I can’t wait to work with Danielle and Alison at the Harry R. Hughes Center for Agro-Ecology,” said Dorsey. “The center will profit from their enthusiasm and keen minds, while the students will learn about the diversity of perspectives that unite to support prosperous farms, forests, and a healthy Chesapeake Bay.”
Based at the Wye Research and Education Center, the Hughes Center is a nonprofit corporation affiliated with the University of Maryland College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. It provides leadership to promote environmentally sound and economically viable agriculture and forestry as Maryland’s preferred land use through research, outreach and collaboration.
ALEI is a collaboration of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law at the
University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB); the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP); and the School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES). ALEI is an initiative of the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State, a collaboration between the state of Maryland’s two most powerful public research institutions: UMB and UMCP. It leverages the sizable strengths and complementary missions of both institutions to strengthen Maryland’s innovation economy, advance interdisciplinary research, create opportunities for students, and solve important problems for the people of Maryland and the nation.
