Jeri 2020 recipient of the Greg Smith Award
Jeri Barak honored as the 2020 Recipient of the Greg Smith Award for Outstanding Contributions to the FIGs Program!
Jeri has been with the FIG Program since the Fall of 2011. For the past 9 years, she has offered her FIG called Global Food Security in some form. Jeri is from the Department of Plant Pathology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and she continues to be one of the most constant and long-standing FIG faculty. Jeri has also served on our FIG Selection Committee for many years. She helped review new FIG proposals and decide which FIGs would enhance academic and social learning for our new UW-Madison Students.
At the beginning of Jeri’s FIG adventure, she wrote about her three goals of introducing students to areas of study they may not have previously considered, to encourage students to explore research and career possibilities, and to reach out to underrepresented student groups – All of these goals coincided well with the mission of the FIGs program.
Her contributions to her students have been many! She has inspired her students to utilize problem-based learning to examine the delicate balance that maintains global food security. Together they have examined the interactions between plant pathogens and agricultural hosts, food safety of fresh produce, and food availability. Students better understand these interconnections and create critical thinking skills required for finding answers to biology-related questions. Over the years this has been seen first-hand in many examples from her students. Some of these include when her students hosted the documentary Give a Damn, to UW-Madison, when one of her students created a Patio Tomato Project through a Wisconsin Idea Fellowship from the UW-Madison Morgridge Center for Public Service, and in her student’s volunteerism and leadership in the UW-Madison Slow Food Project.
In her student’s words…
1. My FIG really exposed me to the concept of social determinants of health, the importance of sustainability and cultural competence/social justice lens in aid projects, and how policy decisions influence not only food and agriculture, but many social factors that influence health. This helped spark my interest in public health and health equity, which helped guide me to my major and is the field I plan to build my career in.
2. After learning about the food insecurities around the world and in Madison it sparked my interest in the medical field. I want to be able to advocate for people as a nurse. I have always been passionate about disparities and in many ways food insecurity and health are connected. The FIG made me more aware of the issues people face down the street from me as well as across the world.
3. This FIG was so beneficial to my academic and social transition. I loved having a cohort of students to get to know in my first semester of college!
4. My FIG consisted of some of my best friends from college. We talked daily, hang out all the time, have visited each other’s hometowns, and will maintain contact after graduation. I cannot imagine my college career without being in this FIG; it may have been the smartest decision I made early on. My FIG gave me my best friends, my career path, and an incredible start to life at UW-Madison!
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