As part of a diversity, equity and inclusion outreach effort, food science students held a Zoom meeting with hundreds of area middle schoolers to promote and provide education on the importance of rice and food research is various cultures.

Adekoyejo Oduola, Samuel Olaoni, Pieter Callewaert and Kaushik Luthra, all in U of A's Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, met virtually with fifth and sixth graders at McNair Middle School in Fayetteville.

They talked to the middle schoolers about their country's food, customs, family life and popular social activities with Oduola and Olaoni representing Nigeria, Luthra representing India and Callewaert representing Belgium.

Oduola is a Ph.D. student, Olaoni and Callewaert are master's degree students and Luthra is a post-doctoral fellow. All are in the Department of Food Science with Olaoni and Callewaert majoring in food science, Oduola in the cell and molecular biology interdisciplinary program and Luthra is a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Food Science. All four work with associate professor and agricultural engineer Griffiths Atungulu, who is also a researcher and scientist with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the U of A System Division of Agriculture. Atungulu, who is also serving as interim director of the U of A Rice Processing Program, is chair of food science's DEI Committee.

"We are so happy that food science and the U of A Rice Processing Program could provide a learning platform of not just rice processing, but how different cultures may benefit from this important commodity," said Robin January, coordinator of the rice processing program.   

The event, on Oct. 11, was billed as A Celebration of Multicultural Day. Instead of going to regular classes, McNair's students had an organized alternative teaching day with exposure to different cultures.

"The first ever McNair Middle School Multicultural Day introduced nearly 700 middle school students to a variety of countries," said Lindsay Foster, co-chair of the event. "Each student learned about three different countries through Zoom presentations, question and answer sessions, activities and snacks. Eighteen volunteers brought 15 countries to our learners. We were especially excited to have U of A's Department of Food Science students from Nigeria, Belgium and India share their cultures and stories. We look forward to partnering with them again in the future."

"McNair Celebration of Multicultural Day was a fun, relevant and engaging day for all of our students and teachers," said Lisa Davis, school principal.

One of the activities included Oduola and Olaoni teaching middle schoolers a traditional Nigerian dance.

"Multicultural Day was awesome," said Daniel, a sixth-grader. "I really liked hearing about a bunch of different countries."

Bumpers College DEI information can be found here.

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture. For more information about Bumpers College, visit our website, and follow us on Twitter at @BumpersCollege and Instagram at BumpersCollege.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas' economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the top 3% of U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research News.