One faculty member and two graduate students in U of A's Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences earned awards at the recent North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture annual conference in Wooster, Ohio.

Rupesh Kariyat, associate professor of insect-plant interactions and chemical ecology in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, earned a NACTA Educator Award.

Kariyat, 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, teaches Insect Pest Management, Chemical Ecology and Insect Behavior, Insect Morphology and graduate seminar classes. His research focuses on mechanisms underlying insect-plant interactions and identifying and recommending sustainable insect pest management strategies.

Recent agricultural education, communication and technology Ph.D. graduate Isabel Whitehead-Adams, who is also a dean's office staff member, also earned a NACTA Educator Award.

She also presented a paper, "'I Can't Just Leave for Two Weeks!': Portraits of Rural Community College Students' Decisions to (Not) Study Abroad."

Whitehead-Adams coordinates the college's honors program and teaches classes in the Department of Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology.  

Oluwatoyin Elizabeth Abati, a master's degree student in AECT, earned the NACTA Graduate Student Teacher Award.

In addition, Chris Estepp, current secretary-treasurer for NACTA and associate professor of agricultural education in AECT, presented two papers:

• "Predicting Classroom Comfort Among Freshmen Agriculture Students"
• "First to Second Year Retention in a College of Agriculture: Who Leaves and Who Stays?"

The NACTA Educator Award recognizes individuals for achievement in agricultural higher education, and the Graduate Student Teacher Award honors graduate students who excel as teachers in agricultural disciplines.

NACTA is a professional society focused on the scholarship of teaching and learning agriculture and related disciplines at the postsecondary level.

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 few 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 and Economic Development News.