{"id":14584,"date":"2025-10-30T13:36:36","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T17:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/?p=14584"},"modified":"2025-12-10T09:48:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T14:48:45","slug":"students-selected-for-million-acre-challenge-soil-health-fellowship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/sans-monthly-digest\/students-selected-for-million-acre-challenge-soil-health-fellowship\/","title":{"rendered":"Students selected for Million Acre Challenge soil health fellowship"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"University<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

UMES juniors (from left)<\/em> Amari Christopher<\/strong> and Jazmin Bright<\/strong> were chosen to participate in a large-scale farmer-focused project as soil health fellows with the Million Acre Challenge<\/a>. The collaborative initiative helps farmers build healthy soil and increase farm profitability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As fellows, the general agriculture majors will each receive a $7,500 stipend to conduct research activities over the next five months associated with a Pasa Sustainable Agriculture soil health benchmark study<\/a>. They will work with the project\u2019s research director and partners in the field assisting with soil and biomass sampling, data entries, and outreach and education events.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bright, a native of Pocomoke City, said growing up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland instilled in her an interest in nature and natural resources, particularly conservation and benefits to the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI realized how important a role agriculture plays in our everyday lives,\u201d Bright said. \u201cI want to be part of the research community helping others while doing something I love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christopher, who serves as vice president of UMES\u2019 MANRRS chapter and is a UMES 1890 Land-grant Scholar, boosted her resume with a hands-on summer 2025 internship exploring the use of AI to enhance plant health research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe experience fueled my aspiration to be a plant researcher, aiming to develop better plant alternatives that promote healthier soil,\u201d the Florida native said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The on-farm study the two Million Acre Challenge soil health fellows are participating in provides farmers with an assessment of soil health strengths and challenges in their fields in comparison to peer farms. This information assists farmers in determining whether their soil management practices are meeting goals or help them in identifying improvements that can be made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Million Acre Challenge is in its fourth year as a partner on the benchmark study and coordinates over 40 research collaborators across Maryland. The soil health fellowship is funded by a USDA-NIFA 1890 Capacity Building Grant received by Arthur Allen and Fawzy Hashem, professors in UMES’ Department of Agriculture, Food and Resource Sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gail Stephens, agricultural communications and media associate, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, UMES Extension, <\/em>gcstephens@umes.edu<\/em><\/a>., 410-621-3850.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo by Todd Dudek, agricultural communications, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, UMES Extension, <\/em>tdudek@umes.edu<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UMES juniors (from left) Amari Christopher and Jazmin Bright were chosen to participate in a large-scale farmer-focused project as soil health fellows with the Million Acre Challenge. The collaborative initiative helps farmers build healthy soil and increase farm profitability. As fellows, the general agriculture majors will each receive a $7,500 stipend to conduct research activities…Read more Students selected for Million Acre Challenge soil health fellowship<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":40,"footnotes":""},"categories":[174,40],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-14584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-november-2025","category-sans-monthly-digest"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14584"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=14584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}