Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, or MANRRS, is a professional development organization for both undergraduate and graduate students. The organization attracts a variety of majors from animal sciences, psychology and business.
LSU MANRRS is one of many of its kind. Universities all over the country have MANRRS programs, and they are split up into six regions. Each region has undergraduate representatives as well as graduate representatives because the two bodies of students have distinct programs.
LSU’s chapter is in region four, and one of the national officers for that region happens to be an LSU student. India Bethley, nutrition and dietetics senior, said some of her responsibilities as a national officer are planning conferences during the year and working to get different companies or organizations to partner with MANRRS.
Bethley also described MANRRS as a networking organization.
“We’re always looking for an opportunity to aid our students and connect them,” Bethley said.
The most important event for MANRRS programs is their annual national conference in the spring. One element of the national conference is competitions, which range from quiz bowls to impromptu pitches.
Impromptu pitches are when students get a topic relating to science or an agriculturally sustainable project and they have to come up with a pitch in under five minutes in front of professional representatives.
Students can also give presentations for national scholarships that MANRRS offers at the conference. Additionally, students can find internship opportunities or professional development workshops at the conference.
Keana Howard, LSU MANRRS secretary and a senior double majoring in anthropology and environmental management systems with a concentration in resource conservation, talked about her experience at the national conference last year.
“A lot of students get funded by their colleges to present their undergrad or graduate research in agriculture-related stuff, social sciences, hard physical sciences, you name it, there is somebody there for it,” Howard said.
To prepare for the national conference, MANRRS members can attend different workshops throughout the year, Howard explained. Students can get help with tasks like updating LinkedIn profiles, making business cards or learning how to dress in proper business attire.
If students are competing in an event like the quiz bowl, they would meet regularly prior to the conference to practice.
Outside of the national conference, MANRRS also has events related to food and gardening throughout the year. LSU MANRRS vice president Carollicia Roberts said that MANRRS is in the process of rebuilding right now and is in need of more members to carry out these smaller events.
Robert and Bethley said LSU MANRRS is working on partnering with Southern University’s MANRRS. This partnership could help grow the program. Bethley said she has a meeting planned with a Southern representative to discuss the two schools’ programs combining and potentially doing community service or other professional development activities.
Roberts mentioned that another reason for working with Southern is to create a joint Baton Rouge area junior MANRRS chapter. She said that many states have junior MANRRS chapters for high school students. Southern University has one, but it’s not currently active. Getting the junior chapter up and running would also help expand MANRRS.
LSU MANRRS members emphasized the inclusivity of their organization. It is not only for minorities or agriculture majors, but also for anyone interested.
“Related sciences is so broad,” Howard said. “It really means anything you can relate to agriculture, which can be anything because everything comes back to the earth.”
Roberts expanded on this idea and said that agriculture is part of our everyday lives; everyone has to eat and everyone wears clothes.
“Agriculture is one of those things that’s never going to go away, no matter what, and we have a place for literally every single major,” Roberts said.
