Food insecurity has been an increasing topic up of discussion for decades. The Missouri Youth Institute (MYI) is a program designed for high school students to learn about issues related to food insecurity in foreign countries and explore possible solutions by writing an essay, defining the problems and possible solutions. Students at Nixa High School have joined in on this conversation by submitting their essays to MYI, where they can discuss their research at the University of Missouri, with opportunities of internships and scholarships.
The World Food Prize, the creators of MYI, define MYI’s mission as a way of finding innovations to increase quality, quantity and food availability for everyone nationwide. Their state competition, MYI, began on May 2.
“The Missouri Youth Institute is a program through the World Food Prize that encourages students to educate themselves and engage meaningfully in solutions that address food insecurity and world hunger,” 2023 NHS graduate and current sophomore at Davidson College Meghana Nakkanti said. She took part in MYI when she was a senior.
Junior Isabella Knight said she was interested in going to MYI and meeting scientists and introducing her research.
“[I] thought it would be interesting to go and see the scientists,” Knight said. “You go and present your research to a board of specialists and scientists that work with those countries, and I thought that would be interesting to learn about and to hear from them and to talk to them.”
MYI offers benefits that can open up chances for internships and careers.
“It [MYI] presents a lot of opportunities,” Knight said. “You can go and do internships in those different countries and volunteer your time, I think for the summer, it’s an eight-week program. … They always present [new opportunities] to you.”
Junior Courtney Seiner said it can also help a person learn life skills, such as understanding the perspectives of others outside of one’s current situation.
“In the countries that I picked, there was a [larger] poor population there, so I got to learn more about the comparison between more poverty here compared to other countries,” Seiner said. “So it just opened my eyes, like there’s a whole other world out there, and they have different problems.”
There are many different angles students can take their research essay in terms of where they want to research and what they want to research about. Nakkanti said to find a topic one is interested in, make said topic clear and concise with strong evidence.
“I would make sure to choose a country that you are interested in and focus on specific issues that would directly address food insecurity,” Nakkanti said. “I think that broader solutions are not regarded as highly by the readers. My own research paper was about community kitchens in India. I made sure to support my argument through empirical evidence alongside statistics.”
The trip for MYI can provide a strong impact for students.
“The trip itself is really impactful,” English teacher Amanda Stoll said. “Last year, they got to show us the food bank that they have at Mizzou, available for students. They also have a clothing bag there as well, and they give us a tour of that, and students got to even help volunteer with that. Then they also get to meet with local leaders as they share their topic and what they learned.”