Introduction: Lex Trevelino - "The Path to Exploration"

Hello. My name is Lex Trevelino, and I am a freshman in the College of Agricultural  Sciences at Penn State University. My declared major is BioRenewable Systems, but I am keeping my options open to pursue Biological Engineering. I was born in Atlanta, Georgia and have lived in the South my entire life. I chose Penn State because of the nationally ranked agriculture and engineering programs. While I am not 100 percent sure what it is I want to do after college, I know that it likely will involve food and agriculture.

I have always had a particular interest in food. When I was in fourth grade, my family and I became vegetarians, largely in response to Penn State grad, Colin Campbell’s book, The China Study. After that transition, I began to pay more attention to my food. Where it comes from, how it’s prepared and what’s the nutritional value? Asking questions like these inspired me to join a culinary and garden club in elementary school. In this club, I established a baseline for food knowledge and curiosity. I was able to learn under two restaurant owners and a master gardener. Not only was I able to learn how to cook, but also how to grow the very ingredients we used.

A few years later I began to volunteer on an urban, organic farm. This is where I became interested in agriculture. While it was tough work plowing and weeding in the relentless Georgia heat, it was rewarding. I really enjoyed helping and contributing to the community. I was just as fascinated by being able to grow my food from a small seed as I was by the experimentation in the kitchen. Volunteering on this farm just fueled my inspiration to learn more.

In my junior year of high school, I was accepted into a program called the Isdell Center for Global Leadership. Each year four students are chosen to travel and study a Global Theme. My timing was perfect; the theme was food. We took three trips during the school year. First, we traveled to California’s Salinas Valley to learn about large-scale, industrial agriculture. We specifically looked at the history of the valley, the migrant-laborers, the supply chain, and the water crisis.

Our second trip was to Virginia and Maine. There we drew comparisons of small-scale, local farming to industrial giants on the other side of the country. One of the program’s highlights was the opportunity to meet and interact with Joel Salatin at Polyface farms. He showed us some of his pioneering, agricultural techniques.

However, our final trip was by the far the most impressive. We partnered with Care to go to Ghana and Malawi to learn about agriculture and gender equality. We were able to travel to remote villages and interact with the locals. They were so happy to interact with us and teach us some of their new practices. It was a once in a lifetime experience.

However, I didn’t want to stop there. This program acted as a catalyst for my desire to travel. Throughout my life, my family has believed that travel, especially off the grid, affords me opportunities to see and interact with other cultures. Traveling to Europe, Central America, South America, and Africa has given me a much broader perspective on the world. Travel has become like an addiction for me now. I am always searching for new places to go. This is what inspired me to apply for the Belize program. At this time, I am exploring sophomore spring abroad, but as a freshman, the embedded programs offer an amazing opportunity to get familiar with study abroad. With Belize, I feel like I’m going to experience the agriculture backdrop, more than just attending a few lectures in a Central America location. This trip is giving me the opportunity to combine my passion for food and my love for travel. I can not wait to get started.