Seniors Siena Brown ‘26 and Estelle Ralston ‘26 attended the World Food Prize Global Youth Institute in Des Moines from October 21 to 23. The World Food Prize, an international organization that works to eliminate hunger and food scarcity, holds regional and international youth programs like the Global Youth Institute where students participate in events focusing on food insecurity around the world.
“The World Food Prize [was started by Norman Borlaug and] is basically the Nobel Prize in agriculture,” AP Environmental Science teacher Mary Lestina said. “It recognizes individuals that have made a significant impact in our fight against food insecurity, and so the Youth Institute is the high school version of this.”
In the past 25 years that City High students have participated in World Food Prize programs, just six or seven have attended the Global Institute.
“Only a few students participate every year, so it was a great honor to have two from City High this year,” Lestina said. “It’s a big undertaking, so not everybody is up to the challenge.”
Ralston was selected as a student delegate, while Brown attended as a student leader.
“I heard about [the World Food Prize] from Mrs. Lestina, who encouraged me to write a paper for the Iowa Youth Institute, which is Iowa’s branch of the World Food Prize,” Ralston said. “[At the Iowa Youth Institute], I was fortunate to be nominated to attend the Global Youth Institute in Des Moines.”
In order to participate in World Food Prize youth programs, students must write a research paper on a country struggling with food insecurity and provide a solution. Then, they attend their regional conference, where the top 10% of students who present their findings are nominated for the international conference. The Global Youth Institute is held during World Food Prize Week, a seven-day symposium where agricultural and environmental experts gather.
Ralston joined over 180 other students from 38 states and nine countries as a participant in the Global Youth Institute, where she presented her research on Haiti’s food security challenges.
“I initially wanted to research how their land has degraded, which is affecting their agriculture,” she said. “After learning more about Haiti, I quickly realized that they are unfortunately dealing with intense gang violence, which has completely uprooted their food supply chain.”
Her solution was to implement low-tech indoor hydroponics that would enable families to grow beans to supplement their diets.
At the Global Youth Institute, Ralston and Brown attended presentations by experts, went on agricultural tours, and participated in discussions about food insecurity and environmental challenges. As a group leader, Brown also led a group of eight delegates as they became involved with the World Food Prize programs and prepared for their presentations.
“Through the Global Youth Institute, you get to hear a lot of cool and interesting people speak,” Brown said. “And a big part of being a group leader is making sure that they take something away from those people who are really important in this field, who they get to talk to.”
Brown was selected as a group leader after her work as a Borlaug-Raun intern in Mbita, Kenya. To become an intern, Brown attended the Iowa Youth Symposium and Global Youth Institute as a delegate last year and applied for the Borlaug-Raun International Internship program, held through the World Food Prize.
In Kenya, she conducted research that assessed the effects of climate change on the economic decision-making of smallholder farmers in Western Kenya and Eastern Uganda.
“I was looking at how when income decreases because of climate change, how people [are] choosing to use their money to combat those issues, like, are they investing in sustainable agriculture, or are they pulling kids out of school to save money?” Brown said.
In the future, Brown hopes to go into international sustainable development, where she would research sustainable solutions that improve livelihoods and reduce environmental harm to large-scale issues like poverty in rural and agricultural communities. The World Food Prize youth programs have offered Brown an opportunity to look at international relations and global issues that were related to environmental science and climate change.
“I’ve always been interested in…how the climate and international relations can relate,” she said. “I wanted to find a career path and interest that could connect those two things that I really cared about, and the World Food Prize was that, because it looks into food insecurity.”
The 2026 Iowa Youth Symposium will be held on April 8, 2026 at Iowa State University. Participating students must research and write a paper on an issue related to food security. Like Brown and Ralston, the top students will be nominated to attend the Global Youth Institute.
“From this experience, I met so many incredible and inspiring people,” Ralston said. “It was such an honor to go. I think more people from City should submit papers, because it was truly eye-opening.”
