Will Hehemann | School of Agriculture, Fisheries and Human Sciences
Terynn Riles (Photo credit: Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.)
Terynn Riles, a junior major of regulatory science at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, was recently named one of three recipients of the National Crop Insurance Services (NCIS) 1890 Scholarship. The NCIS grants scholarships to students majoring in an agricultural discipline at one of the nation’s 1890 land-grant institutions, the historically black colleges and universities established under the Second Morrill Act of 1890.
According to the NCIS, the purpose of the scholarship program is to enable deserving students to further their education and expose them to the business of crop insurance. Once awarded, the scholarships are in effect for four semesters as long as the recipients meet academic qualification requirements and continue as full-time undergraduate students at the 1890 university they are enrolled in.
“The NCIS scholarship will help me obtain my educational goals by covering the costs of tuition,” Riles, a native of Pine Bluff, Arkansas said. “It will help me be a leader in the UAPB Department of Agriculture and better grasp the economic importance of agriculture.”
After she graduates, Riles intends to enroll in graduate school and earn a master’s degree in food and agriculture law and policy.
“While in graduate school I will be working for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) as a soil conservationist in the organization’s Pathways Programs,” she said. “I will be learning the fundamentals of soil surveying, cattle production and seed production. I hope to someday work as a regulatory commissioner with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.”
Throughout her studies, Riles has completed several U.S. Department of Agriculture internships, including three with the NRCS. In the summer of 2016, she served as a soil conservationist intern in Florence, South Carolina. Her duties included creating soil maps, as well as inspecting crops, land, soil and livestock to ensure local farmers had followed the proper procedures necessary to receive Environmental Quality Incentives Program funding for their land.
In the summer of 2017, Riles completed a public service and recreation internship with the U.S. Forest Service in Clovis, California. She currently serves as a research assistant and intern for the USDA-Small Farm Program (NRCS) Extension Office in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Her duties include recording, documenting and analyzing soil surveys, as well as organizing leadership conferences and other programs for 1890 land-grant universities.
Riles said her interest in the USDA was immediately sparked when she started the multi-disciplinary curriculum for regulatory sciences, which educates students on safety standards in the development, distribution and use of natural resources, food and agricultural products.
“One day during my soil science class, NRCS gave a presentation that I found really intriguing,” she said. “The presentation made me want to know more about soil map surveys, field operations and agricultural engineering.”
Riles said she learned some of her most valuable lessons about agriculture during an NRCS internship funded through the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. The internship introduced her to a number of new agricultural disciplines including agricultural engineering, cattle production, seed production, seed germination, forestry, crop production and soil mapping. She also enjoyed the hands-on aspects of the internship, which included planting and harvesting fruits and vegetables.
At UAPB, Riles serves as junior class senator and president of the Regulatory Science Club. She is also vice president of the both the Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences Club and Collegiate 4-H Club.
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