By Leandra Kent
The School of Agriculture hosted their first annual Agricultural Career Exploration (ACE) Summer Camp from Monday, July 14th, 2025, to Friday, July 25th, 2025. The selected participants were territory-wide (USVI) students from grades 7–12. Students were invited to join a 2-week experience including exposure to a diverse array of agricultural sciences through interactive, hands-on, experiential activities within the animal science, horticulture, and biotechnology realms.
Students on both the St. Croix and St. Thomas campuses participated in traditional harvesting activities, performing data collection exercises with the data collected to be used in official UVI research!
Striving to provide a holistic view of the scope and advancement of the agricultural fields, participants also completed coding and drone technological activities, in addition to planting and sowing and whipping up smoothies! Participants were able to revisit history at the Whim Museum, pet a snake with Dr. Cole, and commune with self through guided meditation stretches.
“In our efforts to begin to change the perception of young people towards agriculture, the Agricultural Career Exploration (ACE) Summer Program has exposed participants to the diverse career opportunities in agriculture and shown them how the majors we are offering in the School of Agriculture connect to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines,” said Dr. Usman Adamu, Dean and Director, UVI School of Agriculture.
The 2025 ACE summer program was a huge success, filled with tons of smiles, growing new vegetables, trying new fruits, and creating memories with new friends. Visit the UVI School of Agriculture website to view current events, programs, and workshops at soa.uvi.edu. Follow the UVI School of Agriculture on social media platforms: Facebook, X, Instagram, Blogspot, and LinkedIn.
