The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation and the American Farm Bureau Federation are honored to have awarded the achievements of the 2013 $1,000 Agriscience Student's Award Columbus Scholar:

Jillian Drake

Senior
Fallbrook Union High School
Fallbrook, California

Jillian Drake’s agriscience research has concentrated on the plant pathogen‘Candidatus Liberibcter’ which causes severe diseases in citrus and solanceous crops, such as tomato, potato and pepper. She has worked at the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s National Clonal Germplasm Repository for Citrus & Dates in Riverside, CA, under the supervision of Dr. Manjunath Keremane, Dr. Chandrika Ramadugu and Dr. Richard Lee. Jillian completed multi-year projects researching new methods of disease detection and the role of bacteriophage in disease expression for this pathogen. As this bacterium is non-culturable, it requires DNA analysis for its detection, and through her research Jillian was able to validate a new method of DNA extraction of the psyllid vector which was more efficient and less costly, while maintaining sensitivity. Additionally, Jillian was able to determine that lytic bacteriophage appears to increase disease virulence within plants infected with this pathogen. Jillian plans to continue her research at the USDA-ARS laboratory on this pathogen.

Jillian has received numerous awards for her agriscience research. As a member of the FFA, she has won the California Star in Agriscience Award, given to the student who demonstrates the highest achievement for a person pursuing a career in this field. She has also won the FFA California State overall best individual project multiple times. Additionally, Jillian has won California State proficiency in both Agriscience Research Plant Division and Integrated Systems.

Jillian has served her class as ASB sophomore and junior class secretary. She has been a member of Fallbrook High’s Academic Teams and Academic Decathlon Team, on the JV tennis and varsity track teams, an editor of the school newspaper and on the yearbook staff. Within FFA, she has served as her chapter’s reporter and treasurer, a member of several judging and parliamentary procedure teams, competing at regional and state levels.

Jillian intends to continue her agriscience research and will be attending college in the Fall. She plans on pursing a degree in bioengineering, specifically relating to topics in agricultural science, with the hope of attaining an advanced degree and pursing agricultural research for a career.

The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation and the American Farm Bureau Federation are honored to have awarded the achievements of the 2013 $1,000 Agriscience Student's Award Columbus Scholar:

Kellie Einck

Junior
South O'Brien High School
Paullina, Iowa

In 7th grade, Kellie Einck started researching xylitol as a science fair project, with the hope of becoming a dentist. Her 7th and 8th grade years were spent determining xylitol’s anti-carcinogenic properties.

After becoming more aware of current affairs and the growing alternative fuels dilemma, Kellie moved on to making cellulosic ethanol in 9th grade. In 10th grade, she took an animal science class and watched a video lecture on ruminant digestion, and made a connection between ethanol fermentation and ruminant digestion. A ruminant animal has four stomach compartments; in the rumen, material is broken down by bacteria and microorganisms then ferment before passing into the next compartment. Kellie saw this as an opportunity to improve efficiency in the ethanol industry. She constructed an artificial rumen from PVC pipe, a rotisserie and an aquarium heater.

During the first year using the artificial rumen, she used Streptococcus Gallolyticus as the hydrolyzer to break down the sugar bonds. After fermentation within the rumen, the liquids were distilled and sent to Little Sioux Corn Processors’ ethanol plant in Marcus, Iowa for HPLC analysis to determine ethanol, water and denaturant concentration. With results being less than hoped for, she moved to using a whole bacteria sample directly from rumen of bovine rather than one strain of bacteria. HPLC results showed improvement. In the future, Kellie hopes to pinpoint the perfect combination of bacteria strains for optimum fermentation and improve her artificial rumen.

Currently, Kellie is enrolled at Northwest Iowa Community College in Diesel Technology while maintaining a 3.98 GPA at South O’Brien High School. She is Chapter President of her FFA chapter. She presented her science research at the National FFA Agriscience Fair twice, earning 4th and 6th place. At the International Sustainable Worlds science fair in Houston, she received Honorable Mention, and in 2012 she won DuPont Pioneer’s Women of Innovation scholarship.

Kellie was born and raised in Primghar, Iowa to Paul and Lee Einck. In addition, to her research and school work, she is employed at Bob & Scott’s Grocers and Randy’s Service Garage.