Barrington student earns prestigious internship

Priyanka Bonifaz attends World Food Prize Conference, presents paper 'Sustainably Feeding 9 Billion by 2050'

By Josh Bickford
Posted 1/17/17

To be clear, Priyanka Bonifaz is not padding her résumé.

While some high school students are careful to increase their volunteer work in an effort to make themselves more attractive …

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Barrington student earns prestigious internship

Priyanka Bonifaz attends World Food Prize Conference, presents paper 'Sustainably Feeding 9 Billion by 2050'

Posted

To be clear, Priyanka Bonifaz is not padding her résumé.

While some high school students are careful to increase their volunteer work in an effort to make themselves more attractive to college admissions offices, Priyanka's good deeds are done for an entirely different purpose. They make her feel good. 

The Barrington High School student's recent work includes time spent in Guatemala building houses for people in need, and two months at a research lab in Taiwan as part of the prestigious Norman Borlaug Ruan International internship program

The internship, which focused on protecting the cabbage crop from moths, followed Priyanka's experience at the World Food Prize Conference in Des Moines, Iowa, where she was the only student representative at the conference from Rhode Island.

"I learned so much," said Priyanka during a recent interview. 

Volunteerism has long been an important part of Priyanka's life. The local girl was born in Ecuador and lived there for one year before moving to India with her mother and older brother. She lived in New Delhi for five years and then relocated to the United States.

Over time, she came to understand the vast differences between her lifestyle and the challenges faced by many other people in India. 

"Every time our car would come to a stop, and we were driving in air conditioning, children would come up and tap on the windows, looking for anything. They were hungry," she said. 

Priyanka would see children her own age filling jugs with dirty water for their homes. She could not believe that people would have to drink polluted water. She soon realized she needed to help others.

"I believe you're not alone. You can always extend a helping hand, regardless of your circumstances," she said. 

During family visits to India, she and her mother and brother would commit to service projects to help others. In the seventh grade she helped feed 1,000 orphans in India. In the eighth grade, Priyanka started a fund-raiser at Barrington Middle School to purchase mosquito nets for people in Haiti. 

"I wanted to do something bigger than me," she said.

She teamed up with Partners In Health and eventually helped raise $2,000 — the money afforded 130 mosquito nets for residents of Cang, Haiti. 

Priyanka said her work is not done to impress college admissions officers or anyone else. She said she volunteers because she loves the way helping others makes her feel.

"I feel like I get a high off giving back," she said.

Priyanka continued to work with Partners In Health during her freshman year at Barrington High School. She organized another fund-raiser for mosquito nets, and during her sophomore year she raised $2,000 for bio-sand filtration systems. The money helped purchase 60 unites for people in need in Haiti.

During her junior summer, Priyanka was accepted to an internship at Iowa State University and spent time working with entomologists. The paid internship offered Priyanka her first experience in the field of agriculture and served as an opportunity to meet LaJoy Spears, a professor from the University of Michigan. During a brief conversation, Ms. Spears suggested that Priyanka apply to the World Food Prize Conference.

Despite a quick approaching application deadline, Priyanka managed to write a five-page paper that earned praise from conference officials. She was accepted to the program — an intensive four-days where she and about 200 other high school students research global food security issues in developing countries. While at the conference, Priyanka also helped package meals for people in need in Haiti, and presented a paper on the theme "Sustainably Feeding 9 Billion by 2050."

She found her experience so rewarding that she decided to apply to the Norman Borlaug Ruan International Internship program. Hundreds of students applied for the internship and 24, including Priyanka, were accepted.

"Borlaug-Ruan International Internship provides exceptional high school students the opportunity to work with world renowned scientists and policymakers at leading research centers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East," stated a press release.

"The Borlaug-Ruan Internship is a unique program that allows student interns to participate in projects with distinguished researchers at leading agricultural research centers around the globe. While getting a firsthand view of real and pressing food security issues and nutrition problems in poverty-stricken areas, the students become an integral part of a project, spending time in the lab as well as days or weeks at a time in the field conducting research and interviews, and gathering data."

Priyanka spent two months working at the World Vegetable Center in Taiwan, again focusing on entomology. She and other ran experiments with natural pest repellants in an effort to limit the consumption of cabbage crops by a certain species of moth.

Priyanka said she enjoyed the experience to work in a lab, and found it just as rewarding as her volunteer work with people in need. Priyanka also said she would love to help other Barrington students get more involved with giving back.

In fact, she recently spent time with two friends, Cami Crisco and Danielle Gibalerio, helping build homes for people in need in Guatemala. 

"I have always wanted people to jump on board," she said.

Volunteerism may run in her genes — Priyanka's mother has a background in international development and worked for the United Nations and the World Bank.

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