Guest columnist Jon Perkins is an associate professor of accounting in the Ivy College of Business and president of the faculty senate at Iowa State University. While often lauded for his development of more than 300 food and commercial products from peanuts, George Washington Carver’s commitment to education is what still inspires me today and I hope will inspire others as the state marks the inaugural George Washington Carver Day on Feb. 1. Carver was a scientist and inventor who was born into slavery in Missouri sometime in the mid-1860s. Like many Americans, I learned in elementary school about the significant contributions Carver made in the field of agriculture. His research helped improve farmers’ crop yields by developing new farming techniques, such as crop rotation, and developing new varieties of sweet potatoes and peanuts. Carver studied at both Simpson College and Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm (now Iowa State University). He was Iowa State’s first Black student, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1894 and a Master of Science degree in 1896. After receiving his master’s degree, he became the first Black faculty member at Iowa State before Booker T. Washington invited him to head the Agriculture […]
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