It takes all kinds to make a world and to make NMSU's College of Agriculture and Home Economics, too. There's no question that the comfort level for students who come off the farms and ranches of New Mexico is high in our College. These students easily can find folks who understand their background and their values among our student body and our faculty and staff.

Our story about the class of 1955 indicates that those students predominantly were from such backgrounds, though many also were seasoned in other experiences by the war years. Today, our students are more likely to come from New Mexico's cities, suburbs, and towns, as well as from the earth's four corners.

Even more interesting is where these students are heading. The future appears bright for graduates of colleges like ours. A recent Census Bureau report demonstrated that graduates of agriculture colleges have average monthly earnings second only to graduates of engineering schools. Interestingly, the life sciences become far more lucrative when studied in the context of a professional agriculture college, probably because of the value of "applied sciences."

What academic majors and studies students apply themselves toward make a big difference in job prospects. Most opportunities are downstream from the farm and ranch in professions like food processing and preparation, dietetics, merchandising, product development, retail management, and environmental science.

Our College has good placement rates even in areas where national data suggest job markets are tight, as in fields of agricultural production and education. The world picture, however, shows such academic fields to be tremendously important.

The developing world literally is hungry for the food production knowledge we offer. This is reflected in the number of international graduate students whose countries pay for their NMSU studies. About seven of 10 graduate students in agronomy and horticulture are international students, as are half in range science, half in agricultural biology, and four in 10 in agricultural economics.

International agribusinesses see a bright future for their products. While there is much disagreement about future food supply, there's general consensus that demand is increasing sharply and should double worldwide by 2020.

The world population is not doubling in that time, so this isn't a matter of famine relief. Rather, food demand is strongly related to global economic growth and the resulting increases in personal income. As much of the world population moves from subsistence existence to the next rung up the economic ladder, they'll be spending a significant amount of their new income on food.

Demand for food in Asia and other developing regions is pacing growth in the agribusiness industry. These trends emphasize the need for NMSU students to enhance their global perspectives, as tomorrow's growth in the food industry will be taking place largely outside of the borders of the United States.

In many ways, our students in 1955 may have had a stronger sense of America's place in the world than do today's students. They were, after all, often veterans of foreign wars and well-versed in the international issues of the cold war. It was a time, however, in which America was an ascending leader with the world's greatest market.

Today, America's international leadership is still paramount, but it's the foreign markets that are ascending, making our approach to the world far different than in 1955. Today's students must look ahead to a world in which Americans compete fiercely for international customers, making it far more important to learn about the needs and wants of those in other nations than ever before.

So, as friendly and familiar as the College is for our rural students, ultimately it must serve as the launching pad to a global experience for our graduates of today and tomorrow.