Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS)
UW-Madison MANRRS Advisors and Contest Awardees
Left to right:
Matthew F. Warren (Co-Advisor),
Maxwell Chibuogwu (2nd Place Graduate Oral Div. I Contest)
Afona Irabor (1st Place Graduate Oral Div. I Contest)
Senior Assistant Dean Tom Browne (Co-Advisor)
(2024 MANRRS Conference, Chicago, IL)
UW-Madison MANRRS Current and Alumni Members
(2023 MANRRS Conference, Atlanta, GA)
UW-Madison MANRRS Contest Awardees – Left to right:
Afona Irabor (2nd Place Graduate Oral Div. I Contest)
Mengmeng Guo (3rd Place Graduate Oral Div. I Contest)
Confidence John (3rd Place Research Discussion Contest)
(2023 MANRRS Conference, Atlanta, GA)
UC Davis MANRRS Chapter Photo
(2013 MANRRS Conference, Sacramento, CA)
MANRRS empowers students and young professionals to develop and refine their professional speaking skills, networking, academic connections, and confidence to train them for the next level whether it is looking for a job or trying to increase efficiency of a workplace. MANRRS strives to teach its members that you only have one shot to make a first impression and being confident is a great way to start. I am currently a co-advisor of UW-Madison’s MANRRS chapter along with Senior Assistant Dean Tom Browne. My role as co-advisor focuses on leadership development with the student membership. My prior experiences with being in different MANRRS chapters is vital to my advising style to help student members develop their leadership skills for their careers.
MANRRS is a significant part of my career and my identity as a professional. As an undergraduate student member, I learned the ropes about outreaching, being on the forefront of recruiting efforts, and advocating for the chapter to people who never heard of MANRRS. When I became a graduate student member of MANRRS, I shared my knowledge with undergraduate student members with what worked for me for recruiting events. I would help other members develop their professional skills such as how to effectively communicate. As a co-advisor of a MANRRS chapter, my prior experiences as a student member are important with coaching the student members on how to become better leaders. Being an co-advisor is an exciting endeavor as I share my prior experiences with student members as a form of reflection to help them inform their own decisions as aspiring leaders!
I was introduced to MANRRS when I was finishing up my associate degrees at my junior college and I attended the MANRRS 26th Annual Career Fair and Training Conference at Kansas City, KS in March 2011.
I joined my first chapter at UC Davis as its founding president of the reactivated chapter in December 2011. It was a lot of hard work to develop the foundations for the UC Davis MANRRS chapter, but my hard work helped established a strong relationship with the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences which provided funding for chapter activities and travel to the national conference. UCD MANRRS was involved with outreach through UC Davis’ Undergraduate Admissions to show students it is never to early to refine professional skills.
After graduating from UC Davis, I joined Auburn University’s MANRRS chapter and got an amazing opportunity to see and experience a different chapter’s culture and importance of Jr. MANRRS members which are high school students who are affiliated with a university MANRRS chapter. I was also a member of NC State’s MANRRS chapter.
