Virginia Tech has named Jennifer N. Lamb, of Broomfield, Colo., as the Outstanding Graduating Senior in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences for the 2009-10 academic year.

“Jeni is an accomplished individual who has set herself apart from her peers in all aspects of university life,” said Dixie Watts Dalton, associate professor of agricultural and applied economics. “Since my time at Virginia Tech, I know of no other student who has excelled in so many areas.”

In May, Lamb is expected to receive her Bachelor’s of Science degree in agricultural and applied economics with a concentration in international trade and development from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and her Bachelor’s of Arts degree in political science from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. She will be receiving an honors baccalaureate diploma.

Among her numerous awards and scholarships , Lamb is a recipient of the Austin Michelle Cloyd Scholarship for Social Justice, the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Foundation CASE Grant, the Janice and Leon Geyer Scholarship for Agricultural Economics, the Van Oss Scholarship for University Honors, and is a Marshall Scholarship Finalist and First Reserve.

In 2009, Lamb was recognized as one of 60 Truman Scholarship winners . Lamb is only the third Virginia Tech student to receive this prestigious honor in the long history of the program. Through participation in this program, she will gain valuable leadership training and will receive up to $30,000 to be used for graduate study.

Most recently, she was named Virginia Tech’s 2010 Undergraduate Woman of the Year.

Lamb is active in multiple university organizations and has shown significant leadership. She is involved in the Virginia Tech Equestrian Team as the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association Western Team Captain, a member of the Equestrian Club Executive Board, and a part of the Horse Judging Team. She is also a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi honor societies.

Lamb is involved in the National Agri-Marketing Association Team and Agricultural Economics Club, Invisible Children, and the Appalacia Service Project. In the summer of 2009, she was a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow in the Fralin Institute of Life Sciences. She also served as the undergraduate representative to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Diversity Council and as one of the college’s student ambassadors.

Outside the university, Lamb has completed internships with the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry; the U.S. House of Representatives Agriculture Committee; and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. Based on her work on Capitol Hill, Lamb took the lead in co-authoring a paper on biofuel and an alternative energy source with Andrew Rogers, a research assistant in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, and Leon Geyer, professor of agricultural and applied economics, in the journal Sustainable Development Law and Policy.

“Jeni’s commitment to service above self is one of the most commendable of her many qualities,” said Kurt Stephenson, professor of agricultural and applied economics. “Courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness, and fellowship characterize Jeni’s spirit and imbue her thinking and behavior.”

She has taken her dedication to service worldwide by traveling to Kenya to work with development organizations there, undertaking surveying efforts, meeting local adults and children, and identifying local health and production needs.

Today, Lamb continues working in government service as a research assistant at Virginia Tech for the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program, sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Lamb has accepted a graduate assistantship with collaborative research support program to finish a Master of Science degree in agricultural and applied economics at Virginia Tech and will travel to eastern and southern Africa next spring. She says she plans to apply her Truman Scholarship toward law school in the fall of 2011.

Lamb is the daughter of Peter Lamb of Broomfield, Colo.

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