Contact: Mary Pollitz

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State senior Madison Maglievaz’s summer internship abroad with the United Nations is helping her gain experience and perspective as she prepares for her next steps and future goals of practicing international and agricultural law.

Through the MSU Office of Study Abroad, Maglievaz is interning in Budapest, Hungary, with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization through a formal partnership between the university and the FAO.

“Without MSU and the encouragement of the wonderful staff, I wouldn’t have grown into the person that I am today, nor would I have braved a foreign country alone for the summer,” said Maglievaz, a political science/international studies major from Charlotte, Texas.

Her FAO work is within the Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia as part of the planning and coordination team. She is focusing on more efficient and sustainable agrifood systems leading to improvements in production, nutrition, environmental health and quality of life.

 The three-month internship highlights the strong partnership of MSU students learning without boundaries to find solutions to global problems, such as food insecurity, a university focus. For Maglievaz, her time at MSU has opened her eyes to a new career path, pairing her love of agriculture with a global footprint.

“The MSU political science department showed me a passion for international relations and topics that I never knew existed,” she said. “Through MSU, I have been able to combine an existing love for agriculture with a newfound love for international relations into a possible career path.”

MSU has a long-standing relationship with the FAO, including research partnerships focused on food safety, nutrition, aquatic animal health and agriculture, among other areas. MSU President Mark E. Keenum, who holds an MSU doctoral degree in agricultural economics and served as Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier in his career, has made global food security a university research priority.

Mississippi State University is taking care of what matters. Learn more at www.msstate.edu.