For immediate release - April 7, 2008
UT Student to Gain World-Class Cotton Education
UT student Brick Veirs (left) learns how to class cotton for color and leaf from university alumnus Jim Nunn of Nunn Cotton Company in Brownsville, TN
This summer University of Tennessee junior Albert “Brick” Veirs will have the opportunity to attend the renowned International Cotton Institute in Memphis.
The agricultural economics and business major will join an elite group of approximately 45 participants from various segments of the cotton industry, including merchandisers, textile mills, governmental agencies, ginners and producers from around the world. The eight-week residential course instructs students in all aspects of the cotton industry in an international business environment. The course extends from field to fabric, risk management, logistics, and basics of market function and price protection.
Veirs, a native of Brownsville, Tenn., received a scholarship valued at $10,000 from the Memphis-based American Cotton Shippers Association (ACSA) to attend the 15th Annual ACSA International Cotton Institute at the University of Memphis’ Fogelman Executive Business Center. Over 600 men and women from 59 countries have attended the International Cotton Institute. Veirs scouted cotton in West Tennessee during his summer breaks while a high school and college student.
“I’m really excited about it,” Veirs says. “The Institute will be a great networking opportunity, and it’s going to teach a lot about cotton that I don’t know.”
Veirs says his goal after graduation from UT is to work with an agriculture-based company. He is a chapter officer of UT’s Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity.
In addition to degree programs in agricultural economics, UT’s College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources offers bachelor’s and graduate degrees in a range of fields within animal science, biosystems engineering and soil science, entomology and plant pathology, food science and technology, forestry, wildlife and fisheries, and plant sciences.
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Contacts:
Dr. John Riley (865) 974-7465
Margot Emery (865) 974-7141