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Voices of ACES Blog

Oh, The Places You'll Go!

Sarah Hochman

A little about myself, I am from Bloomingdale, IL and am graduating in May 2016 in the Public Policy and Law concentration. I have been afforded fantastic opportunities through the College of ACES.  As a sophomore, I went to Sierra Leone, West Africa to do agricultural extension research and our group paper got published. I was presented with another great experience during my sophomore year. I was given the opportunity to go to Washington D.C. and meet with Former Chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee Debbie Stabenow, the Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, the Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden, among other agriculture policy and leaders in D.C. This past spring break I had the opportunity to go to San Francisco, California and see the differences between their agriculture and Illinois’. We also got to meet the Secretary of California Agriculture, Karen Ross.

Being at the University of Illinois has helped me grow as a leader in many ways.

Selfie of ACE students

As current Student Body Vice President, I have gotten involved with a campaign, started by the White House, which spreads awareness about sexual assault on college campuses called “It’s On Us”.  With over 300 college campuses getting involved and holding events, Vice President Joe Biden picked our university to come and give a speech on the issue. I also am afforded the opportunity to get together twice a year at different Big Ten student governments and talk about different issues happening on all of our campuses. I have so far been to six different campuses!