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Torrie Reed, a junior at the University of North Georgia (ÌìÃÀÉçÇø), has won the Georgia Young Farmer and Rancher Collegiate Discussion Meet Award. She will represent Georgia at the American Farm Bureau Foundation FUSION conference in Denver, Colorado, in March.

She earned the spot at the national event through her performance in the Collegiate Discussion Meet public speaking competition at the Georgia Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers meeting this summer. Reed was thrilled to edge out students from the University of Georgia and Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, and she said it was made possible by the flexibility of ÌìÃÀÉçÇø faculty and staff that allows her to attend Farm Bureau events and stay caught up on her coursework.

"Even though I'm not in the ag degree program, ÌìÃÀÉçÇø still valued what I was doing and pushed me and allowed me to go to that next step," Reed said.

Reed, an Ellijay, Georgia resident, is pursuing a degree in elementary and special education through a program that provides online professional development for students who seek to complete their degree and teaching internships in their home counties near ÌìÃÀÉçÇø's Blue Ridge Campus. She is working as a paraprofessional in Gilmer County Schools this semester.

After originally planning to prepare for a career in agricultural law by studying at the University of Arkansas, Reed switched gears and ended up at ÌìÃÀÉçÇø's Blue Ridge Campus, thanks in no small part to a stint coaching her nephew's T-ball team.

"I fell in love with the kids and realized I had an impact on them," Reed said.