ROOTS Africa Participates in Do Good Challenge

Student club founded by AGNR alum one of six teams competing

Image Credit: Edwin Remsberg

April 8, 2021 Kaitlin Ahmad and Andrew Muir

The annual Do Good Challenge inspires students to make a difference for the issues, ideas, and communities they care about. Though this year’s Do Good Challenge is totally virtual, the student teams and the impact they’ve made is as impressive as ever. 

The College of Agriculture & Natural Resources (AGNR) is honored to support ROOTS Africa as one of the six finalists in the competition this year. ROOTS Africa is a nonprofit organization that works with agriculture students in Africa and the United States to increase crop yields and socioeconomic conditions for farming communities in Africa. The team raised $20,000 to support 1,000 families to stay home and safe during the pandemic, trained more than 400 farmers, and has five university chapters working in six villages and three high schools in Uganda and Liberia.

With the guidance of various faculty and staff at AGNR, co-founder, Cedric Nwafor '18 started ROOTS Africa as a student club. The club launched in September 2017 and began communicating in real time weekly with eight students enrolled at the Liberian International Christian College (LICC). Jeremy Schmidt '21 (School of Public Policy) has also now joined to lead efforts with Nwafor.

For the first time ever, the Challenge is taking place as a series of virtual events throughout “Do Good Month” in April, culminating with the Do Good Challenge Awards Premiere on April 29. Beginning April 8, every Thursday, the general public can watch finalist pitches, explore judge Q&As, and learn more about Terp impact.

For more information and to participate in this year's virtual Challenge visit: https://dogood.umd.edu/challenge21