Val Aarsvold

College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, October 16, 2014

Val Aarsvold, executive director of the Minnesota FFA Foundation, received a degree in agricultural education in 1994 from the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) at the University of Minnesota. A lifetime member of the University of Minnesota Alumni Association, Aarsvold is described as a dedicated and thoughtful volunteer and advocate. She has served as a member of the CFANS Alumni Society Board of Directors, president and vice president for resource development, vice president for academic excellence, the Science Achievement Award volunteer, and CFANS mentor, to name a few. As chair of the Alumni Society’s awards and recognition committee, she helped establish a college community event, the Borealis Night of Excellence. She is also credited with helping to establish a fundraising campaign during the Department of Agricultural Education’s centennial celebration, which generated more than $100,000 in gifts. For more than ten years, her commitment to alumni programming and student engagement has made a lasting impact on the CFANS Alumni Society and CFANS.