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Andrea Padilla stands next to her research poster in the cropping systems division, which earned her first place.
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WIU Student Earns First Place at International Research Symposium

December 4, 2025

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MACOMB, IL - -When a Chicago native, Andrea Padilla, a senior Agriculture major, returned to higher education after a decade-long hiatus, she didn't expect her path to lead through Western Illinois University's agricultural research fields—or to a first-place national research award. But since arriving at WIU in 2023 to complete her bachelor's degree, she has transformed curiosity into purpose and purpose into impact.

After the 2008 financial crisis disrupted her initial college plans, she spent years witnessing the effects of food inequity in low-income urban neighborhoods—places where accessing fresh, high-quality food is often treated like a luxury. She believed agriculture could do more than improve crops; it could strengthen communities. That belief drew her to WIU and to agricultural science, even without any prior background in the field.

Since September 2023, she has served as a research assistant in the plant breeding program under Win Phippen in WIU's School of Agriculture. The program is dedicated to developing pennycress as an industrial product with potential for both biofuel and animal feed markets. Her work has included two summers in WIU's plant breeding summer internship program, where she contributed to a two-year study evaluating pennycress–soybean crop rotations.

Her dedication culminated in a major achievement this fall. In November, she presented her research at the CANVAS conference in Salt Lake City—an international annual meeting of more than 3,700 attendees from the crop, agronomic, environmental and soil science fields, including 250 undergraduates.

While there, she competed in the National Research Symposium Contest, where undergraduate students present research in oral and poster formats to judges and engaged audiences.

Her poster was entered in the cropping systems division and she earned first-place recognition along with a cash award.

Yet her goals reach far beyond awards and presentations. She hopes to use agricultural science to build an urban community farm and resource center—an effort aimed at food insecurity, equity and neighborhood resilience. She believes urban agriculture can reshape how cities are fed, but only when practiced with scientific rigor and humility.

"WIU has provided me with the technical skill and the practical knowledge to accomplish this," Padilla said. "However, I think the most important lesson I have learned at WIU is how to be generous. How to be generous with my time, effort, knowledge and patience. The education I am receiving here is a resource and a responsibility. A responsibility to my community, to improve the quality of life for its residents by improving the quality and access of our most significant resource: our food."

Her journey reflects what is possible when determination meets opportunity and when research is driven by both intellect and heart.

At WIU, she is not just studying agriculture—she is preparing to change the future of food access, one community at a time.

For more information on WIU's Ag programs, visit wiu.edu/Ag.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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