At this time last year, Nathan Upah only vaguely knew who Norman Borlaug was. He certainly never thought he’d be living on Borlaug’s childhood farm for a month.
    Upah, who will enter his third year at Iowa State University this fall, is the first student to take part in a new internship being offered by the school at Norman Borlaug’s childhood farm.
    The internship, which is coordinated by the Norman Borlaug Heritage Foundation falls under the already established Borlaug Education Residency Program.
    Upah, majoring in animal science and agronomy, began the internship May 21 and will spend about five weeks at the farm, located just west of Protivin. Upah, who grew up on a farm just outside Clutier, a town of about 200 people, said he is excited he has the opportunity to take part in the internship.
    The 20-year-old said his job is basically to lay the groundwork for future interns and the future of the farm. He is to develop ways to ensure the long-term preservation of the farm. He is also in charge of writing up a list of ideas of projects future interns can work on.
    So far, Upah has been brainstorming ways to incorporate more tourism and education into the Borlaug farm.
    “A lot of it is still in the planning stages,” he said.
    His ideas include improving the visibility of the farm to possible tourists, by placing signs on the highway leading to the site. He is also thinking of ways to make the farm itself more tourist-friendly, whether that is accomplished by creating exhibits or making a kiosk with facts posted about Borlaug and his farm. Upah said the point is to make it easier for people to educate themselves by providing them with information.
    “I’m trying to think of ways to get this place to tell its own story,” he said.
    Another of his ideas involves making the farm an educational destination for young students. The site would become a place where elementary school students could learn what it used to be like to live on a farm, while also learning about Borlaug’s contributions to fighting world hunger.
    At the end of his internship, Upah will give a list of all his ideas to the Norman Borlaug Heritage Foundation and they will decide if they will move forward with any of the projects.
    Upah’s interest in history also makes the internship exciting. So far, he has enjoyed living on the farm and learning about Borlaug’s contributions to the world.
    “You get a perspective of life from that time period,” he said.
    Upah works Tuesdays through Thursdays at the Borlaug farm. On Mondays and Fridays he interns at the Northeast Iowa Research Farm in Nashua, focusing on crop research.
    Upah said the two locations complement each other. When he is at the Borlaug farm, he creates his own schedule and determines when he wants to tackle projects.
    “It encourages independent thinking,” he said.
    In past years, several people have taken part in the residency program at the farm, including artists and a poet. The Norman Borlaug Heritage Foundation Board selects the residents, who research and create work in their areas of expertise while spending time at the farm. The education residency program began at the boyhood farm in May of 2001.
    Upah acknowledged that tackling many of the projects he has in mind for the farm would be hard work, but remembering everything Borlaug did for the world helps to put things in perspective, he said.
    “He did the hard part. We kind of have the easy part here. We just have to tell his story,” Upah said.