UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Olivia Murphy-Sweet, the 2025 Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences’ Outstanding Recent Alumni Award recipient, returned to campus this spring and shared her academic and professional journey with students.
Murphy-Sweet, of Spokane, Washington, who holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural and extension education with a minor in international agriculture, is the executive director of Field of Hope, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving agricultural education and building resilience in the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Uganda.
She visited the University Park campus with her parents to receive the award and celebrate the achievement. While on campus, she participated in career guidance sessions with current agricultural and extension education students, as well as with students in the international agriculture senior seminar course.
“It was a tremendous opportunity to have Olivia visit class,” said Noel Habashy, associate teaching professor and coordinator for the international agriculture minor. “She’s doing transformative work promoting agricultural development in Uganda, and as a proud Penn State alum, she offers our students a powerful and relatable example of what’s possible. Not long ago, she was sitting in their seats — now she’s making a global impact.”
The alumna credits the immense opportunities Penn State provided and her lifelong mentors in the agricultural education community for encouraging her to step beyond her comfort zone and join the Peace Corps after graduation.
Murphy-Sweet worked as a sustainable agriculture agent and gender and development volunteer in Senegal for three years. Upon her return to the U.S., she earned two master’s degrees — in agricultural education and in curriculum development and design — from the University of Idaho.
Blending her broad range of education and global competence, Murphy-Sweet shapes preservice agricultural educators as the curriculum and gender specialist for the Global Teach Ag Network at Penn State. In this role, she connects with students in the Global Orientation to Agricultural Learning program to create lesson plans centered around global competence for their student-teaching placements.
“My biggest takeaway from her visit with our class was how many ways there are to get involved in international agriculture and development,” said Olivia Kaltenbach, a student in the international agriculture senior seminar course. “I learned that there is always a way to find an avenue that will broaden your horizons.”
Murphy-Sweet said her future aspirations include building upon the current work and mission of Field of Hope and pursuing a doctoral degree in international development.