MALLORY LORING/Arizona Daily Wildcat Sarah McDonald, agriculture and life sciences sophomore, poses with her certificate. McDonald was honored for a public relations campaign she devised.

A UA student's plan to bring environmentalists and ranchers together has garnered her national recognition.

Sarah McDonald, an agriculture resource economics sophomore, won first place in the campaign plan category at the National Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow Convention held this past summer in Kansas City, MO.

She is the first student from UA to win this honor; UA's ACT club was just started in January.

Her project focused on how to unite the efforts of environmentalists and ranchers to help save the world's resources.

"I built the project around the theme of radical center; people abandon extreme views and come to the center to work together," McDonald said. "They try to find common ground."

McDonald, a fifth generation rancher, said she wanted to help ranchers and environmentalists realize that they have a common interest; saving the land so that it will be usable later.

"There is a stigma attached to environmentalism, a lot of ranchers get defensive when the word is even brought up," she said. "And environmentalists think ranchers are only interested in profit."

McDonald said she wanted to help both sides understand that in land conflict, it's the land that suffers.

"They think they are so different, but they can both appreciate a beautiful sunset, and want to protect wildlife," she said.

McDonald began developing her project in a class called Communicating Knowledge in Agriculture and Life Sciences.

The teaching assistant in that class, Samantha Alvis, said she was very pleased with the results of McDonald's work.

"Sarah is a well rounded individual who is able to take all of her different talents and interests and present them in ways that people from different backgrounds can take them and form their own opinions," Alvis said.

Alvis and the instructor, Jack Elliot, professor of agricultural education, continued to work with McDonald on the project for several months after the class was over.

"She has a very good, positive attitude; she has a tendency to take a positive attitude in just about any situation," Elliot said of McDonald's work ethic.

Elliot and Alvis are also the advisors of UA's ACT chapter.

Heather Jepsen, UA's ACT editor and an agriculture technology management senior, said she was proud of McDonald's accomplishment.

"Sarah is a really great writer and was really interested in the club when we first started, so it was great when she was able to enter her paper and win," she said.

Jepsen, along with other ACT members, kept the honor a secret until McDonald returned from a trip to Europe.

The group surprised McDonald by telling her when she got back.

"I was really shocked, I never expected it to do very well," said McDonald, explaining that she was a freshman at the time she completed the project and so her expectations of winning weren't very high.

McDonald, who is from a ranch outside of Douglas, said her parents, William and Mary McDonald, sparked her interest in environmental conflict.

"My parents are really open-minded; they really exposed me to both sides," she said.

McDonald's parents are involved with a group called Malpai Border Lands Group, which is trying to find a resolution to the conflict between ranchers and environmentalists. The group used some of McDonald's project brochures to help further their cause.

McDonald is interested in becoming more involved with this issue by working at an international non-profit when she graduates.

She also hopes to return to her parent's ranch to live one day. The ranch has been in her family for over 100 years.

The National ACT Convention included 13 universities and 233 entries in 23 categories.