Performing Department
CAES-Ag Leadership, Ed & Comm
Non Technical Summary
The Urban Agricultural and Life Sciences Institute (UALSI) will increase opportunities for secondary students to explore career in the agricultural and life sciences (ALS) through participatory learning experiences at the University of Georgia. This residential summer program provides a bridge to 4-year ALS degrees for underserved secondary students who show potential but are less likely to be recruited for summer research programs. UALSI will provide hands-on research internships and transformative mentoring while exposing participants to campus life in the hopes of mitigating barriers to matriculation. The goal of the program is to recruit and retain the next generation of urban agriculturalists by increasing engagement and knowledge acquisition and retention beyond the learning provided in the classroom. The target audience will be 45 rising sophomores and 18 rising juniors enrolled in secondary urban agriculture programs. The objectives for this three-year capacity-building project are to: (1) increase the number of urban students entering ALS majors; (2) retain urban students in ALS disciplines using enhanced academic experiences and strong professional networks; and (3) develop future leaders in ALS fields through culturally responsive participatory experiences and transformative mentoring. Influenced by numerous publications that highlight the critical need to increase the number of U.S. students pursuing agriculture, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields in order to address pressing global issues, this program will explore strategies for improving the student pipeline by creating a comprehensive and inclusive space that extends classroom learning, identifies academic and professional mentors, and provides substantive leadership development opportunities for underserved students.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
50%
Developmental
50%
Goals / Objectives
This program will provide (a) hands-on problem-based learning experiences and methods that extend learning beyond the classroom related and (b) opportunities for students to complete apprenticeships, internships, career mentoring experiences, and other participatory summer learning experiences to: 1) increase the number of students from urban populations entering undergraduate ALS programs; 2) retain urban students in ALS disciplines using enhanced academic experiences and strong professional networks; 3) develop future leaders in ALS fields through culturally responsive participatory experiences and transformative mentoring; and 4) evaluate and share the effectiveness of the UALSI to recruit, educate, and retain students from urban population into ALS majors.
Project Methods
The following methods will be used to accomplish this project:1. Recruitment of Underserved Students from UALSA Partner SchoolsCo-PD Lucille Shaw will be responsible for the scholar recruitment process as the coordinator and lead contact for the UALSA partner schools. Participants for this project, known as Scholars, will be recruited from UALSA partner schools. Currently, 17 educators at have gone through training and are developing and piloting the CRP lessons. Their students will be recruited for the first cohort of the UALSI. Five students from each school will be selected based on recommendations from the teachers trained during the UALSA summer academy. Each cohort will consist of 15 scholars. During the second year, 6 Scholars from the first cohort will be invited to Summer Institute II. The third year, 15 scholars will be eligible for Summer Institute I and 12 for Summer Institute II. The requirements for participation in Summer Institute I is that the student has between a 2.0-3.0 GPA after their freshmen year and has taken at least one semester of agriculture. In addition, they must be nominated by a teacher who is using the UALSA lessons in their class and the student must be able to stay the full 2 weeks of the Institute. The requirements for participation in Summer Institute II is that the scholar has a 2.5-3.25 GPA after their sophomore year, have taken at least one semester of agriculture during that year, and applies for Institute II that identifies a research interest in which we can provide a suitable graduate mentor.2. UALSI Summer Institutes Experiential Learning and MentorshipThe UALSAI Scholars will benefit from mentoring during their summer immersion experience from the UGA Chapter of Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS), which is administratively supported by the Office of Diversity Affairs (ODA) in CAES. MANRRS is a national organization dedicated to promoting academic and professional advancement by empowering minorities in agriculture and related sciences. Having members at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, this learning and support community will provide social and academic activities to foster student success during the Institutes and beyond. ODA Director, Lakecia Pettway, will be responsible for the identification of these student mentors (see letter of support). In addition, all mentors will complete a 6-module mentor training using the R.I.S.E. Model for Transformative Mentoring (see Appendix B). The R.I.S.E. Model, which stands for Respect, Influence, Support, and Empower, provides a framework for managing capacity-building relationships. It teaches mentors how to employ context-specific strategies that encourage substantive engagement while mitigating socio-cultural differences.During Institute I, students come to UGA campus for the last two weeks in July to work in teams of five with an undergraduate mentor from MANRRS to address a real-world ALS problem in the areas of food sustainability and nutrition, ALS literacy, animal welfare, environmental sustainability, biotechnology, ag economics and finance, or ag engineering and technology. Using Problem-Based Learning, scholars will research a real-world issue, research methods used to address the issue, and provide a recommendation. In addition, students will visit UGA science and land labs to learn more about career options in the aforementioned areas and conduct mini-experiments associated with these labs (e.g., monitoring sea turtles mating behaviors at Tybee Island and conducting a food tasting experiment at the Athens campus food sensory lab). Finally, teams will present their project at the UALSI Symposium to invited guests.During Institute II, returning participants will come to the UGA campus for four weeks in July to work closely with a graduate student from MANRRS conducting research in animal science, food science, horticulture, agricultural business and finance, agricultural technology, agricultural education, or agricultural communication. These projects will be hands-on and will allow participants to work in scientific or land labs. The projects will be set up so that the scholars can use the data for sciences fairs when they return home. In preparation for this, scholars will present poster presentations at the UALSI Symposium to invited guests.3. Leadership Development at UALSIIn addition to the research experiences, students will participate in leadership development experiences lead by PD James Anderson. In Summer Institute I, scholars will participate in four personal leadership development workshops. The purpose of these interactive workshops is to help scholars explore their leadership preferences through the True Colors Personality Assessment, learn interpersonal and problem-solving strategies and practice these strategies with others, and create a personal vision for leading when they go back to their local communities. The topics of these workshop are (a) My Personality Type (b) My Values, (c) My Conflict Management Style, and (d) My Goals for Leading. To apply leadership skills, scholars will create an interactive workshop on an ALS topic associated with the team project they worked on. They will go back to their local communities and present the workshop to at least two classes with a minimum of 25 participants. The classes can be in their high school or in a local elementary school. The workshop will be developed during the institute, including identifying their audience. Supplies to conduct the interactive workshop will be provided to the scholar when they return home.Institute II Scholars will take a leadership seminar fashioned after a course that is offered through the UGA Freshmen College Summer Experience. This seminar will not only focus on developing leadership and college readiness skills (preparing actual documents for their college application), but also providing an opportunity for them to participate in a service learning project, which is in line with UGA's experiential learning graduation requirement for all undergraduates and a demonstration of servant leadership in action.