Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The goal of this project is to develop future leaders from educationally underserved populations by providing six underrepresented first-generation and minority students a pathway to earning a master's degree in food science. The project will ensure they have the support systems they need, augmented with professional development that will reduce opportunity gaps and enable them to build successful careers in the food industry. The demand for food scientists is projected to increase 8% from 2021 to 2031, while the supply of new food science graduates continues to decrease. Thus, this project will have a national impact by providing the food industry with a pipeline of highly prepared students to succeed in leadership positions in the food industry. The measurable objectives include completion of the following over a two-year period: (1) Foundational Leadership Development Program; (2) Project Management Workshop, (3) Personalized Technical Writing and Communications Sessions; and (4) M.S. degree in Food Science. Fellows will hone their communication and leadership skills through a Teach-Back program for underprivileged high school students designed to amplify our outreach efforts and ensure sustainability of this project. The Fellowship program will include structured hands-on immersion in multidisciplinary research augmented with internship and/or shadowing experiences with industry professionals. This project aligns with the need to develop scientific and professional expertise in food science to meet the goal of providing Americans with safe, nutritious and secure food, and addresses a national priority to achieving social justice, equity, diversity and inclusion in the food science and nutrition TESA.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
50%
Developmental
50%
Goals / Objectives
Major Goal #1: Recruit and train master's students from traditionally underrepresented groups to fill nationally identified targeted expertise shortage areas in the food and agricultural sciences.Objective #1: Train and assess six underrepresented students in the four core competencies of knowledge of core food science concepts, critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving.Objective #2: Engage students in experiential learning through Master's thesis research projects, leadership workshops, community outreach, food science seminar series, internships/shadowing opportunities, and training in technical writing and communication.Objective #3: Assess the effectiveness of the program using the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework.
Project Methods
EFFORTS1. Technical Writing and Communications sessions. We have observed that our current students need assistance in learning to critically review published research and develop hypotheses and objective statements. We believe that the Fellows will benefit from working on their reading and writing skills in small groups of 2-4 research students under the guidance of their thesis advisor. Students will read research papers critically, evaluating their fit within their research topics, writing succinct summaries for inclusion within their literature review, and giving oral presentations to share these findings within their research groups.2. Foundational Leadership Development Program (FLDP) and Project Management Workshops. These leadership workshops will be provided in alternating years (e.g., FLDP in Year 1 and Project Management in Year 2) and will be structured in two, three-hour modules. The FLDP will be taught by faculty in the Leadership Program at Chapman (Collaborative Arrangements - J. Mark Maier). Both modules will include self-assessment and skill-building exercises. Topics will consist of leadership philosophy, leadership traits and styles, developing successful leadership practices, communicating as a leader, leadership in groups, and managing project teams.The Project Management workshops will be co-taught in alternate years by P. K. Shukla, Ph.D., C.P.I.M. Associate Professor of Management in Chapman's Argyros School of Business and Economics, and Dr. Monica Shukla-Belmontes, with an emphasis on how to initiate, plan, schedule, allocate resources, monitor & control and close the project. A debrief at the end of the workshop will review key points and assess project failures.3. Community Outreach Teach-Back Program. An essential component of this Fellowship is a Teach-Back Program, where the Fellows will share their knowledge with economically underprivileged and/or underrepresented high school students. They will give presentations, demonstrations, organize hands-on experiential and shadowing activities, and provide mentoring to the students. The target student groups include:Simon Scholars from the Simon STEM Scholarship Program (Collaborative Arrangements - Elaine Schwartz): this scholarship program allows Orange Unified School District (OUSD) high school students from difficult economic situations interested in a STEM field to receive a full scholarship to Chapman University [25].Orange Homegrown Youth Literacy Program (Collaborative Arrangements - Megan Penn): The program provides hands-on learning opportunities for OUSD high school students to engage in the entire food production cycle and give them tools to make important choices related to food, health, and their future [26].STEAM for Teens and Tweens (Collaborative Arrangements - Lynn-Marie Frediani): an engaging program that provides guest speakers, multimedia activities, and educational resources for teens and tweens on the role of STEAM in their everyday world. The programs take place at the Orange Public Library & History Center. The PD (R. Hellberg) has participated in this program and will work with the NNF Fellows to develop an interactive session where teens and tweens learn about food science.4. Coordination of the Food Science seminar series. Fellows will be responsible for coordinating the Food Science seminar series to hone their leadership skills. They will be responsible for identifying and inviting academic or industry speakers and taking care of seminar logistics, such as advertising the talk and moderating the seminars.5. Research. Fellows will engage in a food science research project that will consist of structured hands-on immersion experiences in food processing, food chemistry, or food safety research laboratories. In the food processing laboratory, Fellows will examine the effects of various food processing parameters on the quality and shelf-life of foods or beverages. In the food chemistry laboratory, Fellows will quantify and characterize advanced glycation end products in food or beverages. In the food safety laboratory, Fellows will optimize microbiological techniques for the detection of pathogens in foods and develop molecular techniques for the detection of food fraud. The Fellows will be trained by their faculty mentors and other graduate students in the laboratory on the techniques to be used in their research. This will enhance their sense of self-efficacy and aid in their transition to becoming independent researchers.6. Internship. Although all MS students in the Food Science program can engage in internships, the Fellows will have the choice of shadowing industry personnel, and/or a paid internship in a food company (Collaborative Arrangements - Industry Partners).7. Continual Professional Development. Fellows will obtain memberships to professional societies aligned with the TESA, such as the American Chemical Society (ACS), American Oil Chemists' Society (AOCS), IFT, and/or SCIFTS. Fellows will engage in professional development opportunities offered by these organizations, such as workshops and networking events.EVALUATION1. Plan for achieving completion rate greater than the MS Food Science program.Our students typically complete the MS Food Science program in 2-3 years, with some taking longer due to part- or full-time employment in the food industry. Our retention rate for Fall 2021 was 91.7%. We expect that the NNF stipend as well as the scholarships offered by Chapman University will allow the Fellows to be enrolled full time and engaged in their coursework and the fellowship program. Due to the financial support and faculty mentorship provided through this program, we expect that 100% of fellows will graduate within 2 years of starting the program.2. Plans to measure and report performance outcomes and impacts. Each core competency: knowledge of core food science concepts, critical thinking, communication, problem-solving [described in Section 2b(i)] is assessed annually and reported using our Annual Learning Outcome Assessment Report which includes responses from an exit survey administered to all graduates of the MS Food Science Program (Appendix #5, 6). In addition to this annual report, assessment of the NNF program will be done using the RE-AIM framework [27] of efficacy, adoption, implementation fidelity & effectiveness, and maintenance. Reach is a measure of the number of applicants for the proposed graduate training program annually. Adoption is a measure of successful enrollment into the proposed graduate training program and is assessed by calculating the number of students that accept placement in the graduate program. Maintenance informs the success with which students stay enrolled, complete the program, and continue into a career field related to the TESA. We will compare the Reach, Adoption, and Maintenance data from the year of Fellowship implementation to the data from two years prior and expect an increase in 2-year graduation rates. Implementation fidelity informs that the investigators adhered to the delivery of the Fellowship program as described in this proposal. Effectiveness will be assessed by conducting an exit interview with each Fellow in their final semester. Exit interview questions will determine how experiences in the NNF program helped Fellows acquire leadership skills, obtain the program competencies, and prepare them for a career in industry.3. The goal of tracking. Working with Alumni Engagement and the Office of Institutional Research, we expect to successfully track 100% of the six Fellows accepted into the program for five years post-graduation (years 1, 3, and 5), and administer surveys to the Fellow alumni and employers (Appendix #7, 8). The PDs will also review the Fellow and employer surveys to capture continued Fellow accomplishments for quality improvement initiatives.