Non Technical Summary
The grant proposal is entitled, "Land Grant Scholarships for Students at Southern University and A & M College." The goal ofthe grant proposal is to positively impact recruitment, retention, baccalaureate degree obtainments, and progression ofscholarship recipients in the food and agricultural sciences and related fields (FAS and RF). USDA's National Institute of Foodand Agriculture (NIFA) Scholarships will be accorded. Upon graduation an overwhelming majority of these students areexpected to be gainfully employed in the USDA workforce. The specific objectives are (1) to leverage the USDA/NIFA 1890Scholarship Funds with other sources of students' financial support, (2) to assess the scholarships' impacts on recruitmentnumbers and retention rate, and (3) to determine the scholarships' impacts on students progressing and obtainingbaccalaureate degrees, and employment in the agricultural and natural resources workforce. The selected students must have aminimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 2.8 at the time of application, and maintain at least a 2.8 GPA on a semesterand cumulative basis while receiving scholarship support. Scholarship recipients must be enrolled as full-time students (12hours minimum). Approximately, 45 full and 35 partial scholarship awards will be granted. The amounts will vary up to$8,000/year for full scholarships and up to $4,000/year for partial scholarships. The departments primarily targeted areAgricultural Sciences, Family and Consumer Sciences, and Urban Forestry and Natural Resources. Where applicable, theUSDA/NIFA scholarship funds will be leveraged with other financial awards of the selected students.

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
102	2410	1060	20%
124	0430	1070	10%
307	3910	1060	20%
601	6199	2090	20%
802	6099	1070	10%
804	5199	3030	10%
701	6099	1010	10%

Knowledge Area
601 - Economics of Agricultural Production and Farm Management; 102 - Soil, Plant, Water, Nutrient Relationships; 804 - Human Environmental Issues Concerning Apparel, Textiles, and Residential and Commercial Structures; 307 - Animal Management Systems; 124 - Urban Forestry; 802 - Human Development and Family Well-Being; 701 - Nutrient Composition of Food;

Subject Of Investigation
6199 - Economy, general/other; 3910 - Cross-commodity research--multiple animal species; 0430 - Climate; 2410 - Cross-commodity research--multiple crops; 6099 - People and communities, general/other; 5199 - Clothing and textiles, general;

Field Of Science
2090 - Statistics, econometrics, and biometrics; 1060 - Biology (whole systems); 1070 - Ecology; 1010 - Nutrition and metabolism; 3030 - Information and communication;

Goals / Objectives
1. To leverage the USDA/NIFA 1890 Scholarship Funds with other sources of students' financial support.2. To assess the scholarships' impacts on recruitment numbers and retention rate.3. To determine the scholarships' impacts on students progressing, obtaining baccalaureate degrees, and employment in theagricultural and natural resources workforce.

Project Methods
Procedures for Accomplishing Objective 1Objective 1: To leverage the USDA/NIFA 1890 Scholarship Funds with other sources of students' financial supportTo be eligible for the USDA/NIFA 1890 Scholarship, students must be a high school senior or a college/transfer. The applicantmust have a grade point average (GPA) of 2.8 at the time of application and maintain at least a 2.8 GPA on a semester andcumulative basis while receiving scholarship support, and be enrolled as a full-time student (12 hours minimum). The CAFCShas three departments; scholarships will be awarded to students wanting to pursue a degree in one of the three departments.Applicants will be evaluated to ensure they meet the requirements. To receive a scholarship under the program, a student mustsatisfy all four of the following criteria: (1) must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, (2) must be accepted for admission toSUBR, (3) must be enrolled at SUBR no later than one year after the date of acceptance for admission, and (4) must bepursuing a field of study in the food, agriculture and related disciplines, such as in the Department of Agricultural Sciences,Family and Consumer Sciences, and Urban Forestry and Natural Resources. The 1890 USDA/NIFA scholarships willcomplement existing scholarships at SUBR and help to provide needed additional financial assistance to a select number ofhigh caliber incoming freshmen and college/transfers in the FAS and RF. The 1890 USDA/NIFA scholarships criteria andmethod of selecting applicants and awardees will not duplicate an existing scholarship at SUBR. The department heads willwork closely with the project director (PD), co-project directors (Co-PDs), and SUBR's Admission and Financial Aid Offices toensure that each qualified undergraduatestudent who is eligible to receive the USDA/NIFA 1890 scholarship does not exceedthe maximum amount of the funds allowed by the University. We will leverage the USDA/NIFA 1890 scholarship dollars with arecipient's other financial support. In leveraging, we will take in consideration the amount of a student's other financial awardsexcluding loans. Each student at the University have a "cost of study" cap. A student cannot exceed the cap determined by theSUBR's Office of Financial Aid. A student's other financial aid such as work study, stipends, Honor's College scholarship, andother awards will be applied first. Then our 1890 USDA/NIFA Scholarship Award will be applied afterwards up to but no morethan $8,000/academic year/scholar and no less than 45 full scholarships the first year. Additionally, no more than$4,000/academic year/scholar and no less than 35 partial scholarships will be issued the first year. This approach allows us tospread the scholarship dollars to more scholars. The scholarship dollars can be used for tuition, room and board, student fees,and textbooks. Each department in the CAFCS will be provided at least $120,000 for scholarship offerings, to be allocatedequally among the program concentrations in each department. The USDA/NIFA 1890 Scholarship Program will assist us inincreasing our undergraduate enrollment, retention, graduation or near graduation of more baccalaureate degrees, and enhanceemployment in the USDA and strategic partners' workforce.Procedures for Accomplishing Objective 2Objective 2: To assess the scholarships' impacts on recruitment numbers and retention rate. Data will be collected eachsemester on enrollment numbers in the departments receiving the 1890 USDA/NIFA scholarship funds and statistically analyzedfor significant differences each year. The data collected will include student enrollment, retention, degree attainment, andemployment in the USDA and strategic partners' workforce. The variable student enrollment will be recorded. The variablesretention, degree attainment, and employment in USDA will treated as binomial variables and analyzed with contingency tables[R Core Team (2019)]. Also, the measures for academic outcomes will extend to five years after graduation as follow-up data.The data to evaluate the project will be analyzed by SUAREC Office of Planning and Evaluation (SOPE). At the end of theproject's four-year period, summative evaluation will be conducted to determine the extent to which the project's objectives wereachieved. SOPE researchers will analyze the data andmake inferences about the project's successes or failures. Theseresearchers will develop an evaluation instrument that will capture institutional data such as enrollment data, graduation rate,retention rate, and number of scholars working in the USDA and strategic partners' workplace. A survey instrument will bedeveloped that will measure student's perception and viewpoints of their academic experiences, program related activities, preand post the academic years. The student responses for the pre and post years will be statistically analyzed. The variables willbe analyzed; the binomial variables with contingency tables, the Likert variables with the package 'lkert' of R, the continuousvariables with paired and non-paired t-tests (Bryer and Specrchneider, 2016).Procedures for Accomplishing Objective 3Objective 3: To determine the scholarships' impacts on students progressing, obtaining baccalaureate degrees, andemployment in the agricultural and natural resources workforce.Data also will be collected each semester on the full and partial scholarship recipients and their attainment of baccalaureatedegrees. Given that only 9 % of SUBR students graduate in four years and only 26.9% graduate in six years, measureable variables will include the following: (1) number and percentage of incoming high school and college/transfers scholars passing gateway courses in English, Mathematics, Biology, and Chemistry on the first attempt, (2) number of undergraduate scholars graduating in four, five, six, seven, and eight years, (3) number and percentage of scholars employed in a food agriculture and related fields, after one, two, and three years post undergraduate graduation, and (4) number of scholars failing to maintain their scholarships. The data will be statistically analyzed used the statistically package of (Bryer and Specrchneider, 2016).