Progress 09/01/04 to 08/31/07
Outputs
Traditional classroom-based teaching strategies often fall short of providing students with experience in many areas, such as critical thinking, teamwork, and exposure to ethical decision making. Furthermore, many food science undergraduate students receive their BS degree without exploring the role of research in food science. Consequently, many undergraduate students may not discover their own underlying interest in pursuing a career in basic and applied food science research. We developed the Cornell University Food Science Summer Scholars Program, an intensive 10-week summer program, with the goal of providing undergraduate students an opportunity to gain research experience and develop their research ability, critical thinking, team work, and leadership skills. In addition to performing hands-on research with a faculty member, students also participate in a specifically developed workshop on ethics in food science as well as discussion luncheons and field trips to
food companies and their research centers. While this summer program has been held every year from 2000 to 2007, this project specifically supported student participation in the program in 2005 to 2007. Overall, a total of 119 undergraduates have participated in the eight summer programs offered; participants represented 53 different universities. Program application numbers ranged from 17 to 62 per year and have increased each year. Participants completed formal program evaluations, which showed they were highly satisfied with their laboratory experience (4.43/5; range 3.84 - 4.90) and the overall program (4.49/5; range 4.36 - 4.82). Most students would recommend the program to friends and other students (4.65/5; range 4.36 - 4.88). To assess the impact of the program, we are tracking the participants' careers. While many participants have not yet completed their BS degrees, 14 out of the 119 scholars have completed graduate degrees with a food science related major, 40 are currently
attending graduate programs in food science and other supporting biological sciences (e.g., microbiology) and 19 are currently working in the food industry. Continuing follow-up will be conducted to assess the long-term impact of this program on participants' career choices. This specific project funded by USDA has focused on further developing summer research opportunities to expose undergraduate students to many of the emerging areas of food science that require interdisciplinary approaches and knowledge of nutrition, veterinary medicine, epidemiology, genomics & bioinformatics, nano(bio)technology, and other emerging areas that will be critical for continued assurance of a affordable, safe, and available food supply. Particular efforts have focused on increasing minority enrollment, including through recruitment visits to universities serving traditionally underrepresented minorities. In addition we have focused on recruiting undergraduate students not currently involved in food
science programs into this summer research program. We have also made considerable progress in securing funding from other sources to continue this program after completion of USDA-SERD funding.
PRODUCTS: Products of this project include recruitment materials and program materials for undergraduate research programs in food science and related disciplines, which have been made available on our program WWW page at http://www.cals.cornell.edu/cals/foodsci/academics/fsscholars/fssspde scription.cfm.
OUTCOMES: The major outcome of this project is the group of students that have been trained through our summer program. Between 2005 and 2007, we trained a total 49 students (21 of these students were supported through this program and 28 students supported through other gifts and grants), including 10 students representing traditionally underrepresented minorities. In addition, 21 students enrolled in non-food science majors participated in the program between 2005 and 2007. Our program provided an opportunity for these students to expand their background and also helped to retain and recruit students into food science related fields of studies and graduate programs as well as professional careers. The overall outcome of this project is an increased number of qualified professional in the field of food science.
DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: Dissemination activities include a continuously updates program WWW page (http://www.cals.cornell.edu/cals/foodsci/academics/fsscholars/index. cfm), recruitment brochures as well as presentations at professional meetings. For example, we have presented a poster on the Cornell Food Science summer scholars program at the 2004 Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting and Food EXPO, Las Vegas, Nevada (Wiedmann, M., and J. Robbins. 2004. Food science summer scholars program: undergraduate summer research and experiential learning to train the next generation of food scientists).
FUTURE INITIATIVES: Future planned initiatives include a further increase in our efforts (i) to recruit students representing traditionally underrepresented minorities into our program and to (ii) recruit students from non-food science majors. In addition, we will continue our efforts to assure continued program funding, e.g., through endowments, to allow continuation of our Food Science Undergraduate Research program.
Impacts
Impact The National Multidisciplinary Food Science Summer Research Program has trained a diverse cadre of highly qualified students that are likely to pursue (or are already pursuing) advanced degrees in food science and relevant related disciplines. Many of these students will likely pursue leadership positions in industry, academy and government agencies. Since initiation of the food science undergraduate summer research program at Cornell, we have trained 119 students, with approx. 18% representing traditionally underrepresented minorities. Some of the graduates from our program already have taken leadership roles in food science related fields. For example, a student from the 2000 program is currently a Human Resource Supervisor for Anheuser Busch and a student from the 2004 program is working as an Operations Management Associate for Yoplait, General Mills.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/06 to 12/31/06
Outputs
Traditional classroom-based teaching strategies often fall short of providing students with experience in many areas, such as critical thinking, teamwork, and exposure to ethical decision making. Furthermore, many food science undergraduate students receive their Bachelor of Science degree without exploring the role of research in food science. Consequently, many undergraduate students may not discover their own underlying interest in pursuing a career in basic and applied food science research. We developed the Cornell University Food Science Summer Scholars Program, an intensive 10-week summer program, with the goal of providing undergraduate students an opportunity to gain research experience and develop their research ability, critical thinking, team work, and leadership skills. In addition to performing hands-on research with a faculty member, students also participate in a specifically developed workshop on ethics in food science as well as discussion luncheons
and field trips to food companies and their research centers. A total of 102 undergraduates have participated in the first seven summer programs offered; participants represented 47 different universities, including 40 US universities. Program application numbers ranged from 17 to 46 per year and have increased each year. Participants completed formal program evaluations, which showed they were highly satisfied with their laboratory experience (4.43/5; range 3.84 - 4.90) and the overall program (4.49/5; range 4.36 - 4.82). Most students would recommend the program to friends and other students (4.65/5; range 4.36 - 4.88). To assess the impact of the program, we are tracking the participants' careers. While many participants have not yet completed their BS degrees, 44 out of the 102 scholars have applied to or are attending graduate programs in food science and other supporting biological sciences (e.g., microbiology). Continuing follow-up will be conducted to assess the long-term
impact of this program on participants' career choices. Current efforts focus on further developing summer research opportunities to expose undergraduate students to many of the emerging areas of food science that require interdisciplinary approaches and knowledge of nutrition, veterinary medicine, epidemiology, genomics & bioinformatics, nano(bio)technology, and other emerging areas that will be critical for continued assurance of a affordable, safe, and available food supply. Students accepted into the program are matched with individual faculty members at Cornell and complete a 10 week research program with their faculty mentors. Particular efforts have focused on increasing minority enrollment into the 2007 program, including recruitment visits to universities serving traditionally underrepresented minorities. In addition we are focusing on recruiting undergraduate students not currently involved in food science programs into this summer research program.
PRODUCTS: Products of this project include recruitment materials and program materials for undergraduate research programs in food science and related disciplines, which have been made available on our program WWW page at http://www.cals.cornell.edu/cals/foodsci/academics/fsscholars/fssspde scription.cfm
OUTCOMES: The major outcome of this project is the group of students that have been trained through our summer program. In 2006, we trained a total 18 students, including 1 student representing traditionally underrepresented minorities. In addition, 7 students enrolled in non-food science majors participated in the 2006 program. Our program provides an opportunity for these students to expand their background and retains and recruits students into food science related fields of studies and graduate programs as well as professional careers. The overall outcome of this project is an increased number of qualified professional in the field of food science.
DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: Dissemination activities include a continuously updates program WWW page (http://www.cals.cornell.edu/cals/foodsci/academics/fsscholars/index. cfm), recruitment brochures as well as presentations at professional meetings. For example, we have presented a poster on the Cornell Food Science summer scholars program at the 2004 Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting and Food EXPO, Las Vegas, Nevada (Wiedmann, M., and J. Robbins. 2004. Food science summer scholars program: undergraduate summer research and experiential learning to train the next generation of food scientists).
FUTURE INITIATIVES: Future planned initiatives include a further increase in our efforts (i) to recruit students representing traditionally underrepresented minorities into our program and to (ii) recruit students from non-food science majors. In addition, we will continue our efforts to assure continued program funding, e.g., through endowments, to allow continuation of our Food Science Undergraduate Research program beyond the duration of the USDA Higher Education challenge grant, which currently provides partial support to our program.
Impacts
The National Multidisciplinary Food Science Summer Research Program will train a diverse cadre of highly qualified students that will pursue advanced degree in food science and relevant related disciplines. Many of these students will likely pursue leadership positions in industry, academy and government agencies. Since initiation of the food science undergraduate summer research program at Cornell, we have trained 102 students, with approx. 17% representing traditionally underrepresented minorities. Some of the graduates from our program already have taken leadership roles in food science related fields. For example, a student from the 2000 program is currently a Group Manager for Anheuser Busch and a student from the 2004 program is working as an Operations Management Associate for Yoplait, General Mills.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/05 to 12/31/05
Outputs
Traditional classroom-based teaching strategies often fall short of providing students with experience in many areas, such as critical thinking, teamwork, and exposure to ethical decision making. Furthermore, many food science undergraduate students receive their Bachelor of Science degree without actually exploring the role of research in food science. Consequently, many undergraduate students may not discover their own underlying interest in pursuing a career in basic and applied food science research. We developed the Cornell University Food Science Summer Scholars Program, an intensive 10-week summer program, with the goal of providing undergraduate students an opportunity to gain research experience and develop their research ability, critical thinking, team work, and leadership skills. In addition to performing hands-on research with a faculty member, students also participate in a specifically developed workshop on ethics in food science as well as discussion
luncheons and field trips to food companies and their research centers. A total of 84 undergraduates have participated in the first six summer programs offered; participants represented 38 different universities, including 32 US universities. Program application numbers ranged from 17 to 44 per year and have increased each year. Participants completed formal program evaluations, which showed they were highly satisfied with their laboratory experience (4.14/5; range 3.84 - 4.90) and the overall program (4.21/5; range 4.36 - 4.82). Most students would recommend the program to friends and other students (4.62/5; range 4.36 - 4.88). To assess the impact of the program, we are tracking the participants' careers. While many participants have not yet completed their BS degrees, 28 out of the 84 scholars have applied to or are attending graduate programs in food science and other supporting biological sciences (e.g., microbiology). Continuing follow-up will be conducted to assess the
long-term impact of this program on participants' career choices. Current efforts focus on further developing summer research opportunities to expose undergraduate students to many of the emerging areas of food science that require interdisciplinary approaches and knowledge of nutrition, veterinary medicine, epidemiology, genomics & bioinformatics, nano(bio)technology, and other emerging areas that will be critical for continued assurance of a affordable, safe, and available food supply. We are currently in the progress of recruiting students for the 2006 National Multidisciplinary Food Science Summer Research Program, which will provide undergraduate students in food science and related disciplines with an opportunity to gain research experience in these areas and will help them develop research, critical thinking, team work, and leadership skills. Students accepted into the program will be matched with individual faculty members at Cornell and complete a 10 week research program
with their faculty mentors. Particular efforts have focused on increasing minority enrollment into the 2006 program, including recruitment visits to universities serving traditionally underrepresented minorities.
PRODUCTS: Products of this project include recruitment materials and program materials for undergraduate research programs in food science and related disciplines , which have been made available on our program WWW page at http://www.foodscience.cornell.edu/FSSSP/SupportingMaterials.htm.
OUTCOMES: The major outcome of this project is the group of students that have been trained through our summer program. In 2005, we have trained a total 14 students, including 6 students representing traditionally underrepresented minorities. The program participants include students majoring in food science as well as those majoring in related fields; our program provide an opportunity for these students to expand their background and retains and recruits students into food science related fields of studies and graduate programs as well as professional careers. The overall outcome of this project thus is an increased number of qualified professional in the field of food science.
DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: Dissemination activities include a continuously updates program WWW page (http://www.foodscience.cornell.edu/fsscholars.htm), recruitment brochures as well as presentations at professional meetings. For example, we have presented a poster on the Cornell Food Science summer scholars program at the 2004 Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting and Food EXPO, Las Vegas, Nevada (Wiedmann, M., and J. Robbins. 2004. Food science summer scholars program: undergraduate summer research and experiential learning to train the next generation of food scientists)
FUTURE INITIATIVES: Future planned initiatives include a further increase in our efforts to recruit students representing traditionally underrepresented minorities into our program. In addition, we will continue our efforts to assure continued program funding, e.g., through endowments, to allow continuation of our Food Science Undergraduate Research programs beyond the duration of the current USDA Higher Education challenge grant that currently partially supports our programs.
Impacts
The National Multidisciplinary Food Science Summer Research Program will train a diverse cadre of highly qualified students that will pursue advanced degree in food science and relevant related disciplines. Many of these students will likely pursue leadership positions in industry, academy and government agencies. Since initiation of the food science undergraduate summer research program at Cornell, we have trained 84 students, with approx. 20% representing traditionally underrepresented minorities. Some of the graduates from our program already have taken leadership roles in food science related fields.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/04 to 12/31/04
Outputs
Traditional classroom-based teaching strategies often fall short of providing students with experience in many areas, such as critical thinking, teamwork, and exposure to ethical decision making. Furthermore, many food science undergraduate students receive their Bachelor of Science degree without actually exploring the role of research in food science. Consequently, many undergraduate students may not discover their own underlying interest in pursuing a career in basic and applied food science research. We developed the Cornell University Food Science Summer Scholars Program (CU FSSSP), an intensive 10-week summer program, with the goal of providing undergraduate students an opportunity to gain research experience and develop their research ability, critical thinking, team work, and leadership skills. In addition to performing hands-on research with a faculty member, students also participate in a specifically developed workshop on ethics in food science as well as
discussion luncheons and field trips to food companies and their research centers. A total of 69 undergraduates have participated in the first five summer programs offered; participants represented 31 different universities, including 26 US universities. Program application numbers ranged from 17 to 41 per year and have increased each year. Participants completed formal program evaluations, which showed they were highly satisfied with their laboratory experience (4.49/5; range 3.84-4.90) and the overall program (4.55/5; range 4.36-4.82). Most students would recommend the program to friends and other students (4.71/5; range 4.44-4.88). To assess the impact of the program, we are tracking participant careers. While many participants have not yet completed their BS degrees, 22 out of the 69 scholars have applied to or are attending graduate programs in food science and other supporting biological sciences (e.g., microbiology). Continuing follow-up will be conducted to assess the
long-term impact of this program on participant career choices. Current efforts focus on further developing summer research opportunities to expose undergraduate students to many of the emerging areas of food science that require interdisciplinary approaches and knowledge of nutrition, veterinary medicine, epidemiology, genomics & bioinformatics, nano(bio)technology, and other emerging areas that will be critical for continued assurance of a affordable, safe, and available food supply. We are currently in the progress of recruiting students for The National Multidisciplinary Food Science Summer Research Program, which will provide undergraduate students in food science and related disciplines with an opportunity to gain research experience in these areas and will help them develop research, critical thinking, team work, and leadership skills. Students accepted into the program will be matched with individual faculty members at Cornell and complete a 10 week research program with their
faculty mentors.
Impacts
The National Multidisciplinary Food Science Summer Research Program will train a diverse cadre of highly qualified students that will pursue advanced degree in food science and relevant related disciplines. Many of these students will likely pursue leadership positions in industry, academy and government agencies. Since initiation of the food science undergraduate summer research program at Cornell, we have trained 69 students, with approx. 20 percent representing traditionally underrepresented minorities. Some of the graduates from our program already have taken leadership roles in food science related fields.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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