Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences included students from all 23 California State University (CSU), of which 18 are classified as Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) and all students from 113 California Community Colleges (CCC). While the primary target was Hispanic students in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) majors, all students were encouraged to apply. The target audience was reached through contacts in the Sponsored Programs offices of the CSU system, the CCC system, faculty and student club outreach, campus career center and experiential learning programs, and contacting water partners throughout the state of CA. Curriculum developed for the K-12 component targeted underrepresented high school students in the Rialto and Morongo Valley Unified School Districts recruited through the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools "Family Sustainable Wage Program." Changes/Problems:The project passed a site visit and financial review by USDA-NIFA in year 4 of the project (Spring 2019), with recommendation that Mr. Boykin Witherspoon, the Executive Director of WRPI, be added as a Co-PD on the grant since he is an active participant in the decisions of the project. USDA's Awards Management Division was delayed in processing this change of Co-PD, and request for 5th year no-cost extension, until December 5, 2019. Dr. David Zoldoske and Dr. Jeffrey Thompson will remain Co-PDs on the grant though completion of the no-cost extension. In response to the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, the CSU Chancellor's Office issued a 'work at home order' on March 20th 2020, that changed how our student intern program continued operation for duration of this project. A total of 11 interns transitioned their internship project to be work at home because of the COVID-19 closure of campuses in Spring 2020. We had to repurpose the remaining unused time of their internship for reassignment to new internship projects where they could work at home under distance learning supervision of new mentoring professors. We had to reach out to our partner campuses of the California Community College and California State University Systems to recruit new mentoring professors for these new 'work at home' internship projects. Three interns were not able to continue to participate in the project because of the ongoing COVID-19 situation. The COVID-19 epidemic also necessitated cancellation of the planned annual WRPI conference scheduled in April 2020 at the CSU Los Angeles campus. This project had planned to support undergraduate and graduate student interns to attend the 2020 CSU-WRPI annual conference as it has done in the previous years. This meeting brings together a diverse audience of water, climate and agricultural scientists and managers from across California, providing a professional forum for research presentations, networking with faculty for graduate school opportunities, and career recruitment. These COVID-19 cancellations are anticipated to result in an unspent balance of funds by project completion date of August 31, 2020,if no change of budget request were to be authorized. The budgeted amounts for student hours, travel, and supplies have been under-spent because of restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 closures. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A core opportunity for training and professional development provided by the internship experience is to place each intern with a mentoring supervisor in STEM fields applied to watershed management. This project placed 22 interns with a USDA agency and 46 interns at non- USDA university research labs, municipal agencies, and/or non-governmental organizations, for a total of 68 internships that provided paid experiential learning opportunities related to USDA career pathways. Advisement was also provided to students after their completion of internships, by their internship supervisors and project staff. The project also provided a doctoral scholarship to an underrepresented first-generation college student in a Ph.D. program at Texas A&M University, so that she may be trained in a STEM field related to USDA career pathways. The K-12 component supported the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools to complete development of four new high school courses that provide training and professional development in water resource career pathways. The San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools also provided related teacher training and professional development in a workshop titled, "Water Industry and Education Summit" attended by CTE coordinators, Industry Mangers, and Educators, as well as through externships completed by teachers in the Rialto Unified School District. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?This project disseminated a call for student internship applications to a total of 254 institutions that serve the community. Project Manager Yvette Castellanos attended the annual 2020 USDA HSI Grant Program Meeting at the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHEE) Conference in Costa Mesa, CA. Results of this project were disseminated online with social media platforms and via WRPI's statewide linkages of collaborators, project partners, and faculty mentors. Student accomplishments are shared via social media networks linked on the WRPI project webpage. For the K-12 component, the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools developed new course marketing including graphic design 'branding' of course curriculum and instructional resources, and online video media for outreach and recruitment of high school students into the developed courses. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This is the final reporting period for this project. This project's 5th year no-cost extension will be competed August 31, 2020.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In the 5th year no-cost extension, we received 109 applications from students, and funded 68 students to receive paid experiential learning internships, which equates to support of 136% of the planned 50 internships for this project year. Of the 68 placed interns, 5 (7.35%) are students that attend a California Community College working on Associate's Degrees, 47 (69.12%) attend a 4-year university at the undergraduate level at a campus of the California State University and University of California working on Bachelor's Degrees, 15 (22.06%) working on Masters degrees, and 1 (1.47%) working on a PhD. The underrepresented status of these students is self-identified by race or ethnicity as 50% Hispanic, 7.35% Asian, 1.47% African American, 2.94% Native American, and 0% Pacific Islander. The gender of student interns is 50% Male and 50% Female. In regards to family background in higher education, 66.67% of the underrepresented students are a first-generation college student. The project received programmatic IRB approval at CSU San Bernardino campus to collect 20 indicators of student demographic and academic information to track student progress and GPA performance. This monitoring is ongoing. This project awarded a $20,000 doctoral research competitive scholarship to Miriam Catalan, a first-generation college student working on a Ph.D. degree in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at Texas A&M University. Her dissertation research is focused on understanding of plant-water interactions in systems of ecohydrology stressed by climate change. Miriam was raised by immigrant parents, and was surrounded by family who had a background in agriculture, which she credits as having fostered her career interests to work for the USDA. Miriam previously completed a USDA Experiential Learning Internship as an undergraduate student in the Urban Agriculture Research Based Experience program (U-ACRE) at California State University Fullerton (CSUF) where she received Bachelor's of Science and Master's of Science Degrees in Biology. Miriam's doctoral program is training her for a career pathway as a plant physiologist, and her career goal is to receive appointment with the water management and systems research unit in the USDA Agricultural Research Service. The K-12 outreach component of this project supported the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools to complete development of four high school courses for a new water resource pathway of Career Technical Education (CTE) aligned with California state requirements. The new curriculum is designed for recruitment of underrepresented students into career technical and college preparatory pathways in water resources management. The courses are titled "Water Works: Next Generation Careers in the Water Industry", "Get in the water: Careers with a Future", "GIS for the Water Industry: Mapping Our Resources", and "Water Policy to Water Wars."
Publications
|
Progress 09/01/15 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:From 2015-2020, this project targeted undergraduate and graduate students that are underrepresented in USDA water resource careers from campuses of the California State University (CSU) and California Community Colleges (CCC). While the primary target audience was Hispanic students in the science, technology, engineering and math majors (STEM fields), all eligible students were encouraged to apply for experiential-based internships partnered with professional mentors from water resource management agencies and university research at grant sponsored-learning projects located throughout California. During this project, the number CSU campuses classified as Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) increased from 18 to 21, reflecting substantial growth of the primary target audience in the CSU student population. The goal of this project was to measurably increase the encouragement, retention, graduation, and USDA career attainment of underrepresented college students. Recruitment efforts extended to all contacts in the Sponsored Programs offices of the CSU and CCC systems, Faculty and student clubs, campus career centers, and broader outreach by multimedia communications. The K-12 outreach component of this grant targeted underrepresented, STEM-focused high school students through collaboration with the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools for development of new high school course curriculum in four water resource themed courses for career technical education. In response to COVID-19 closures that prematurely ended most student internship work in spring of 2020, collaborations were additionally made with the Inland Empire Resource Conservation District (IERCD) and the California Botanic Garden to develop new online curriculum and teacher resources to serve underrepresented and underserved students at K-12 and college levels who were scheduled to be transitioned to instruction from home in the fall semester. Changes/Problems:This 4 year project required a No Cost Extension (NCE) agreement over a fifth year to complete the project goals. The NCE was necessary because some students could not complete their experiential learning before the scheduled end date of the award on August 31, 2019. More time was also needed to track metrics for accomplishments of student experiential learning. The NCE changed the project end date to August 31, 2020, which allowed us tofully utilize awarded funds over a fifth year to accomplish remaining goals. The impact of the 35-day Federal Government Shutdown (Dec. 22, 2018 to January 25, 2019) delayed recruitment of 20 student interns who were being placed with federal agencies. The project passed a site visit and financial review by USDA-NIFA in year 4 of the project (Spring 2019), with recommendation that Mr. Boykin Witherspoon, the Executive Director of WRPI, be added as a Co-PD on the grant since he is an active participant in the decisions of the project. USDA's Awards Management Division was delayed in processing this change of Co-PD, and request for 5th year no-cost extension, until December 5, 2019. In response to the COVID-19 epidemic, the CSU Chancellor's Office issued a 'work at home order' on March 20th 2020, that changed how our student intern program continued operation for duration of this project. A total of 11 interns transitioned their internship project to be work at home because of the COVID-19 closure of campuses in Spring 2020. We had to repurpose the remaining unused time of their internships for reassignment to new internship projects where they could work at home under distance learning supervision of new mentoring professors. We had to reach out to our partner campuses of the California Community College and California State University Systems to recruit new mentoring professors for these new 'work at home' internship projects. Three interns were not able to continue to participate in the project because of the ongoing COVID-19 situation. The COVID-19 epidemic also necessitated cancellation of the planned annual WRPI conference scheduled in April 2020 at the CSU Los Angeles campus. This project had planned to support undergraduate and graduate student interns to attend the 2020 CSU-WRPI annual conference as it has done in the previous years. These COVID-19 cancellations resulted in an unspent balance of funds budgeted for student hours, travel, and supplies because of restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 closures. In order to complete all activities of this project, a change of budget was approved by Program Director Dr. Irma Lawrence to reallocate funds for two subawards to support emergency development of online instructional resources targeting underrepresented and underserved students in K-12 and college grade levels in Southern California. A subaward of $25,000 was made to the Inland Empire Resource Conservation District (IERCD) coordinated by Mandy Parkes (District Director) for new online curriculum development about natural resource conservation targeting K-12 students. A subaward of $25,000 was made to the California Botanic Garden coordinated by Mare Nazaire (Administrative Curator) to develop a module of online instructional resources targeting college students through virtual tour and online learning curriculum related to career pathway in botany and plant sciences. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project spanned 5 years of efforts to increase opportunities for diverse training and professional development for underrepresented students in STEM disciplines aligned with USDA careers. The main approach was to provide funded experiential learning opportunities to 216 students. By placing students directly in mentored, experiential learning opportunities, they participated as interns in the day-to-day operations of the agencies and organizations they were placed with. This allowed them to gain first-hand knowledge of the tasks, and experience with the skill sets needed, for careers within those agencies and organizations. The opportunities that were provided to the students also allowed them to network within the agency and organization. The project also sent students to various professional conferences and meetings and encouraged the students to present their work. The following summary highlights project sponsorships which provided student conference attendance, on-the-job training in experiential learning programs, scholarships, and curriculum development designed to increase recruitment into college and STEM career technical fields. In 2016, Two interns attended the annual Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) conference in San Antonio, TX in October of 2016. This forum provides opportunities to foster and identify graduate education opportunities for Hispanic students and graduates. In 2017, Danny Miranda, a first-generation Hispanic graduate student enrolled in the Masters of Hydrology program at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona presented his research in a scientific poster at the student poster session of the USDA Workforce Diversity Career Conference in Albuquerque, NM. The Project also supported 3 interns to attend the 2017 annual WRPI Statewide Conference, held at the CSU San Jose campus, CA, where they networked with a diverse audience of water, climate and agricultural scientists and managers. Three interns attended the 31st annual HACUconference in San Diego CA in October of 2017. In 2018, intern Stephanie Pascuala presented her research in a scientific poster at the student poster session in the March 2018 Hispanic-Serving Institutions Education Grants Program Project Director's Meeting in Washington DC. The 10th annual WRPI Statewide Conference was held at the CSUSB Palm Desert satellite campus in Palm Springs CA, and was attended by 37 interns and 45 faculty mentors. This meeting brought together a diverse audience of water, climate and agricultural scientists and managers from across California, providing a professional forum for research presentations, networking with faculty for graduate school opportunities, and career recruitment. A total of 26 student interns presented scientific posters based on their research experience supported by USDA experiential learning internships at this WRPI conference. In 2019, Thirty-six student interns were sponsored to attend the 11th annual WRPI Statewide Conference at the CSU Chico campus. Thirteen student interns presented scientific posters based on research conducted in their experiential learning internships. From year 2017 to year 2020, this project funded 4 annual WRPI/USDA Watershed Management Doctoral Scholarship competitions to address the underrepresentation of Hispanics/Latinos in professional careers in the food, agriculture, and natural resource system as well as the government. A scholarship of $20,000 was awarded each year to the top ranked student applicant having academically meritorious accomplishments in the pursuit of doctoral degrees with research related to water resources and USDA career pathways. The 4 awarded students are the first generation to attend college from their families, otherwise hindered by limited financial resources available to support their graduate research. These scholarship awards provided significant financial aid support for their doctoral-level training and specialization needed to become professional leaders in the USDA. In 2017, doctoral candidate Brianna Pagán was awarded. Brianna was a graduate of CSU Long Beach and UCLA. She is a Hispanic first-generation college student in her family, and this scholarship is allowing her to study abroad to complete her doctoral degree started at UCLA in the laboratory of Hydrology and Water Management at Ghent University in Belgium. In 2018, doctoral candidate Elizabeth Mosqueda was awarded. Elizabeth was a graduate of Fresno State University and daughter of migrant farm workers, attending the University of Wyoming to study plant science. In her acceptance letter for the Ph.D. scholarship award, Elizabeth wrote, "Growing up as a daughter of Hispanic migrant workers who dedicated their lives to California's lettuce industry, my parents were the first to instill good work ethic and dedication as a positive virtue in me, however throughout my academic career I have also realized the value of a college education. It is because of yourself and the other proponents of this wonderful award that students such as myself can aspire to reach further in life than we ever thought possible." In 2019, Roxana Coreas was awarded. Roxana is a Hispanic first-generation college student working on a Ph.D. degree in Environmental Toxicology in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Riverside. Her dissertation research is focused on engineered nanomaterials and their toxicological profiles to investigate the role these materials can play in improving agricultural crops and overall human health. Roxana previously completed a USDA Experiential Learning Internship with the US Forest Service, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in environmental health at the California State University Northridge. This project also supported Roxana's attendance of the 2019 American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) conference. In 2020, Miriam Catalan was awarded. Miriam is a Hispanic first-generation college student working on a Ph.D. degree in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at Texas A&M University. Her dissertation research is focused on understanding of plant-water interactions in systems of ecohydrology stressed by climate change. Miriam was raised by immigrant parents, and was surrounded by family who had a background in agriculture, which she credits as having fostered her career interests to work for the USDA. Miriam previously completed a USDA Experiential Learning Internship as an undergraduate student in the Urban Agriculture Research Based Experience program (U-ACRE) at California State University Fullerton (CSUF) where she received Bachelor's of Science and Master's of Science Degrees in Biology. Miriam's doctoral program is training her for a career pathway as a plant physiologist, and her career goal is to receive appointment with the water management and systems research unit in the USDA Agricultural Research Service. The K-12 outreach component of this project supported the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools to complete development of four high school courses for a new water resource pathway of Career Technical Education (CTE) aligned with California state requirements. The new curriculum is designed for recruitment of underrepresented students into career technical and college preparatory pathways in water resources management. The courses are titled "Water Works: Next Generation Careers in the Water Industry", "Get in the water: Careers with a Future", "GIS for the Water Industry: Mapping Our Resources", and "Water Policy to Water Wars." The San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools also provided related teacher training and professional development in a workshop titled, "Water Industry and Education Summit" attended by CTE coordinators, Industry Mangers, and Educators, as well as through externships completed by teachers in the Rialto Unified School District. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Updates, opportunities and results have been disseminated at conferences in presentations and poster sessions, multiple social media outlets, and press releases. The final reports written by interns have been posted on the WRPI USDA website which is available to the public online at: http://wri.csusb.edu/watershedManagementExperientialLearning.html. This project disseminated a call for student internship applications to a total of 254 institutions that serve the community. In 2017, The project director Dr. Brett Goforth presented a poster summarizing goals and outcomes at the annual 2017 USDA HSI Grant Principal Investigators Meeting in Albuquerque NM. A press release was emailed to share the program's metaevaluation executive summary infographic with the CSUSB Presidents Office, CSU Chancellors Office, and all partnering agencies and college campuses. In 2018, Project manager Laura Ramos presented a poster summarizing goals and outcomes at the annual 2018 USDA HSI Grant Program Project Director's Meeting in Washington DC. Project Staff Yvette Castellanos attended the "NIFA Listens: Investing in Science to Transform Lives" listening session meeting in Albuquerque, NM on November 1, 2018 to provide feedback on the requested stakeholder questions in relation to the results of this project and future needs for continued support of the underrepresented students in paid experiential learning opportunities. In 2019, Project Director, Dr. Brett Goforth, presented a project summary of years 1-3 at the annual 2019 USDA HSI Grant Program Project Director's Meeting in Costa Mesa, CA. An infographic of the year 1-3 results was prepared and disseminated to the USDA-NIFA Hispanic-Serving Institution's Education Grants Program at the Project Director's Meeting. This infographic was also shared with the CSU-WRPI Presidential Oversight Committee, comprised of seven CSU presidents (Fresno, Humboldt, Northridge, Pomona, Sacramento, San Bernardino, and San Luis Obispo), as well as online with social media platforms and via WRPI's statewide linkages of collaborators, project partners, and faculty mentors. In 2020, Project Manager Yvette Castellanos attended the annual 2020 USDA HSI Grant Program Meeting at the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHEE) Conference in Costa Mesa, CA. Results of this project were disseminated online with social media platforms and via WRPI's statewide linkages of collaborators, project partners, and faculty mentors. Student accomplishments are shared via social media networks linked on the WRPI project webpage. For the K-12 component, the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools developed new course marketing including graphic design 'branding' of course curriculum and instructional resources, and online video media for outreach and recruitment of high school students into the developed courses. The IERCD developed a new "Conservation Connection" online environmental education portal with link emailed to subscribers of their listserve, and also linked via their webpage (https://www.iercd.org/education). The California Botanic Garden online educational module and tour will be available on this institutions website (https://www.calbg.org/) and YouTube Channel. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
From 2015 to 2020, we supported 216 students to receive paid experiential learning internships. Their gender were 50.93% (n=110) female and 49.07% (n=106) male. Their self-identified race/ethnicity was 51.39% (n=111) Hispanic; 2.31% (n=5) Native American; 10.6% (n=23) Asian; 2.31% (n=5) African American; 28.7% (n=62) Caucasian; 1.85% (n=4) two or more Ethnicity; and 2.78% (n=6) Unknown. A total of 78.24% (n=169) of the interns were undergraduates, and 21.76% (n=47) were graduate students. This demographic data was collected and analyzed according to methods approved by IRB permit that was annually reviewed and renewed at the CSU San Bernardino campus. Significant accomplishments of experiential learning were shown by the 20 indicators that were reported during the project. The average GPA pre-internship experience was 3.32, while the average GPA post-experience had improved to 3.39 by the end of this project. At the time this project ended, 131 student participants had graduated with their Bachelor's degree and 42 graduated with Master's degrees. Of the 131 students that graduated with their Bachelor's degree during the timeframe of this project's data collection, 30 (23%) reported applying to master's programs. Regarding the placement of interns with career mentors, 97 (44.90%) of interns were placed with USDA agencies, ARS, NRCS, FS, FSA, APHIS, and USDA HSI, and 119 (55.10%) students were placed with other agencies, organizations, and college campuses: AgBio Tech, Applied Marine Sciences, Arroyo Seco Foundation, Bureau of Land Management, College of the Sequoias, CA Fish and Game, CalFire, Cal Poly Pomona, Central Coast Water Quality Protection, Cities of Monterey, Pacific Grove, and Watsonville, County of Monterey, CSU Bakersfield, CSU Channel Islands, CSU Chico, CSU Dominguez Hills, CSU Eastbay, CSU Fresno, CSU Fullerton, CSU Humboldt, CSU Long Beach, CSU Los Angeles, CSU Monterey Bay, CSU Northridge, CSU San Bernardino, CSU San Diego, CSU San Luis Obispo, CSU Stanislaus, Cal Poly Pomona, Sacramento State, CSU San Francisco, San Jose State, Denise Duffy and Associates, Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Reserve, Marina Coast Water District, Monterey County Extension Office, Monterey County Health Department, Monterey County Water Resources Agency, Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, NASA, Poder Popular, Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County, San Diego State University, San Dieguito River Park, Santa Lucia Conservancy, Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve, Surfrider Foundation, Tuolumne River Trust, US Geological Survey, Ventura Coastkeeper, and Ventura County Resource Conservation District. In summary, this accomplishment exceeded the project goal for internship participation by 8% (n = 216 served / project goal of 200 interns). Additionally, a $20,000 Ph.D. scholarship was competitively awarded annually over four years. The recipients were four Hispanic females, each awarded $20,000 scholarships, to pursue their PhD degrees in Civil Engineering at the University of California Los Angeles, plant science at the University of Wyoming, Environmental Toxicology in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Riverside, and in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at Texas A&M University. The K-12 outreach component of this project supported the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools by sub-award to complete development of four high school courses for a new water resource pathway of Career Technical Education (CTE) aligned with California state requirements. The new curriculum is designed for recruitment of underrepresented students into career technical and college preparatory pathways in water resources management. The courses are titled "Water Works: Next Generation Careers in the Water Industry", "Get in the water: Careers with a Future", "GIS for the Water Industry: Mapping Our Resources", and "Water Policy to Water Wars." The San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools also provided related teacher training and professional development in a workshop titled, "Water Industry and Education Summit" attended by CTE coordinators, Industry Mangers, and Educators, as well as through externships completed by teachers in the Rialto Unified School District. In the summer of 2020, the Inland Empire Resource Conservation District (IERCD) and the California Botanic Garden were additionally supported by sub-awards to develop new online curriculum and teacher resources to serve underrepresented and underserved students at K-12 and college levels that were scheduled to be transitioned to instruction from home for fall semester. IERCD developed a new "Virtual Conservation Classroom" platform, accessible to all students with a topic based menu of traditional classroom programs that are transitioned to narrated Google Slides in both English and Spanish, recorded mini lessons where IERCD educators highlight components of conservation and education programming in the district, as well as a web-portal for shared resource use and lesson planning by educators. The California Botanic Garden developed a virtual tour video and companion online educational module for college students titled, "Plants in a Changing World: California Diversity, Species Distributions, and Climate Change." The online educational module includes a plant science exercise that incorporates examination of digital herbarium specimens and online datasets with models to make predictions about how climate change may influence multiple plant species distributions, including on National Forest lands in California.
Publications
|
Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19
Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences included students from all 23 California State University (CSU), of which 18 are classified as Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI), and students from 113 California Community Colleges (CCC). While the primary target was Hispanic students in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) majors, all students were encouraged to apply. The target audience was reached through contacts in the Sponsored Programs offices of the CSU system, the CCC system, faculty and student club outreach, campus career center and experiential learning programs, and contacting water partners throughout the state of California. Curriculum developed for the K-12 component targeted underrepresented high school students in the Rialto and Morongo Valley Unified School Districts recruited through the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools "Family Sustainable Wage Program." Changes/Problems:The impact of the 35-day Federal Government Shutdown (Dec. 22, 2018 to January 25, 2019) delayed recruitment of 20 student interns who were being placed with federal agencies. The delay lasted well into spring quarter, yet we have been able to place 66 students into summer internships and have three additional internship opportunities for which we are actively recruiting students. At present, we have exceeded the project goal by 16 additional students (32%) beyond the project's target of 50 interns for year 4. The project passed a site visit and financial review by USDA-NIFA, with recommendation that Mr. Boykin Witherspoon, the Executive Director of WRPI, be added as a Co-PD on the grant since he is an active participant in the decisions of the project. Dr. David Zoldoske and Dr. Jeffrey Thompson will remain Co-PDs on the grant though completion of the no-cost extension. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A core opportunity for training and professional development provided by the internship experience is to place each intern with a mentoring supervisor in STEM fields applied to watershed management. This project placed 30 interns with a USDA agency and 36 interns at non-USDA university research labs, municipal agencies, and/or non-governmental organizations. All 66 internships provided paid experiential learning opportunities related to USDA career pathways. This support is ongoing. Thirty-six undergraduate and graduate student interns attended the 2019 CSU-WRPI annual conference to showcase their work and research. This meeting brings together a diverse audience of water, climate and agricultural scientists and managers from across California, providing a professional forum for research presentations, networking with faculty for graduate school opportunities, and career recruitment. Advisement was also provided to students after their completion of internships, by their internship supervisors and project staff. The project also provided a doctoral scholarship to an underrepresented first-generation college student in a Ph.D. program at the University of California Riverside, so that she may be trained in a STEM field related to USDA career pathways. This student was also given support to attend the 2019 AAHHE conference, which provided workshops on the professional development of leadership skills. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?This project disseminated a call for student internship applications to a total of 254 institutions that serve the community. We received 109 applications from underrepresented students and funded 66 students to receive paid experiential learning internships, which equates to support of 60% of the applicants recruited from the community served. Efforts to recruit underrepresented students into 3 additional internship opportunities are in progress. The results of 13 funded student internship projects were presented in scientific posters at the 2019 CSU-WRPI annual conference held at California State University, Chico, a HSI campus. This conference was attended by students, faculty, and professionals from across the state. Project Director, Dr. Brett Goforth, presented a project summary of years 1-3 at the annual 2019 USDA HSI Grant Program Project Director's Meeting in Costa Mesa, CA. An infographic of the year 1-3 results was prepared and disseminated to the USDA-NIFA Hispanic-Serving Institution's Education Grants Program at the Project Director's Meeting. This infographic was also shared with the CSU-WRPI Presidential Oversight Committee, comprised of seven CSU presidents (Fresno, Humboldt, Northridge, Pomona, Sacramento, San Bernardino, and San Luis Obispo), as well as online with social media platforms and via WRPI's statewide linkages of collaborators, project partners, and faculty mentors. Student accomplishments are shared via social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest) linked on the WRPI project webpage. Project Staff Yvette Castellanos attended the "NIFA Listens: Investing in Science to Transform Lives" listening session meeting in Albuquerque, NM on November 1, 2018 to provide feedback on the requested stakeholder questions in relation to the results of this project and future needs for continued support of the underrepresented students in paid experiential learning opportunities. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Although our objectives are being met and the final year 4 cohort of 66 student interns have been placed in paid experiential internships, a one-year no cost extension will be needed to complete several activities after the current performance period of the award ends August 31, 2019. The final Ph.D. student scholarship recipient will be chosen in summer 2019, and funds for this student cannot be disbursed until the 2019-2020 school year is in session after August 31, 2019. We anticipate that many student interns will not have completed their internship projects by August 31, 2019, so we will need to provide adequate time for all student interns to complete their internships currently in progress. Since many projects can take up to one full year to complete and students cannot submit their project reports until they are finished, a one-year no cost extension is needed to complete payment of internship work while continuing to monitor and mentor these students, as well as to collect student reports and all data necessary to complete reporting requirements of this program. The Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools Office will administer teacher training workshops to complete the high school course curriculum development activities as part of the K-12 component.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Year 4 of this project benefited a total of 66 college students placed in paid experiential learning internships, and recruitment is ongoing to place students into three additional internship opportunities. Of the 66 placed interns, five (8%) are students who attend a California Community College working on associate's degrees, 46 (70%) attend a four-year university at the undergraduate level at a campus of the California State University and University of California working on bachelor's degrees, 14 (21%) attend a four-year university working on master's degrees, and 1 (2%) attend a UC working on a Ph.D. degree. The underrepresented status of these students is self-identified by race or ethnicity as 50% Hispanic, 8% Asian, 2% African American, 2% Native American, and 0% Pacific Islander. Their gender is 48% male and 52% female. In regards to family background in higher education, 61% of the students are a first-generation college student. The project received programmatic IRB approval at CSU San Bernardino campus to collect 20 indicators of student demographic and academic information to track student progress and GPA performance. This monitoring is ongoing. This project awarded a $20,000 doctoral research competitive scholarship to Roxana Coreas, a first-generation college student working on a Ph.D. degree in Environmental Toxicology in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Riverside. Her dissertation research is focused on engineered nanomaterials and their toxicological profiles to investigate the role these materials can play in improving agricultural crops and overall human health. Roxana previously completed a USDA Experiential Learning Internship with the US Forest Service, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in environmental health at the California State University Northridge. This project also supported her attendance of the 2019 American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) conference. Thirty-six student interns were sponsored by the California State Universitytoattend the 11th Statewide Water Resources and Policies Initiatives (WRPI) Annual Conference at theChico campus on April 25-26, 2019. Thirteen student interns presented scientific posters based on research conductedin their experientiallearning internships. The K-12 outreach component of this project supported the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools in development of three high school courses for a new water resource pathway of Career Technical Education (CTE) aligned with California state requirements. The new curriculum is designed for recruitment of underrepresented students into career technical and college preparatory pathways in water resources management. The courses are titled "Water Works: Next Generation Careers in the Water Industry", "GIS for the Water Industry: Mapping Our Resources", and "Water Policy to Water Wars."
Publications
|
Progress 09/01/17 to 08/31/18
Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences include students from all 23 California State University (CSU), of which 18 are classified as Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) and all students from 113 California Community Colleges (CCC). While the primary target was underrepresented students in the science, technology, engineering and math majors (STEM fields), all students were encouraged to apply. Efforts included recruiting to all contacts in the Sponsored Programs offices of the CSU system, the CCC system, faculty and student club outreach, campus career center and experiential learning programs and contacting water partners throughout the state of CA. The K-12 component focuses on 9th grade level in high schools of the Rialto and Morongo Unified School Districts include approximately 100 underrepresented students recruited through the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools "Family Sustainable Wage Program." Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A core opportunity for training and professional development provided by the internship experience is to place each intern with a sponsoring supervisor that provides individual mentoring in STEM fields applied to watershed management. This project placed 27 interns with a USDA agency and 25 interns at non- USDA university research labs, municipal agencies, and/or non-governmental organizations. All 52 total internships provide watershed management experiential learning opportunities related to USDA careers. This support is ongoing. This project provided support for undergraduate and graduate students to attend professional conferences with career mentoring workshops including (HACU) conference in San Diego CA, the USDA Hispanic-Serving Institutions Education Grants Program Meeting in Washington D.C., and the WRI Annual Conference in Palm Springs, CA. In addition, we have solicited applications and will award one $20,000 scholarship to an underrepresented college student pursuing their Ph.D in a STEM field related to USDA career pathways in July 2018. The K-12 component of this project supported SBCSS to provide professional development to high school science teachers from Rialto USD and Morongo USD. A three-day institute was held where they collaboratively reviewed and refined new lesson plans for the developed CTE curriculum, identified additional resources, and participated in a lesson study for the pilot water courses currently being offered at the two districts. Funds from this project also supported the Rialto USD to provide opportunity for 30 high school students to attend a career fair event hosted by the Riverside-Corona Resource Conservation District (RCCD) in January 2018. The RCCD is a local government agency that helps conserve natural resources (soil, water, plants, and wildlife) of areas within western Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?This project disseminated a call for student internship applications to a total of 254 institutions that serve the community. We received 78 applications from underrepresented students, and funded 39 underrepresented internships, which equates to support of 50% of the applicants recruited from the community served. Project manager Laura Ramos presented a poster summarizing goals and outcomes at the annual 2018 USDA HSI Grant Program Project Director's Meeting in Washington DC. A press release was emailed to share the program's metaevaluation executive summary infographic with the CSUSB Presidents Office, CSU Chancellors Office, and all partnering agencies and college campuses. Student accomplishments have been shared via all social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest) linked on the WRPI project webpage. For the K-12 component of the project, members of the SBCSS Communications and Graphics Department are collaborating with the SBCSS Regional Occupational Program (ROP) Team to prepare print and digital media materials marketing the new water resource pathway of CTE courses for dissemination to students, parents, and the community-at-large. Interviews with several water industry workers have taken place, video footage captured, and still photographs taken of workers in their physical working environment. Once the video editing is complete, they will be made available to the SBCSS partner districts and placed on the SBCSS ROP website. Photos and captions have been shared on social media. Deliverable print materials, i.e. posters and a brochure are currently being created. Printing and dissemination are expected in August 2018. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Continue to recruit eligible students, project partners and community partners to establish new experiential learning opportunities that will contribute to student success. Continue collaboration with the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools develop the new water resource pathway of CTE courses.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This project benefited a total of 52 college students this year by providing paid experiential learning internships. Of this total, 2 (4%) are students that attend a California Community College working on Associate's Degrees, 39 (75%) attend a 4-year university at the undergraduate level at a campus of the California State University and University of California working on Bachelor's Degrees, and 11 (21%) attend a 4-year university working on Masters degrees. The underrepresented status of these students is self-identified by race or ethnicity as 54% Hispanic, 17% Asian, 0% African American, 0% Native American, and 2% Pacific Islander. Their gender is 52% Male and 48% Female. In regards to family background in higher education, 52% of the students are a first-generation college student. The project received programmatic IRB approval at CSU San Bernardino campus to collect 20 indicators of student demographic and academic information to track student progress and GPA performance. This monitoring is ongoing, as well as recruitment efforts to hire an additional 4 students for extra summer internship opportunities that were announced late in the year. This project awarded a $20,000 scholarship to doctoral candidate Elizabeth Mosqueda, a graduate of Fresno State University and daughter of migrant farm workers, to study plant science at the University of Wyoming. In her acceptance letter for the Ph.D. scholarship award, Elizabeth wrote, "Growing up as a daughter of Hispanic migrant workers who dedicated their lives to California's lettuce industry, my parents were the first to instill good work ethic and dedication as a positive virtue in me, however throughout my academic career I have also realized the value of a college education. It is because of yourself and the other proponents of this wonderful award that students such as myself can aspire to reach further in life than we ever thought possible." Three interns attended the 31st annual Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) conference in San Diego CA in October of 2017. This forum provides opportunities to foster and identify graduate education opportunities for Hispanic students and graduates. This project sponsored intern Stephanie Pascuala to present her research in a scientific poster at the student poster session in the March 2018 Hispanic-Serving Institutions Education Grants Program Project Director's Meeting in Washington DC. This project also supported 37 interns and 45 faculty mentors to attend the 10th annual CSU Water Resources and Policies Initiatives (WRPI) Annual Conference in Palm Springs CA in April 2018. This meeting brings together a diverse audience of water, climate and agricultural scientists and managers from across California, providing a professional forum for research presentations, networking with faculty for graduate school opportunities, and career recruitment. A total of 26 college student interns presented scientific posters at the WRPI conference based on their research experience supported by USDA experiential learning internships. The K-12 outreach component of this project collaborated with the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools (SBCSS) for ongoing development of a new water resource pathway of Career Technical Education (CTE) courses at the 9th grade high school level which satisfy California statewide A-G education requirements. The goal of this collaboration is to provide new linkages throughout California for recruitment of underrepresented high school students into college and STEM fields aligned with USDA career pathways. Significant progress has been made to build and certify a pilot program of CTE curriculum at the Morongo and Rialto Unified School Districts. A new high school course titled "Water Works: Next Generation Careers in the Water Industry" has been developed to provide students with basic knowledge and skills applicable to the water industry and are prepared to take the D1, T1, and Water Use Efficiency exams. This course was refined to include certificate and supporting competencies, CTE Model Curriculum Standards, and the Next Generation Science Standards. Applicable teacher and student resources have been identified (Course #1 in a 3-course sequence). This course is UC A-G approved in the State of California. Development of a second course focused on the career theme of water quality is underway to build upon the knowledge and skills from the Water Works course and, through further exploration, labs, lectures, and activities students are prepared with the knowledge and skills to take the D2, T2, and Wastewater certification examinations. This course will be submitted for UC A-G approval Fall 2018. Multiple high school field trips were supported to test developed curriculum, as well as to provide underrepresented high school students with mentoring opportunities for college admissions and career pathways. For example, the Morongo USD sent a high school class of students to the White Water Preserve where students investigated the groundwater system, how it operates on both natural and human scales, and investigated the water quality found in the White Water Preserve by sampling microorganisms from the system's discharge. Students investigated the movement of water through various media, engineered a solution to extract, treat, test, and modify water found in a model aquifer; demonstrating a learn-by-doing approach to career skills in hydrology and water resource management.
Publications
|
Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/17
Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences include students from all 23 California State University (CSU), of which 18 are classified as Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) and all students from 113 California Community Colleges (CCC). While the primary target was Hispanic students in the science, technology, engineering and math majors, all students were encouraged to apply. Efforts included recruiting to all contacts in the Sponsored Programs offices of the CSU system, the CCC system, faculty and student club outreach, campus career center and experiential learning programs and contacting water partners throughout the state of CA. The K-12 component focuses on 9th grade level in high schools of the Rialto and Morongo Unified School Districts include approximately 100 underrepresented students recruited through the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools "Family Sustainable Wage Program." Changes/Problems:A total of 58 students were recruited for internships since data was last reported in the HSI grant continuation request submitted 24 April 2017. However, 11 did not start their internship (9 undergraduates, 2 master's students), resulting in a total of 47 funded internships at this time of reporting on 29 June 2017. A change of CO-PD status was made for Dr. Jeffrey Thompson to be added as CO-PD of this project with Dr. David Zoldoske of Fresno State University. Dr. Thompson retired from serving as the Institutional Official of CSUSB, and is now a Professor in the Department of Biology at CSUSB. The K-12 component of this project changed from partnership with the Upward Bound Program at CSUSB, to a new collaboration with the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A central objective of the internship experience is to prepare students for careers with the USDA, in that each internship has a sponsoring supervisor that provides mentoring. This project placed 22 interns with a USDA agency and 25 interns at non-USDA university research labs, municipal agencies, and/or non-governmental organizations. All 47 internships provide watershed management experiential learning opportunities related to USDA careers. This support is ongoing. This project provided support for undergraduate and graduate students to attend professional conferences with career mentoring workshops including (HACU) conference in San Antonio, TX, the USDA Workforce Diversity Career Conference in Albuquerque, NM, and the WRI Annual Conference in San Jose, CA. In addition, we have received 9 applications and will award one $20,000 scholarship to an underrepresented student pursuing their Ph.D in a STEM field related to USDA career pathways. The scholarship competition generated largest qualified candidate pool in the last 5 years. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?This project disseminated a call for student internship applications to a total of 254 institutions that serve the community. We received 72 applications from underrepresented students, and funded 47 internships, which equates to support of 65.3% of the applicants recruited from the community served. The project PD presented a poster summarizing goals and outcomes at the annual 2017 USDA HSI Grant Principal Investigators Meeting in Albuquerque NM. A press release was emailed to share the program's metaevaluation executive summary infographic with the CSUSB Presidents Office, CSU Chancellors Office, and all partnering agencies and college campuses. Student accomplishments have been shared via all social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest) linked on the WRPI project webpage. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Continue to recruit eligible students, project partners and community partners to establish new experiential learning opportunities that will contribute to student success. Work with the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools to gather student participant data on demographic background, and participate in review of developed high school course curriculum.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This project benefited a total of 47 college students this year by providing paid experiential learning internships. Of this total, 16 are students (34%) that attend a California Community College working on Associate's Degrees, 20 (42%) attend a 4-year university at the undergraduate level at a campus of the California State University and University of California working on Bachelor's Degrees, 11 (23%) attend a 4-year university working on Masters degrees. The underrepresented status of these students is self-identified by race or ethnicity as 57% Hispanic, 9% Asian, 4% African American, 1% Native American, and 1% Pacific Islander. Their gender is 41% Male and 59% Female. In regards to family background in higher education, 40% of the students are a first-generation college student. The project received programmatic IRB approval at CSU San Bernardino campus to collect 20 indicators of student demographic and academic information to track student progress and GPA performance. This monitoring is ongoing. This project awarded a $20,000 scholarship to doctoral candidate Brianna Pagán, a graduate of CSU Long Beach and UCLA. She is a Hispanic first-generation college student in her family, and this scholarship is allowing her to study abroad to complete her doctoral degree started at UCLA in the laboratory of Hydrology and Water Management at Ghent University in Belgium. In addition, 2 interns were supported to attend the annual Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) conference in San Antonio, TX in October of 2016. This forum provides opportunities to foster and identify graduate education opportunities for Hispanic students and graduates. This project sponsored Danny Miranda, a first-generation Hispanic graduate student enrolled in the Masters of Hydrology program at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona to present his research in a scientific poster at the student poster session of the February 2017 USDA Workforce Diversity Career Conference in Albuquerque, NM. The Project also provided opportunities for 3 interns to attend the WRI Annual Conference in San Jose, CA in April 2017, networking with a diverse audience of water, climate and agricultural scientists and managers. The K-12 outreach component of this project expanded by collaborations with the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools to develop a new water resource pathway of Career Technical Education (CTE) courses at the 9th grade high school level which cover California statewideA-G education requirements. This provides new linkages throughout California for recruitment of underrepresented High School students into college and STEM fields aligned with USDA career pathways. Efforts are underway to build and certify a pilot program of CTE curriculum at the Morongo and Rialto Unified School Districts. By 2019, a 3 course pathway of developed curriculum will serve several hundred 9th grade students eachyear in San Bernardino County alone, and potentially hundreds to thousands more statewide as a marketable STEM pathway to many other districts.
Publications
|