Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:Fertile Futures: Pathways to USDA Professions for Environmental Science Students addresses two major problems: low participation of underrepresented minorities in environmental science fields and USDA mission critical occupations, and low community college transfer rates into UCR environmental sciences. Fertile Futures provides outreach and recruitment in the form of experiential learning opportunities though participation in 10-week STEM Research Programs and internships at local USDA Research Facilities (USDA Salinity Laboratory and the Fire Lab at USDA Pacific Southwest Research Station). The intended beneficiaries are underrepresented minority community-college transfer students (who will gain information about or pathways to USDA mission critical occupations or graduate school) - 30 of whom will matriculate to and graduate with a B.S. from UCR, and 4 of whom will move on to graduate school or a USDA career; USDA field laboratories (who will gain 30 paid internships and potential future employees); and members of the Riverside community (who will gain environmental science education). Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During 2020-2021we supported six students in USDA internships andonecommunity college transfer students in the Summer RISE program. The program also supported two Ph.D candidates in the Environmental Sciences Graduate Program. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Through larger outreach efforts by UC Riverside targeting a broad group of local community colleges, word of of the Fertile Futures program has been disseminated broadly. Our NIFA HSI project is ourparticular relevance at UC Riverside as the University is making a strong push to increase the ratio of transfer students to freshman admits. In 2017-2018 the ratio was 1:10 (transfers:freshman) and it improved to better than 1:4 in 2019-2020 and is closing in on the campus goal of 1:2. The program is very well known on the UC Riverside Campus and we received many more applications to the program than we couldfill. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During 2021 we were able to host student interns at the US Salinity Laboratory. Six students (Daisy Herrera, Marco Rivera, Layton Chhour, Ryan Culhane, Gabriela Hernandez and Leticia Vargas) were able to work with USDA scientists conducting research on aridland irrigation, salt tolerance and emerging contaminants. In addition we were able to support one Summer RISE student, Parween Kaur. We completed the final summative evaluation of the program through 2020. Two graduate students received stipends of $12,500 in the summer of 2021. These students, Valerie Carranza and Michael Rodriquez work on cutting edge air quality research with Dr. Francesca Hopkins in the Department of Environmental Sciences at UC Riverside. Lastly, Dr. Sickman and three students, Valerie Carranza, Sara Fong and Edith Santana, attended theFifteenth Annual National Conference of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (Costa Mesa California), and were able to meet Dolores Huerta. Since this is the final report for the Fertile Futures project wewill provide some summary data for the project and acknowledge some individuals who were instrumental to its success. The project supported a total of 35 undergraduate students with 20 getting internships, 14 participating in RISE and one who did both. The student who did both, Alyssa Duro, was recruited on one of ourvisits to Mt. San Jacinto College and she is now a Ph.D candidate in the Department of Environmental Sciences at UC Riverside. We also recruited one the teaching faculty at Mt San Jacinto College into the Environmental Sciences graduate program. Two graduate students received stipends from the project, bringing the total number of participants to 38which exceeded our original goal of 30 (we were able to divert funding from the metaevaluator to student support and we reduced our outreach activities at Mt. San Jacinto which allowed more money to flow directly to students). Seventy percent of the students participating with RISE and internships were community college transfers students and 77% were women. Seventy four percent of the students were first generation college and over 80% were Pell Grant eligible. In terms of ethnicity, 57% were Hispanic/Latino, 3% each were African American, Native American and Indian American. About 14% of the participants were Asian and 20% were white or mixed ethnicity. Fifteen Summer RISE partcipants gained research experience working in UCR faculty laboratories spanning several disciplines (environmental sciences, entomology, microbiology and chemistry). The majority of the RISE students were able to work in Environmental Sciences laboratories hosted by Drs. Francesca Hopkins (air quality and greenhouse gases), Ying-Hsuan Lin (air quality and toxicology), Roya Bahreini (atmospheric chemistry), Peter Homyak (biogeochemistry) and Samantha Ying (soil science). Twenty one USDA interns spent at least 10 weeks working under the direction of USDA scientists at the US Salinity Laboratory and US Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station. The following USDA scientists generously supplied their time to the project:Dr. Todd Skaggs,Dr. Mark Fenn, Dr. Mark Ibekwe, Dr. Dennis Corwin, Dr. Ray Anderson, Dr. Davinder Sandhu, Dr. Scott Bradford, Dr. Don Suarez, Dr. Elia Scudiero and Dr. Jorge Ferriera. I would also like to extend special thanks toDr. Todd Skaggs who is Research Leader for the Salinity Laboratory for working closely with me to select strong candidates for the internships and who made sure that all of the interns had a fulfilling and stress-free experience. The Summative Evaluation below, performed by the external evaluator on the project (The Mark), I think shows that the students liked the program and made significant progress on all of the objectives for the project most especially those related to careers with USDA and in Environmental Sciences. Based on my personal observations, all of the students have or will complete their BS degrees at UCR, and, with only one or two exceptions, are (were) top students in their respective degree program. I noticed significantacademic improvement with several students after their USDA internships. Overall, this was one of the most rewarding projects I have been involved with and I wish to thank Dr. Irma Lawrence and her staff for all of their support. I hope that USDA HSI Programs will continue to support students at UC Riverside in the future. Executive Summary from the Summative Evaluation of the Fertile Futures Program from 2017-2020 (the report does not include students from 2021). The University of California, Riverside (UCR) received a National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in September 2016 for the Fertile Futures (FF) program. The FF program aimed to help community college students transfer to the UCR environmental sciences major and gain career skills and knowledge through research experience, training, seminars, and workshops. The purpose of this report is to present an assessment of the overall achievement of four program goals from 2018 to 2020: 1) Increase in transfers to environmental sciences major; 2) Transition success; 3) Leadership skills; and, 4) Interest in and knowledge of how to apply for a PhD program and pursue a USDA-related career. Goal 1 - Increase community college students who transfer to the Environmental Science major at UCR. • After shifting the program focus in 2018 to providing intensive research activities to transfer students and existing UCR students, a total of 22 students participated in the program over the two-year period. • The percentage of transfer students among the participants stayed similar from 2018-19 (67%) to 2019-20 (70%). Goal 2 - Increase community college transfer students' knowledge of effective strategies for educational success at UCR and increase community college transfer students' retention rates. • The majority of matched sample respondents were interested in finding a mentor at UCR at the beginning of the academic year (seven out of 10 or 70%). However, less than half knew how to do so (four out of 10 or 40%). At the end of the year, the majority of respondents (eight out of 10 or 80%) indicated they were knowledgeable of how to find a mentor within UCR. Goal 3 - Increase students' leadership skills including critical thinking in research skills, communication skills, and ability to work in teams. • Survey respondents showed an increase in average scores from the beginning of the year to the end of the year in each skill area. Statistically significant increases were observed in critical thinking in research, communication, and presentation skills. Goal 4 - Increase students' awareness of and interest in federal agricultural and resource management careers and increase graduation rates for students from underrepresented groups. • The number of matched sample respondents interested in pursuing a career in USDA and a PhD degree remained the same from baseline to post (six out of 10 or 60% and four out of 10 or 40%, respectively). However, at the end of the academic year, 90% of matched sample respondents indicated that they were knowledgeable about how to pursue a PhD and 70% indicated that they were knowledgeable about how to pursue a career in USDA, indicating that the program should focus on increasing interest among students.
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Progress 09/01/19 to 08/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:Fertile Futures: Pathways to USDA Professions for Environmental Science Students addresses two major problems: low participation of underrepresented minorities in environmental science fields and USDA mission critical occupations, and low community college transfer rates into UCR environmental sciences. Fertile Futures provides outreach and recruitment in the form of experiential learning opportunities though participation in 10-week STEM Research Programs and internships at local USDA Research Facilities (USDA Salinity Laboratory and the Fire Lab at USDA Pacific Southwest Research Station). The intended beneficiaries are underrepresented minority community-college transfer students (who will gain information about or pathways to USDA mission critical occupations or graduate school) - 30 of whom will matriculate to and graduate with a B.S. from UCR, and 4 of whom will move on to graduate school or a USDA career; USDA field laboratories (who will gain 30 paid internships and potential future employees); and members of the Riverside community (who will gain environmental science education). Changes/Problems:The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted the Fertile Futures program. We requested and were granted a one-year no cost extension to complete the project and fully expend the funds. We had to delaythe USDA internships until 2021, but we were able to fund Summer RISE students using a mostly remote program with some in-lab experiences. Our long-time collaborator, Dr. Mark Fenn of the US forest Service retired, so all internships in 2021 will be hosted by the US Salinity Laboratory. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During 2019-2020 we supported five community college transfer students in the Summer RISE program. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Through larger outreach efforts by UC Riversidetargeting a broad group of local community colleges, word of of the Fertile Futures program is being disseminated broadly. Indeed, we had 36 applicants to our internship program in 2020, up from 16 in 2018 and 16 in 2019. Unfortunately the pandemic forced us to delay the internships until 2021. Our NIFA HSI project is our particular relevance at UC Riverside as the University is making a strong push to increase the ratio of transfer students to freshman admits. In 2017-2018 the ratio was 1:10 (transfers:freshman) and it improved to better than 1:4 in2019-2020and is closing in on the campus goal of 1:2. We have completed a project webpage and online applicationprocess. The program is very well know on the UC Riverside Campus and we get many more applications to the program than we can fill. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the final year of the project (one-year no cost extension owing to COVID 19) we will expend all remaining funds on student internships and Summer RISE participation. We will also award the $25,000 scholarship tostudents in agraduate programat UC Riverside(MS or Ph.D program). We will continue to work with the externalevaluator to assess student satisfaction with the internships and Summer RISE experience. For the past threeyears, the assessments show that students have been very well satisfied with all program components. Lastly, I plan to bring many of the Fertile Futures students tothe Fifteenth Annual National Conference of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education which will be held inMarch 2020 in Costa Mesa California.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During 2020, the COVID 19 pandemic affected the activities we could safely conduct. All internships were delayed until 2021. The Summer RISE program for community college transfer students was operated remotely and Fertile Futures supported 5 students: Megan Woods, Tiffany Larrabee, Jahlen Pinelo, Alex Rojas and Idalia Orozco. The majority of the RISE students were able to work in faculty research labs in the Department of Environmental Sciences usingstrict COVID 19 safety protocols. We also worked with the external evaluator for the project (The Mark) to complete a retrospective evaluation of student learning objectivesandoutcomes that covers student participants through summer 2020. The reports from the external evaluators will be submitted with the project final report.
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Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19
Outputs
Target Audience:Fertile Futures: Pathways to USDA Professions for Environmental Science Students addresses two major problems: low participation of underrepresented minorities in environmental science fields and USDA mission critical occupations, and low community college transfer rates into UCR environmental sciences. Fertile Futures provides outreach and recruitment in the form of USDA Career Days at local community college campuses, and experiential learning opportunities though participation in 10-week STEM Research Programs and internships at local USDA Research Facilities (USDA Salinity Laboratory and the Fire Lab at USDA Pacific Southwest Research Station).The intended beneficiaries are underrepresented minority community-college transfer students (who will gain information about or pathways to USDA mission critical occupations or graduate school) - 30 of whom will matriculate to and graduate with a B.S. from UCR, and 4 of whom will move on to graduate school or a USDA career; USDA field laboratories (who will gain 30 paid internships and potential future employees); and members of the Riverside community (who will gain environmental science education). Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During 2018-2019we supported four students in the Summer RISE Program. We performed outreach at Mt. San Jacinto College and other community colleges in southern California to educate students on careers in the USDA and educational opportunities at UC Riverside. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We performed outreach to science classesat Mt San Jacinto College. Through larger outreach efforts by UC Riverside targeting a broad group of local community colleges, word of of the Fertile Futures program is being disseminated broadly. Our NIFA HSI project is our particular relevance at UC Riverside as the University is making a strong push to increase the ratio of transfer students to freshman admits. In 2017-2018 the ratio was 1:10 (transfers:freshman) and it improved to 1:4 in 2018-2019 and is closing in on the campus goal of1:2. We have completed a project webpage and online application process. The program is very well know on the UC Riverside Campus and we get many more applications to the program than we can fill. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the final year of the project we will expend all remaining funds on student internships and Summer RISE participation. We will also award the $25,000 scholarship to one of the students who has participated in Fertile Futures to be used for graduate school at UC Riverside or other 4-year university (MS or Ph.D program). We will continue to work with the external evaluator to assess student satisfaction with the internships and Summer RISE experience. For the past two years, students have been very well satisfied with all program components. Lastly, I plan to bring many of the Fertile Futures students to theFifteenth Annual National Conferenceof the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education which will be held in MArch 2020 in Costa Mesa California (which is less than a 1-hour drive from Riverside).
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During the past year, we made progress on all project goals including outreach, summer transition training and internships. We continued to leverage science faculty contacts at two campuses of the Mt. San Jacinto Community College (MSJC) and targeted community college students throughout the Inland Empire and southern California during our recruitments. This outreach was accomplished in collaboration with Nhi Tran (STEM Connections & RISE Coordinator) at the CNAS Undergraduate Advising Center at UCR.Through cooperation with new university-wide recruitment efforts to community colleges, we identified fourtransfer students to participate in RISE during 2019: Sabrina Chantler, Tiffany Chantler, Roxana Ramirez and Casaundra Caruso. Interestingly, we also recruited one of the faculty members atMt. San Jacinto Community College, Kristen Hamilton, into the Environmental Sciences Graduate Program at UCR. During Summer and Fall 2018 we placed seven students in paid internships at the US Salinity Laboratory and US Forest Service Fire Lab:Evelyn Hernandez, Stephanie Aguiar, Jayna Borja, Alondra Moreno, Juan Barrientos, Katy Lam and Christopher Cabanas. During Summer and Fall 2019 we placed six students in paid internships at the same USDA labs:Alyssa Duro, Heather Haro, Evelin Estrada, Dirk Plunkett, Ivette Torres, Sarah Rocha, and Sara Fong. Students worked on a variety of research projects at these labs related to soil salinity, crop development, pesticide safety and air pollution research.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/17 to 08/31/18
Outputs
Target Audience:Fertile Futures: Pathways to USDA Professions for Environmental Science Students addresses two major problems: low participation of underrepresented minorities in environmental science fields and USDA mission critical occupations, and low community college transfer rates into UCR environmental sciences. Fertile Futures provides outreach and recruitment in the form of USDA Career Days at local community college campuses, and experiential learning opportunities though participation in 10-week STEM Research Programs and internships at local USDA Research Facilities. The intended beneficiaries are underrepresented minority community-college transfer students (who will gain information about or pathways to USDA mission critical occupations or graduate school) - 30 of whom will matriculate to and graduate with a B.S. from UCR, and 4 of whom will move on to graduate school or a USDA career; USDA field laboratories (who will gain 30 paid internships and potential future employees); and members of the Riverside community (who will gain environmental science education). Changes/Problems:We have come to the conclusion that focusing on a single community college for recruitment (i.e., Mt San Jacinto College), was impractical, so we have broadened outreach activities to the larger southern California region. This has yielded many more qualified and deserving students to participate in the program. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During 2017-2018, we supported four students in the Summer RISE Program. We performed outreach at Mt. San Jacinto College and other community colleges in southern California to educate students on careers in the USDA and educational opportunities at UC Riverside. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We performed outreach to many science classes at Mt San Jacinto College. Through larger outreach efforts by UC Riverside targeting a broad group of local community colleges, word of of the Fertile Futures program is being disseminated broadly. Our NIFA HSI project is our particular relevance at UC Riverside as the University is making a strong push to increase the ratio of transfer students to freshman admits. Currently the ratio is 1:10 (transfers:freshman) and the campus goal is 1:2. We have completed a project webpage and online application process and plan to enlarge the website with student profiles in the coming months. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During Year 3, all of the groundwork performed in Years 1 and 2 will result in: i) wider exposure of the Fertile Futures project at southern California community colleges, ii) more transferring students into the Environmental Sciences major, iii) 8+ students interning at the U.S. Salinity Laboratory and the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station and iv) 4-6 Fertile Futures participants in the 2019 Summer RISE program.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During Year 2, we made progress on all project goals including outreach, summer transition training and internships. We continued to leverage science faculty contacts at two campuses of the Mt. San Jacinto Community College (MSJC): Shauni Calhoun, John Shuler, Kristin Hamilton, Elliot Handrus, Michael Plotkin, Roy Mason and Jason Hlebakos. We visited multiple science classrooms of these MSJC faculty and the College's Students for Environmental Action and Leadership (S.E.A.L.) club. The presentations covered career opportunities at the USDA, the Environmental Sciences major at UCR, the Fertile Futures program and advice on transferring to the University of California. These outreach presentations generated several contacts with students and one of the MSJC students transferred to UCR in 2018 and participated in the summer transition activity, RISE (Alyssa Duro). Because of low recruitment from MSJC we cast a broader net and targeted community college students throughout the Inland Empire and southern California during our recruitments. Through cooperation with new university-wide recruitment efforts to community colleges, we identified three additional transfer students to participate in RISE during 2018: Hinaben Varachhia, Karen Argumedo and Christie Miranda. All four RISE participants got to work in faculty labs over the summer and, based on results from our external project evaluator (SmartStart), they found the summer transition activities and research experiences valuable. During Year 2, we worked extensively with the External Evaluators for the project, of SmartStart Evaluation and Research. All evaluation methods and materials to assess the success of outreach activities, participation in Summer RISE, student involvement in outreach and student participation in internships at USDA labs have been developed. We completed a dedicated project webpage and have an online application process. During the upcoming year we plan to post student profiles of all participating students. Also during 2017-2018, we recruited eight students to work at 10-week internships at the US Salinity Laboratory and US Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station starting in late September 2018. We will report on the success of these internships in our 2018-2019 annual report. Counting these interns, the Fertile Futures program has 13 participating students at UC Riverside and we plan to attend the Spring 2019 NIFA HSI meeting in Washington DC.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/17
Outputs
Target Audience:Fertile Futures: Pathways to USDA Professions for Environmental Science Students addresses two major problems: low participation of underrepresented minorities in environmental science fields and USDA mission critical occupations, and low community college transfer rates into UCR environmental sciences. Fertile Futures provides outreach and recruitment in the form of USDA Career Days at local community college campuses, and experiential learning opportunities though participation in 10-week STEM Research Programs and interships at local USDA Research Facilities. The intended beneficiaries are 1,000 underrepresented minority community-college transfer students (who will gain information about or pathways to USDA mission critical occupations or graduate school) - 30 of whom will matriculate to and graduate with a B.S. from UCR, and 4 of whom will move on to graduate school or a USDA career; USDA field laboratories (who will gain 30 paid internships and potential future employees); and members of the Riverside community (who will gain environmental science education). Changes/Problems:During Year 2 of the project we will add two additional Co-PIs to the project: 1. Samantha Ying, Assistant Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry. 2. Francesca Hopkins, Assistant Professor of Climate Change and Sustainability. These new faculty in the Department of Environmental Sciences had submitted a proposal to the USDA HSI Program in 2016 titled: Making Waves: Making Women and Veterans Environmental Scientists. This proposal was not successful, but Drs. Ying and Hopkins have expressed interest and enthusiasm for working on the Fertile Futures project. They will increase the diversity of the project PIs, and their participation during outreach activities should increase the recruitment of female transfer students into the Environmental Sciences major and the Fertile Futures project. With the experience gained from participation with Fertile Futures, Drs. Ying and Hopkins hope to submit another USDA HSI proposal in the future. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During 2016-2017, we used our limited Year 1 budget to support one student in the Summer RISE Program. We performed outreach at Mt. San Jacinto College to educate students on careers in the USDA and educational opportunities at UC Riverside. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We performed outreach to many science classes at Mt San Jacinto College and we expect these visits to result in transfer student in the Environmental Sciences major and new participants in the Fertile Futures Program during 2018. The project is our particular relevance at UC Riverside as the University is making a strong push to increase the ratio of transfer students to freshman admits. Currently the ratio is 1:10 (transfers:freshman) and the campus goal is 1:2. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During Year 2, all of the groundwork performed in Year 1 will result in: i) more outreach visits to Mt San Jacinto College, ii) more transferring students into the Environmental Sciences major, iii) 4 to 5 students interning at the U.S. Salinity Laboratory and the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station and iv) 4-6 Fertile Futures participants in the 2018 Summer RISE program.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During Year 1, we made progress on Goals 1 through 3 and laid the groundwork to make progress on Goal 4 during Year 2. We developed science faculty contacts at two campuses of the Mt. San Jacinto Community College (MSJC): Shauni Calhoun, John Shuler, Kristin Hamilton, Elliot Handrus, Michael Plotkin, Roy Mason and Jason Hlebakos. We visited multiple science classrooms of these MSJC faculty and the College's Students for Environmental Action and Leadership (S.E.A.L.) club. The presentations covered career opportunities at the USDA, the Environmental Sciences major at UCR, the Fertile Futures program and advice on transferring to the University of California. These outreach presentations generated several contacts with students although they plan to transfer to UCR in 2018. We also had a table at the 2017 UCR Transfer Student Day. During this outreach event, we made contact with a community college student transferring into the Environmental Sciences major from Moreno Valley College. This student, Alexis Garrison, was accepted into the Fertile Futures program and she attended the Summer RISE Program during Summer 2017. She worked in the laboratory of Dr. Roya Bahreini (Department of Environmental Sciences), and participated in many enrichment activities as part of the RISE program. She is scheduled to begin her internship at the US Salinity Lab in Spring 2018. Alexis will be joined by other recent transfer students into the Environmental Sciences major at UCR's Discover Day and Highlander Day where they will perform outreach to incoming students. During Year 1, we worked extensively with the External Evaluators for the project, of SmartStart Evaluation and Research. Together we perfected the Logic Model for the project and developed evaluation methods and materials to assess the success of outreach activities, participation in Summer RISE, student involvement in outreach and student participation in internships at USDA labs.
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