Progress 04/01/19 to 03/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The program will include professional development and leadership training, and will contribute to a diverse workforce with outstanding experience in forestry and natural resource management. The target audience reached during the first reporting period includes: 1. Underrepresented minority (URM) undergraduate students from the New York City metropolitan area. 2. Employers in the field of urban forestry including municipal governments, private sector companies and non-profits. 2. Educators from other forestry and natural resources programs seeking to diversity their student body. Changes/Problems:The COVID pandemic and associated closing of in-person activities began in the first year of our project and has severely disrupted our plans throughout. On the administrative side we were able to move forward and accomplish our goals of developing and formalizing the 3+2 curriculum, although this process was delayed quite a lot. We were able to matriculate a MS student that was a senior for the field day in 2019. But the severe disruption in Brooklyn due to COVID and the loss of in-person work for nearly 2 years completely derailed our plans. An important aspect to the disruption was the uncertainty associated with it. We continually expected that in-person activities would resume in the next semester, or in the next year, but then the remote formats would be extended. This was particularly impactful for our summer research internship at MSU (SROP). This was going to be a key element of our recruiting strategy and we were never able to execute it, because in person activities were cancelled each year in 2020, 2021 and then 2022. In person SROP was finally brought back for summer 2023, but by that point we had exhausted our no-cost extension and could not use grant funds to support students in that program. An additional impact on our program has been the large drop in enrollment at Medgar Evers College. Total enrollment has declined 40% compared to pre pandemic levels, which is extremely stressful and disruptive to the programs there and makes it more challenging to recruit students. We adapted to these challenges by shifting our activities to bring MSU forestry faculty and students to Brooklyn, to put on as much programming as we could there. We were able to reach many students in this way. However, as a result, a significant amount of the grant funds we were awarded have gone unspent. We are currently seeking other funding to support many of the recruiting activities that we originally wrote in our grant proposal, but were never able to actually execute. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Over the entire course of our project: 96 Medgar Evers College students participated in an Urban Forestry Field Day 19 Medgar Evers College Students participated in urban forestry research internships Representatives from five organizations participated in two urban forestry career exploration panels Two MEC students enrolled in MS programs at MSU One MSU undergraduate student gained experience as a peer mentor and trainer for MEC students. He is currently in a MS program in Urban Planning at University of Washington One MSU graduate studentgained experience as an assistant and co-facilitator for the 2021 summer internship. She used her with this program as the basis for her MS project and is currently in a permanent position with the USDA-FS Urban Connections Program How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have presented on our activities and lessons learned to both the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the Neutral Areas Conservancy. In addition, we had a MS student at MSU use our project as the focal point for her work on effective strategies to recruit underrepresented minority students to the field of urban forestry. She completed her MS and presented her findings in January of 2023 and has moved on to a full time position with the USDA-Forest Service's Urban Connections program focused on building interactive relationships and partnerships with a diverse group of underserved urban stakeholders. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
As described in last year's report we worked throughout the 2020-2021 reporting period to revise the 3+2 curriculum and move that through academic governance at both institutions. We completed all of the governance steps at MSU and MEC during the 2020-2021 reporting period. During the 2021-2022 reporting period we presented and submitted paperwork to the CUNY Collegewide Curriculum Committee on March 14, 2022. During the final reporting period we had a successful presentation on the 12th of May 2022 with the Executive Board of the College Council of CUNY and the MEC/MSU 3+2 program was recommended to the College Council. The program was successfully presented to the college community at the College Council on the 25th of May, 2022. Finally, Medgar Evers College is currently working with CUNY central office to finalize the MEC/MSU 3+2 program. As noted in recent progress report the COVID pandemic has completely disrupted the approach to recruitment which we mapped out in our original proposal. This continued to be the case in the most recent reporting period. Two sources of disruption have been the fact that instruction at MEC remained online through December of 2021, and the fact that MEC experienced an approximate 40% drop in enrollment compared to pre pandemic. Another important disruptive factor, is that our main recruiting strategy was to bring students to MSU for the summer SROP program. However, in-person SROP was cancelled by the MSU Graduate School every year of our grant: 2020,2021 and 2022. In 2020 we tried mentoring students remotely through virtual SROP, but we found that this was not effective. Instead we have responded to this major disruption by shifting our efforts away from bringing MEC students to MSU for programming. Instead, we have worked to bring MSU faculty and graduate students to New York City to deliver programming to MEC students. This new approach still involves our Fall semester "Field Day" recruiting events, but we have also added a short (2-3 weeks), intensive summer research program in the field of Urban Forestry. We had 9 students participate in our June 2021, three-week program in Brooklyn, one of whom is now pursuing the 3+2 program and seven students participate in a 2-week program in June 2022. Twenty-three students attended our October 2021 Field Day event, and 24 students attended the October 2022 Field Day event. One of these students is planning to pursue a traditional MS in urban forestry. We conducted an additional visit by one MSU faculty member in March 2022 to deliver three classroom presentations on Urban Forestry and a single afternoon guided urban forestry field day for nine students. In both 2021 and 2022 we added an additional element of a career panel with urban forestry professionals representing municipal government, private sector and non-profits.In our surveys of partcipants we found that students appreciated the networking opportunity with professionals and four students described themselves as "somewhat" or "very" interested in pursuing a career in urban forestry. Because MSUs in person Summer Research Opportunity Program was cancelled due to COVID in 2020, 2021 and 2022, we were forced to make other arrangements. In 2020 we hosted two students with a virtual SROP. Thereafter we focused on in-person research programming in Brooklyn. We delivered an outdoor, in person 3.5 week research program in Brooklyn in June of 2021 to nine MEC students and a mixed outdoor/indoor 2.5 week research program in June of 2022. In both years, students received training in tree identification and urban forest inventory, the use of iTree software to model ecosystem services delivered by urban street trees, and techniques for measuring levels of air pollutants in indoor and outdoor settings. Students summarized their experiences and findings in a final presentation on the last day. In addition to this summer programming, we worked with our collaborators in the USDA Forest Service to provide professional internships in urban forestry, in NYC for the summer of 2022. Both students had been recruited as participants in our earlier Field Days and research programming. The students worked on an urban forestry inventory project across Manhattan and the Bronx. As noted in previous reports, we were able to recruit one student into the MSU MS program through our pre-pandemic recruitment activities, but then lost 1.5 years of recruitment due to the suspension of in-person activities due to COVID. We do have two students entering their Junior years in 2023-24, one of whom intends to pursue the 3+2 and the other would like to pursue a traditional MS.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Broadening participation in forestry through newly MAPped roads:
Lessons learned from university-based recruitment programs. Sustainable Forestry Initiative Annual Meeting. Madison, WI, USA.
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Progress 04/01/21 to 03/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The program will include professional development and leadership training, and will contribute to a diverse workforce with outstanding experience in forestry and natural resource management. The target audience reached during the first reporting period includes: 1. Underrepresented minority (URM) undergraduate students from the New York City metropolitan area. 2. Employers in the field of urban forestry including municipal governments, private sector companies and non-profits. 2. Educators from other forestry and natural resources programs seeking to diversity their student body. Changes/Problems:We described this in detail in last year's progress report; however, the COVID pandemic and associated disruption of in-person activities has continued to impacted our project. An additional issue likely arising from the pandemic is a large drop in enrollment at Medgar Evers College. This has added yet another challenge to our recruiting efforts. We are continuing to adapt to the situation and recruit and train students as described in our accomplishments What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nine MEC students gained experience in urban forestry research through the 3.5 week summer research program in June 2021 One MSU graduate student gained experience with development, delivery and assessment of urban forestry educational programs. One MSU undergraduate student gained experience with development and delivery of urban forestry educational programs. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have prepared a report and a zoom presentation on the 3+2 program to a cosortium of employers in the field of urban forestry including municipal governments, private sector companies and non-profits. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?For the next reporting period we will: Carry out another in-person research internship program in June 2022 Mentor our current 3+2 through their internships and application process to MSU. Execute our third Field Day recruiting event, including evaluation and survey instrument
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1.1: Complete Memorandum of Understanding and Curriculum and Processing Document for 3+2 Program As described in last year's report we worked throughout the 2020-2021 reporting period to revise the 3+2 curriculum and move that through academic governance at both institutions. We completed all of the governance steps at MSU and MEC during the 2020-2021 reporting period. Because MEC is part of the larger City University of New York (CUNY) system, we had additional governance steps in the recent reporting period in order to finalize approval for the 3+2 curriculum. During the most recent reporting period we presented and submitted paperwork to the CUNY Collegewide Curriculum Committee on March 14, 2022. Objective 1.2. Develop recruiting strategy, promotional materials and website for the 3+2 program. As noted in last year's progress report the COVID pandemic has completely disrupted the approach to this objective which we mapped out in our original proposal. This continued to be the case in the most recent reporting period. Two sources of disruption have been the fact that instruction at MEC remained online through December of 2021, and the fact that MSU has continued to prohibit in person summer programs from 2020 through 2022. As described in last year's report we have responded to these major disruptions by shifting our efforts away from bringing MEC students to MSU for programming. Instead, we have worked to bring MSU faculty and graduate students to New York City to deliver programming to MEC students. This new approach still involves our Fall semester "Field Day" recruiting events, but we have also added a short (2-3 weeks), intensive summer research program in the field of Urban Forestry. We had 9 students participate in our June 2021, three-week program in Brooklyn, one of whom is now pursuing the 3+2 program. Twenty-three students attended our October 2021 Field Day event, one of whom will either pursue the 3+2 program or a traditional MS in urban forestry.We conducted an additional visit by one MSU faculty member in March 2022 to deliver three classroom presentations on Urban Forestry and a single afternoon guided urban forestry field day for nine students. Objective 1.3. Develop and implement the Urban Forestry Field Day recruiting program Objective 1.3 was completed in 2019 with great success;however, due to the COVID pandemic disruption we were unable to carry out the 2nd Field Day in 2020. We were able to complete the field day again in Fall 2021 for 23 students. We were limited in that we could only meet outdoors and attendance was down over 2019. We attribute this to the fact that MEC was still under remote instruction for all of its classes. We did add an additional element in 2021 which was a career panel with urban forestry professionals representing municipal government, private sector and non-profits.In our survey of partcipants we found that students appreciated the networking opportunity with professionals and four students described themselves as "somewhat" or "very" interested in pursuing a career in urban forestry. Objective 1.4. Send two cohorts of students to the national conference of the Minorities in Agriculture Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS). Because of all the disruptions from COVID we have been unable to pursue our cohort approach. We were able to recruit one student for the 3+2 program from our summer 2021 programming. This student was registered and set to attend MANRRS in April 2021 but had to pull out at the last minute because of a family emergency. Objective 2.1. Bring two cohorts of students through MSU's Summer Research Opportunity Program. As described previously, in person SROP was cancelled due to COVID again in 2021, so we so we instead delivered an outdoor, in person 3.5 week research program in Brooklyn in June of 2021 to nine MEC students. We were able to develop and execute this under a short time frame in the rapidly evolving conditions of Spring 2021. The program ran from Monday through Thursday for three weeks, and Monday through Tuesday for the last week. Students received training in tree identification and urban forest inventory, the use of iTree software to model ecosystem services delivered by urban street trees, and techniques for measuring levels of air pollutants in indoor and outdoor settings. Students summarized their experiences and findings in a final presentation on the last day. We administered pre- and post surveys in order to assess the effectiveness of our programming. On a 5-point Likert scale, students rated their interest in urban forestry as a career path at an average of 3.1/5.0 before the program and 4.0/5.0 after completing the program. In addition, after the program students rated these statements as follows: I believe this program was beneficial: 4.2/5.0 I will recommend this program to other students: 4.3/5.0 I am more confident about my knowledge of urban forestry: 4.0/5.0 I am excited about urban forestry:4.0/5.0 Most importantly, after completing the program we asked the students if they would be applying to the 3+2 program. Four answered "yes,", three answered "maybe," and 1 answered "no." Objective 2.2. Matriculate two cohorts of students into the 3+2 Environmental Science - Urban Forestry degree program As noted previously, we were able to recruit one student into the MSU MS program through our pre-pandemic recruitment activities, but then lost 1.5 years of recruitment due to the suspension of in-person activities due to COVID. Our June 2021 summer research program was our first in person recruiting event since the October 2019 Field Day. Of the 9 students who participated we were able to recruit one student into the 3+2 program. This person entered their sophomore year at MEC in Fall 2021 and has been working through the required courses for the 3+2. This student is also doing virtual SROP and an in-person summer Urban Forestry research internship in collaboration with our Forest Service partners during summer of 2022. We had additional in-person Field Days in October of 2021 and March of 2022. We had one student who attended both events who has expresses their intention to pursue a MS in Urban Forestry at MSU. This student is already a junior so we are still working to see if they will do the 3+2 or instead graduate from MEC and pursue a traditional MS. This student is also conducting a summer Urban Forestry research internship in collaboration with our Forest Service partners during summer 2022.
Publications
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Progress 04/01/20 to 03/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The program will include professional development and leadership training, and will contribute to a diverse workforce with outstanding experience in forestry and natural resource management. The target audience reached during the first reporting period includes: 1. underrepresented minority (URM) undergraduate students from the New York City metropolitan area, and 2. educators from other forestry and natural resources programs seeking to diversity their student body Changes/Problems:The COVID pandemic and associated closing of in-person activities has severely disrupted our project. We were able to matriculate a MS student that was a senior for the field day in 2019. But the severe disruption in Brooklyn due to COVID and the loss of in-person work means most all of the other students from that first recruiting event have moved on. In addition, we lost two full cycles of our summer research internship at MSU. This was going to be a key element of our recruiting strategy and we were never able to execute it. Both MSU and MEC began to gradually open up in May and June of 2021 and we have taken advantage of this to reposition our approach. The first step in this was to develop and recruit students into a 3.5 week, in-person, urban forestry research program in June of 2021. We were able to develop and execute this under a short time frame in the rapidly evolving conditions of Spring 2021. At the time we are submitting this progress report, we have completed this program as a replacement for our planned MSU SROP program. We were able to recruit 9 MEC student to participate. The program ran from Monday through Thursday for three weeks, and Monday through Tuesday for the last week. Students received a crash course in identification and quantification of the urban forest, the use of iTree software to model ecosystem services delivered by urban street trees, and techniques for measuring levels of air pollutants in indoor and outdoor settings. Students summarized their experiences and findings in a final presentation on the last day. We administered pre- and post surveys in order to assess the effectiveness of our programming. On a 5-point Likert scale, students rated their interest in urban forestry as a career path at an average of 3.1/5.0 before the program and 4.0/5.0 after completing the program. In addition, after the program students rated these statements as follows: I believe this program was beneficial: 4.2/5.0 I will recommend this program to other students: 4.3/5.0 I am more confident about my knowledge of urban forestry: 4.0/5.0 I am excited about urban forestry:4.0/5.0 Most importantly, after completing the program we asked the students if they would be applying to the 3+2 program. Four answered "yes,", three answered "maybe," and 1 answered "no." Barring any further restrictions due to emerging coronavirus variants, we intend to start again with the Urban Forestry Field Day in October of 2021. In this iteration we intend to use our participants from the summer 2021 programming as "near-peer" mentors for the field day event. This will allow us to continue to cultivate these students interest in urban forestry and the 3+2 program, as well as make a more compelling program for the new students. From there we will try to get back on to our original trajectory of planned activities and plan to use our no-cost extension to complete all of our original deliverables - but delayed by a year due to COVID. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Two MEC students gained experience in urban forestry research through the summer virtual SROP program in 2020. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals For the next reporting period we will: Carry out a 3.5 week in-person research internship program in June 2021 (already completed - see Changes/Problems) Complete 3+2 web documentation Execute our second Field Day recruiting event, including evaluation and survey instrument Recruit our first cohort of students for MANNRS Recruit a new cohort of MS applicants to MSU
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1.1: Complete Memorandum of Understanding and Curriculum and Processing Document for 3+2 Program Despite COVID we were able to continue progress towards this goal. All of our official curricula, agreements and documents were completed as planned and reported in the last reporting year. During the pandemic pause the project team met every two weeks over Zoom in the fall and winter 2020-2021 and worked to revise the curriculum based on our experience with recruiting students during the fall of 2019. The result was a revised curriculum and a revised MOU both of which we moved through academic governance and executed over the 2020-2021 academic year. The new curriculum is streamlined from our original version and we believe these changes will make entering the 3+2 program easier compared to our original sequence of courses. In addition we have specified two track in the revised curriculum: Rural Forestry and Urban Forestry. In particular, based on evaluation of responses to the 2019 Urban Forestry Field Day, we learned that a named urban forestry track should be more appealing to MEC students compared to a traditional forestry program. Objective 1.2. Develop recruiting strategy, promotional materials and website for the 3+2 program. Everything that we were working to accomplish was severely disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both institutions went fully remote in early March 2020 and only began to allow in person activities in June 2021. Please see the Changes/Problems section for a description of how we are adapting to this disruption. We were able to recruit and matriculate our first MS student from MEC who began his MS program remotely in August 2020. He has completed his first academic year and is carrying out thesis research in person in Michigan in summer 2021. Objective 1.3. Develop and implement the Urban Forestry Field Day recruiting program Objective 1.3 was completed in 2019 with great success as described in the last progress report. However, due to the COVID pandemic disruption we were unable to carry out the 2nd Field Day in 2020. We will begin again in 2021. This is explained in greater detail in the Changes/Problems section. Objective 1.4. Send two cohorts of students to the national conference of the Minorities in Agriculture Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS). The first cohort for MANRRS is targeted for April 2021 Objective 2.1. Bring two cohorts of students through MSU's Summer Research Opportunity Program. Because of the novel coronavirus epidemic, in-person SROP was cancelled for both 2020 and 2021. In summer 2020, we recruited two MEC students to participate in a remote version. Students worked on internet-based urban forestry research projects under the supervision of three MSU faculty (Rothstein, Dowtin, Huff). One student used NYC online street tree data and census data to examine relationships between urban trees, race and income. The other student analyzed survey data seeking to understand urban forestry stakeholder's perceptions of scientific research. Student completed their research projects, prepared a final report, delivered a final Zoom presentation and completed a series of remotely delivered professional development activities. Upon review of the virtual SROP program, we felt that it was the best we could do given the situation in spring and summer of 2020, but that it was not an effective recruitment tool. Therefore, we elected not to repeat this activity in 2021 when in person SROP was again cancelled. Instead, we delivered and outdoor, in person research program in Brooklyn in June of 2021 to nine MEC students. Details of this are described under changes/problems. Objective 2.2. Matriculate two cohorts of students into the 3+2 Environmental Science - Urban Forestry degree program Through winter of 2020, we were progressing on schedule with our recruitment and development programs up until COVID hit in March of 2020. All of our efforts have been severely disrupted since that point. The most difficult challenge is due to the fact that both MSU and MEC ceased all in-person activities from March 2020 through May 2021. In addition, our target population in Brooklyn, NY was one of the most severely impacted by the disease. We were able to matriculate a single student into the MSU MS program but have essentially lost all of the progress we made through the autumn of 2019. We have developed and begun implementing a revised plan as described in the Changes/Problems section. Objective 3.1. Develop a 3+2 Project Webpage This has been put on hold, but will be completed in fall 2021 Objective 3.2. Web-publish MOU, 3+2 Curriculum and Processing Document This has been put on hold, but will be completed in fall 2021 Objective 3.3. Present details of the program and an evaluation of outcomes at either the Society of American Foresters Annual Conference or the Biennial Conference on University Education in Natural Resources. This Objective was intended to be pursued in the fall of 2021 or winter of 2022, but will likely need to be delayed due to COVID disruptions. Objective 3.4. Prepare and submit for publication in a peer-reviewed journal describing the program, lessons learned and assessment of outcomes This Objective was intended to be pursued in the fall of 2021 or winter of 2022, but will likely need to be delayed due to COVID disruptions.
Publications
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Progress 04/01/19 to 03/31/20
Outputs
Target Audience:Target Audience The program will include professional development and leadership training, and will contribute to a diverse workforce with outstanding experience in forestry and natural resource management. The target audience reached during the first reporting period includes: 1. underrepresented minority (URM) undergraduate students from the New York City metropolitan area, and 2. educators from other forestry and natural resources programs seeking to diversity their student body Changes/Problems:-Our original lead co-PD at MEC, Dr. Christopher Boxe, left MEC in summer 2019. Dr. Skeete took over for him as MEC lead and the other MEC co-PDs (Salako & Shin) have taken on additional responsibilities. -MEC Curriculum Process. As noted in our activities report we have completed the MOU but still have work to do to finalize the new curriculum at MEC. MEC PDs have prepared all the necessary paperwork; however, the goal of moving through the curriculum review process at MEC in Spring 2020 was not achieved due to the campus shutdown over coronavirus. We will attempt to initiate the curriculum review process again in Fall 2020. Although this may have slowed down the official adoption of the 3+2 program we have still made outstanding progress on the broader goal of moving traditionally underrepresented students through Forestry graduate programs. In our first year we were able to get two applicants to the MSU Forestry grad program, one of whom will be starting his program in August 2020 -SROP 2020. As described in our activities report the MSU residency for summer 2020 was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. We have adapted to this by developing an online directed research internship for the three MEC students that we recruited to participate in SROP. Students are all working on research projects that involve online data collection and analysis. Each student has a MSU faculty mentor and will participate in group professional development activities through online discussions and training modules. We have reserved funds for the students to travel to MSU for an undergraduate research conference - if this is possible depending on the public health situation -Field Day 2020 is also uncertain due to the pandemic. We are committed to carrying out a field day recruiting activity after the success of our first one. However, travel and social distancing may require that we design an online or remotely directed version. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In addition to Field Day activities outlined above we provided the following opportunities for training and professional development. Following the Field Day PD Rothstein conducted individual consultations with seven MEC students (~30 min each). PD Rothstein is the Director of Graduate Studies for the Forestry Department at MSU. These consultations focused on strategies for pursuing graduate study including: career goals, selecting a program, selecting an advisor and strategies for preparing a competitive application. We brought two MSU undergraduates to Brooklyn to co-lead groups of MEC students during the field day. The MSU students got valuable experience in outreach, education and mentoring. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?For the next reporting period we will: Mentor our first cohort of SROP students Move the new 3+2 curriculum through the governance process at MEC Execute our second Field Day recruiting event, including evaluation and survey instrument Recruit our first cohort of students for MANNRS Recruit a new cohort of MS applicants to MSU Note that most of these activities are likely to be impacted by the ongoing coronavirus epidemic. We detail the impacts on our project to date and our plans to respond in the Changes/Problems section of this report
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1.1: Complete Memorandum of Understanding and Curriculum and Processing Document for 3+2 Program We have made substantial progress towards Objective 1.1. Most importantly we completed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two institutions, this has been approved and signed by administration at both institutions. This MOU cements the relationship between the two institutions and provides significant benefits to MEC students. Most importantly, when students come to MSU for year 4 of the 3+2 program, they will pay tuition to MEC at City University of New York (CUNY) rates. In year 5 (completion of the MS), students will pay tuition to MSU but will be granted an in-state tuition status for substantial savings. At MSU, there were no changes to our existing curriculum required. At MEC a new undergraduate degree program is required to complete the 3+2. We worked over the summer and Fall of 2019 to prepare all of the paperwork to move through the CUNY curriculum governance process. The curriculum was scheduled for review by the CUNY curriculum committee in March 2020, but this was cancelled due to the coronavirus epidemic. Paperwork will be resubmitted in Fall semester of 2020. Objective 1.2. Develop recruiting strategy, promotional materials and website for the 3+2 program. Objective 1.2 was partially accomplished in the first project year. We developed a series of brochures and fliers for both the 3+2 program and for our Field Day event that were circulated to MEC students in the Environmental Science and Biology departments. In addition, we had MSU faculty make three in-person recruiting presentations to MEC classes (one in April 2019 and two in September 2019). Two MEC students were brought to MSU on recruiting visits (students recruited using HEC funds, but we leveraged internal funds to pay for their travel). Both students applied for graduate study at MSU Forestry in November 2019. We have not yet developed a website for the 3+2 program, as we are waiting for final approval of the curriculum Objective 1.3. Develop and implement the Urban Forestry Field Day recruiting program Objective 1.3 was completed in 2019. We had our first planning meeting in April 2019 and developed a series of educational activities and exercises over the summer of 2019. The exercises were a collaborative effort between MSU, MEC, USDA Forest Service, and the NYC Parks Department. We delivered the field day to an audience of 37 MEC students on October 14, 2019. Facilitators included three MEC faculty, three MSU faculty, two MSU students, three USDA Forest Service Scientists and one employee of the NYC Parks Department. Students participated in active learning exercises from 9 am to 5 pm that included an introduction to Urban Forestry, tree identification, tree biology, environmental services provided by urban trees, and human perceptions of urban trees and urban greenspaces. In addition to the Field Day activities, we also used a pre and post survey instrument as a tool to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses and overall effectiveness of the Field Day program. We will use the results of this survey to inform design of future Field Day events. Some highlights from the post participation survey that indicate the impacts of the Field Day on these students: 62% answered Agree or Strongly Agree to the statement "I am now interested in Urban Forestry" 57% answered Agree or Strongly agree to the statement "I am excited about Urban Forestry" 50% answered Agree or Strongly Agree to the statement "I believe Urban Forestry could be a career path for me" 80% said they planned to apply for graduate school at MSU Objective 1.4. Send two cohorts of students to the national conference of the Minorities in Agriculture Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS). The first cohort for MANRRS is targeted for April 2021 Objective 2.1. Bring two cohorts of students through MSU's Summer Research Opportunity Program. We successfully recruited our first cohort of three MEC students to participate in MSU's SROP program in the summer of 2020. Because of the novel coronavirus epidemic, in-person SROP was cancelled and replaced with a remote version. Our three students are still participating. They will be working on internet based urban forestry research projects under the supervision of three MSU faculty (Rothstein, Dowtin, Huff). They will also participate in online professional development training and, if allowed, travel to MSU in Fall 2020 for a research conference and campus tour. Objective 2.2. Matriculate two cohorts of students into the 3+2 Environmental Science - Urban Forestry degree program We have successfully moved students through the recruiting and development portions of our program. Our goal was to have our fist students begin the 3+2 program in Fall 2021. It is possible that this will be delayed due to the combination of coronavirus and curriculum delays at MEC. Nevertheless, we were successful in getting MEC students to apply to our traditional MS program in Forestry. We had two MEC students apply in Fall 2019. One of these accepted, received a fellowship and will begin his program in August 2020. The second student chose instead to take a graduate offer from Princeton. Objective 3.1. Develop a 3+2 Project Webpage Awaits completion of curriculum Objective 3.2. Web-publish MOU, 3+2 Curriculum and Processing Document This Objective will be pursued later years of the project. Objective 3.3. Present details of the program and an evaluation of outcomes at either the Society of American Foresters Annual Conference or the Biennial Conference on University Education in Natural Resources. This Objective will be pursued the last year of the project. Objective 3.4. Prepare and submit for publication in a peer-reviewed journal describing the program, lessons learned and assessment of outcomes This Objective will be pursued the last year of the project.
Publications
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