Progress 08/01/23 to 07/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:Target Audience of students for Year 3 of Project SEMBRAR included: 1. High school students from our 21 College Now High School partners, 2. Targeted highschool partners such as John Bowne High School, NY Sunworks, Abraham Lincoln High School, Bard Early College, School for Urban Green Careers. 3. Newly enrollled students at LaGuardia in the Environmental Science Program 4. Targeted populations of Environemntal Science majors and Nutrition and Culinary Management majors 5. Targeted populations of Sustainable Urban agriculture students 6. Students from across LaGuardia enrolled parttime or full time interested in regereative urban agriculture Changes/Problems:None What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The following Professional Development was developed and conducted in Year 3: USDA HSI Program Directors Meeting CUNY-Wide Experiential Learning HSI conference - Invited Presentation and Poster Session NYC Parks Climate Adaptation Event Agriculture Career Fair at John Bowne High School USDA and NYC Office of Urban Agriculture Meeting New York Sunworks, Controlled Environment Agriculture - Career and Networking event Department of Environmental Protection Career and Panel Discussion Project SEMBRAR Experiential Learning Program New York Food Bureau Conference - Invited Panelist LAGCC Professional Opening Sessions - Presentation and Workshop College Now STEM Career Day with high school Environmental Science and Agriculture Career and Transfer Day How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?In year 3 we have accomplished the following in terms of dissemination of results: We have published a new CTE agreement for sustainable urban agriculture on the LAGCC college website We have published a new transfer and career map which includes USDA jobs and internships in our LAGCC college website. We are in the process of completing our final documentary for year 3. We have had three press releases in the last year for the urban agriculture program and the LAGCC farm and Hydroponic research center. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?As part of the next reporting period, we have 4 career and planning events on calendar for the next academic year. We will continue growing enrollment in SUA and Animal Science tracks. As of this academic year we have completed the three years of summer experiential learning and plan to write a publication to document our learning and data.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1: Building an F&A Career Path Major activities completed Completed hiring of 4 LAGCC ES student ambassadors and 4 LAGCC ES student tutors. Created a new Environmental Science Instagram account, with 146 followers, 251 following and 40 posts in the last 6 months. Conducted 14 events specific for Environmental Science recruitment and career events attended by 570 students in total. Latinx in STEM AgSTEM Career and Transfer Day USDA Career day for Environmental Science Career and Transfer Day: Virtual Informative Session - Part 1 Career and Transfer Day: Virtual Informative Session - Part 2 Online Information Session for Environmental Science ASAP - Annual Community Party LAGCC Spring Fest Women in STEM in collaboration with Casa De Las Americas College Now STEM Day USDA Career and Panel Earth Day at LAGCC Research in the classroom experience for first year seminar students. John Bowne H.S. Ag College and Career Fair 13th Annual NY Sun Works Discovering Sustainability Science Data collected Total enrollment of students in Sustainable Urban Agriculture track from 2022 to 2023 increased by 18%. Of the students attending the events listed above 67% identified as Hispanic/Latinx or Black. 36% of students participating in the events above identified as interested in environmental science, sustainable urban agriculture and animal science. The Environmental Science ambassadors and Tutors hired, completed 428 hours of tutoring and ambassadorship in Spring and Fall of 2023-2024. Impact Key highlights received from LAGCC Office of Institutional Research. Enrollment in the Animal Science track from Fall I 2023 was 43 students and in Spring I 2024 was 66 students. Hence enrollment % has increased to 53.48% from 2023 to 2024, since the inception of the grant. • 78.6% of enrolled students are Hispanic, 11.9% are black, 7.1% are Asian/Pacific Islander and 2.4% are white. The 2-year retention rate for 2024 is 50% which is significantly greater than the institutional average which is 32.8%. Regarding recruitment and events, a remarkable 570 students from both LAGCC and high schools attended 16 specific NEXTGEN events. 10 LAGCC and Rutgers students and 2 faculty and staff attended the NEXTGEN Spring Summit in Washington DC where they were exposed to experiential learning activities. This increased student exposure and comfort level to career opportunities within the various facets of the USDA Goal 2: Strengthening and articulating F&A curriculum. Major Activities Completed/Impact In year 3 of Project SEMBRAR, we have completed the following goals as part of this grant which has helped build out our agriculture curriculum: Soil Science: Have started the process of modifying the Soil Science course to be part of "Pathways" track to enable more students to take the course. Articulation Agreements: Completed a Career and Technical Education articulation agreement with three high schools who have agriculture specific curriculum. This will enable students to transfer credit for prior learning from their high schools to earn credit within the Env Sci program at LAGCC. We are in the process of completing an articulation agreement with Cornell CALS agriculture. Completed the hiring process for a new full time Lecturer in Sustainable Urban Agriculture Built out curriculum for hydroponics-controlled environment agriculture at the LAGCC Hydroponics Research Lab Build out curriculum for Farm Crew at the hydroponics research lab Created new curriculum for the experiential SEMBRAR program for high school students Created new forms of reflection and assessment for the SEMBRAR program Goal 3: Creating Experiential Learning Opportunities Project SEMBRAR had great success in recruiting (we had over 39 applicants) 15 students across LaGuardia to participate in a 3-week paid internship program with our community partners. Students were very engaged and the overall survey results showed that students learned a great deal about topics such as food justice and sovereignty, urban agriculture, crop rotation, site selection, plant identification, hydroponics, aquaponics, native pollinators, green infrastructure, and soil quality testing to name a few. All key outcomes of the grant for year three were met. In addition, this year we include another 15 students from the Variety Boys and Girls club as part of the cohort. Impact: 72% of students who completed the exit survey for Project SEMBRAR identified as BIPOC 45% of students how completed the exit survey identified as Latinx or Black. 80% of students surveyed before the internship described themselves as unfamiliar with the concepts of regenerative agriculture, food justice and food equity. 87% of students surveyed after the internship described themselves as confident with the concepts of regenerative agriculture, food justice and food equity. 83% of students surveyed after the internship described that they were confident in applying their knowledge of agriculture in their future careers. The 2-year retention rate (students coming back to complete courses) was 50% Data showed a 11% increase in GPA of students who participated in the internship versus control from a similar group who did not participate in the internship. Average GPA increased from 3.0 to 3.52.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
LaGuardia Opening Sessions - Presentation "Experiential Learning on the LaGuardia Urban Farm"
|
Progress 08/01/22 to 07/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience: Target Audience of students for Year 2 of Project SEMBRAR included: High school students from our 21 College Now High School partners, Targeted highschool partners such as John Bowne High School and NY Sunworks partners Newly enrollled students at LaGuardia, Targeted populations of Environemntal Science majorsand Nutrition and Culinary Management majors Targeted populations of Sustainable Urban agriculture students Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Listed below are the series of training/professional development/career development and enrollment events that we conducted and attended in the Year 2 of Project SEMBRAR. 11/7/2022 - NIFA Project Directors Meeting 11/19/2022 - CUNY-Wide Experiential Learning HSI conference - Invited Presentation and Poster Session 11/23/2022 - NYC Parks Climate Adaptation Event 12/6/2022 - NIFA HSI Welcome Meeting (zoom) 05/03/2023 - Agriculture Career Fair at John Bowne High School 05/03/2023 - USDA and NYC Office of Urban Agriculture Meeting 05/24/2023 - New York Sunworks, Controlled Environment Agriculture - Career and Networking event 06/06/2023 - Department of EnvironmentalProtection Career and Panel Discussion 06/26/2023 - 07/21/2023 - Project SEMBRAR Experietianl Learning Program 08/08/2023 - New York Food Bureau Conference - Invited Panelist 09/6/2023 - LAGCC Professional Opening Sessions - Presentation and Workshop 10/4/2023 - Rutgers-LAGCC Animal Science Open House and USDA 10/25/2023 - College Now STEM Career Day with high school partners 12/6/2923 - Environmental Science and Agriculture Career and Transfer Day How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? In year 2 we have accomplished the following in terms of dissemniation of results: We have published our three new articulations with Rutgers, Brooklyn College and SUNY Cobleskill on our department website. We have completed 3 new brochures for our SUA, AS and GE tracks We have completed a new series of websites for SUA, AS and GE tracks The outcomes of the experiential learning were documented by film students. Documentary 1 and Documentary 2 There was a press release about the HSI ed grant with USDA. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? As part of the next reporting period, we have 4 career and planning events on calendar for the next academic year. We will continue growing enrollment in SUA and Animal Science tracks. Finally we will complete this summers SELP program. Thereby completing the next years goals.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1. Building and F&A Career Path In this reporting period, we were able to coduct a total of 6 in-person outreach events to increase enrollment and advertising of the Environmental Science program, in specific, for the two new tracks of Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Animal Science funded through this grant. The year 2 of Project SEMBRAR events include: NYC Parks Climate Adaptation Event - 18 students attended. This was a curriculum event where the NYC parks department led students through urban design and green infrastructure within NYC neighbourhoods. Agriculture Career Fair at John Bowne High School - Interacted with 84 students at the Environmental Science table. This was a career event hosted by JBHS and we were able to attend with 2 student ambassadors. New York Sunworks - Controlled Environment Agriculture - Career and Networking event - Interacted with > 132 students at the Environmental Science table. This was a career event hosted ny NY Sunworks and we were able to attend with 2 student ambassadors. Rutgers-LAGCC Animal Science Open House and USDA - 97 LAGCC students and 8 faculty/staff from Rutgers and LAGCC attended. This was an Aimal Science track within the ES program information session in collaboration with Rutgers. USDA liason to the northeast Mina Gomez was present. College Now STEM Career Day with high school partners - This is a College-Now High school recruitment event and we had 25 registered attendees. Environmental Science and Agriculture Career and Transfer Day - This will be a large Career and Transfer day with high school students as the primary audience. We expect to have > 100 participants. To be conducted. Major Impact and Data Collected for Goal 1 In total across all 6 events we interacted and advertised and recruited for the new urban agriculture and animal science trackswith about 712 students with an addtional 100 students for a December 2023 event planned. As a direct result of the programming and recruiting described above, we have met the following enrollment goals for this grant period: Total enrollment of students across all categories in Sustainable Urban Agriculturetrack from 2022 to 2023 increased by 18% Enrollment of full timestudents in Animal Sciencetrack from 2022 to 2023 increased by 42% Enrollment of part timestudentsinAnimal Sciencetrack from 2022 to 2023 increased by 40% Enrollment of hispanic studentsinAnimal Sciencetrack from 2022 to 2023 increased by 55% Total enrollment of students across all categories inAnimal Sciencetrack from 2022 to 2023 increased by 37% 2. Strengthening and articulating F&A curriculum In year 2 of Project SEMBRAR, we have completed the following goals as part of this grant which has helped build out our agriculture curriculum Modified our Plant Science course in the Sustainable Urban Agriculture curriculum for it to go through NY State curriculum, and have it be accepted as a "Pathways" course. This allows other students (Non-Urban Ag), to be able to take the course as well. Completed the build out of all courses within the new Animal Science track within the Environmental Science Program(2 new courses: Animal Behavior and Ethics and Animal Integrative Physiology), sent it through the departemntal curriculum for voting, college-wide curriculum for voting and approval andfinally, NY State curriculum - now it is an approved track for LAGCC. Animal Science wasopen for enrollment for the firsttime in Fall 2023. Articulation Agreements: In addition to the three new articulation agreements from last reporting year, we have completed 2 new articulations for the second year of this grant with SUNY Cobleskill for their B.S in Agriculture Businessmanagment (B.S and B.T.and B.S /B.T in Animal Science). Major Impact and Data Collected for Goal 2: We have completed 2 new articulation agreements with 4-year schools. Built out and accredited with NY state a new Animal Science curriculum with three new courses. Opened this track for registration with 48 new students. 3. Creating Experiential Learning Opportunities Project SEMBRAR had great success in recruiting (we had over 85applicants) 15 students across LaGuardia to participate in a 3-week paid internship program with our community partners . Overall the SELP program was a great success. Students were very engaged and the overall survey results showed that students learned a great deal about topics such as food justice and sovereignty, urban agriculture, crop rotation, site selection, plant identification, hydroponics, aquaponics, native pollinators, green infrastructure, and soil quality testing to name a few. All key outcomes of the grant for year one - were met.
Publications
|
Progress 08/01/21 to 07/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:Target Audience for Year One of Project SEMBRAR included high school students from our 21 College Now High School partners, newly enrollled students at LaGuardia (47%of which are hispanic, 2021), and targeted populations of Environemntal Science and Food Science students. Changes/Problems:The one major change to of the project was in Goal 3, we had to turn the 6-week internship into a 3-week internship with similar overall hours. Conducted the 3-week internship: The internship time changed from 6-weeks originally proposed in the grant to 3 weeks as the 6-week time was unrealistic. Many students worked jobs and had summer classes that they needed to be engaged in. Hence, we changed the period to 3 weeks, but the number of hours were the same as we increased the length of day when students were at the community partners. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The following were the worshops and events this project provided: Career and workforce events.Within this reporting period, we accomplished the following events which directly addresses career and workforce information with the fields of food and agriculture. USDA Career Panel: 2/2/2021. We had 80 participants join us online. We had 50 students take the panel survey who were Environmental Science and Nutrition and Culinary Management majors. We had a Climate policy analyst from the DEC, Research entomologist from USDA APHIS, an urban black farmer, a Soil scientist from USDA NRCS, and the Director of the NYC Soil and Water conservation district serve as panelists at the event. Spring Fest on the Plaza 2021. 4/6/2021. We set up a SEMBRAR table at Spring Fest there were over 500 students that attended the event. The table had games, pollinator seed giveaways and seedling giveaways with a sustainable urban agriculture focus. NYC Parks - Raptor fest. We had three First Year Seminar classes - 30 students experience the thrill of viewing New York's premier predatorslive and up close. We were joined by NYC Parks at the Raptor Fest, hosted by the Urban Park Rangers. This event showcased many birds of prey,also known as raptors, that are found throughout New York City and beyond, including eagles, falcons, owls, hawks, and more. Food Fair: 10/26/2022. A food fair event which drew a crowd of more than 300 students from across the campus. The SEMBRAR table at the event drew 80 students who participated in the identify a career and win a prize. There were 2 surveys conducted at these events with 78 respondents in total. 82% of students scored that they were "very satisfied" by the career panel event. 60% of the respondents scored that the career panel was "very helpful" in deciding on a major. 78% said that they were "very satisfied" with the session content. 51.8% said that they were interested in the Environmental Science program. 78.6% said that they would be interested in the summer paid internship program. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? As part of this grant the followowing articulations were signed and adverstised on the college website: Articulation agreements signed.Since, Fall I 2021, we have articulated the Environmental Science program and the Sustainable Urban Agriculture track for seamless transfer to Queens College and Lehman College for B.S. in Environmental Science and to Brooklyn College for B.S. in Urban Sustainability. We are currently in conversation with Rutgers, SUNY Cobleskill and Brooklyn College for articulation agreements with the new Animal Science option which will most likely be offered in Fall 2023. We are in the stage of finalizing articulation agreements and then passing all curricular materials through the departmental and college senate. After which it must be approved by NY state to include in our course catalog. Brochures Two new brochures were made in collaboration with the advertising and marketing department. Images for the brochure were obtained and a 2-year degree map was made. Website A SEMBRAR website was made to house all activities, events, recruitment, and experiential learning. The outcomes of the experiential learning were documented by 2 film students in the form of a 21 min documentary, and more than 700 pictures. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?As part of the next reporting period, we have 4 career and planning events on calendar for the next academic year. The Animal Sciences track is on route to moving through curriculum at CUNY. Finally we will complete this summers SELP program. Thereby completing the next years goals.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Evidence of Impact: The main goal of Project SEMBRAR is to sustain and grow the next generation of Urban STEM agricultural leaders. In year one of Project SEMBRAR, we conducted outreach to 21 College Now high schools, created new advertising in the form of brochures and websites which were circulated to the school community, completed the creation and enrollment (15 new students this semester) of the new Sustainable Urban Agriculture Program. Wearticulated this program with 3 four-year colleges, conducted career panel and LatinX events to advertise F&A and USDA careers and completed year one of a paid summer experiential learning program with numerous community-partners, there by engaging with > 800 students from high-schools and currently enrolled students at LaGuardia, 43% of whom are LatinX. Overall year one of Project SEMBRAR has been a wonderful success and goals are currently being executed for Year 2 of the project. 1. Building F&A Career Path. Major activities completed / experiments conducted:The activities conducted were creating, facilitating, and executing career and workforce events (4 for the academic year). Creating and disseminating 2 new brochures and a website for Sustainable Urban Agriculture Program. Created, delivered and analyzed data from two surveys that were conducted during the Career and workforce events. Data collected: Enrollment Datafrom our Enrollment Office and Office of Institutional Research and Assessment has shown an increase in enrollment in the A.S. in Environmental Science degree students from 2020-2021 by 21.9% (2020 = 82; 2021 = 100) in this first reporting year. We had a minor decrease in Hispanic student enrollment from 2020 (47%) to 2021(42%). However, in the last three semesters (since we were awarded the grant in summer 2021), we have had 15 new students enrolled in the Sustainable Urban Agriculture track (percentage increase of 1400%). Brochures: Two new brochures were made in collaboration with the advertising and marketing department. Images for the brochure were obtained and a 2-year degree map was made. Summary statistics and discussion of results: Overall >200 students were served within this major task alone. Enrollment increased in the ES major and in the SUA track significantly despite national decrease in enrollment at 2-year colleges. All key outcomes were met in this first year of the grant. 2. Strengthening and articulating F&A curriculum. Major activities completed / experiments conducted:We completed our curriculum design and now offer a fully operational Sustainable Urban Agriculture track within the Environmental Science major with 15 new students. We have articulated the Environmental Science program and the Sustainable Urban Agriculture track for seamless transfer to Queens College and Lehman College for B.S. in Environmental Science and to Brooklyn College for B.S. in Urban Sustainability. These two outcomes fulfill major Task 2: Strengthening and articulating F&A curriculum. Data collected: We first conducted a survey with more than 200 respondents to ensure that there was an interest in the College community for an Animal Science option. Click here for survey results. Tracks Offered: (1) Sustainable Urban Agriculture track: As part of this grant for year 1, We have a fully established Sustainable Urban Agriculture track in the Environmental Science A.S. Program. (2) Wildlife Science now called Animal Science track.Articulation agreements signed.Since, Fall I 2021, we have articulated three 4-year schools. Summary statistics and discussion of results: As seen from our data above, we have completed the curriculum design and open enrollment has now begun for the Sustainable Urban Agriculture track with 15 new students in the very first semester of the track being open for enrollment. All key outcomes of the grant for year one. 3. Creating Experiential Learning Opportunities. Project SEMBRAR had great success in recruiting (we had over 70applicants) 15 students across LaGuardia to participate in a 3-week paid internship program with our community partners such as Oko farms (hydroponics and aquaponics), Jess Turner (soil science, composting and plant IDs), Connected Chef (food justice and food sovereignty), Red Hook Community farms (crop rotation, urban farming), El Sol Brillante (Bokashi composting and plant IDs), Kingsland Wildflowers and Newtown Creek Alliance (Urban ecology, green infrastructure, spectroscopic analysis of soil quality) and LaGuardia Community College Nutrition and Culinary Management Program - for a final cook-off featuring locally sourced, farmed vegetables and fruit. Major activities completed / experiments conducted: Events which showcased the SELP program:There were three events (discussed in goal 1) which enabled the Program Directors to get solicit and advertise the program. Application with Process:An application was created which listed the application criteria and the application process. Students were required to submit a 500-word essay as to why they would be a good fit with the program. We had 70 applicants with 48 students making all the criteria. Collected Applications and created a Panel:We then created a panel of 3 reviewers who went through all applications and scored the letters and other criteria of eligibility. We shortlisted 20 students. Awardees notified: We wrote out congratulatory letters to all students and requested that they sign a letter of commitment to the program. We then shortlisted 15 candidates based on their summer availabilities. Weekly plans scheduled:All weekly lesson plans were written up in collaboration with community partners and submitted to RFCUNY. Collected paperwork for all SELP partners:There were several pieces of paperwork that were collected from the community partners and submitted to RFCUNY to onboard all the community partners and paperwork submitted to get them paid. Conducted the 3-week internship:The internship time changed from 6-weeks originally proposed in the grant to 3 weeks as the 6-week time was unrealistic. Many students worked jobs and had summer classes that they needed to be engaged in. Hence, we changed the period to 3 weeks, but the number of hours were the same as we increased the length of day when students were at the community partners. Paid vendors (community partners and students) Data collected: Exit Surveys:There was an exit survey conducted with all participants of the SELP project. The following are the survey results: 83% of participants rated being "very satisfied" with the program. 78% of students rated the program as being "very helpful" in helping with their future careers and potential jobs. 82% of students selected the "most satisfied" category for planning and logistics. The final closing cook off and Connected chef were rated as the highest in terms of content and hands on learning. 80% of students said that they were satisfied with the overall session content. Reflections of student learning using Open pedagogy:Students submitted reflections of their learning every week. Photos and images and Documentary: 2 film and photography students created a repository of images from the program and a short 20 min documentary featuring the main parts of the program and student interviews. Summary statistics and discussion of results:Overall the SELP program was a great success. Students were very engaged and the overall survey results showed that students learned a great deal about topics such as food justice and sovereignty, urban agriculture, crop rotation, site selection, plant identification, hydroponics, aquaponics, native pollinators, green infrastructure, and soil quality testing to name a few. All key outcomes of the grant for year one - were met.
Publications
|