PROMOTING A PATHWAY TO HIGHER EDUCATION AT KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY THROUGH TRIBAL FOOD SOVEREIGNTY AND COMMUNITY GARDENS

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: ACTIVE
• Funding Source: OTHER GRANTS
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1026847
• Grant No.: 2021-70411-35211
• Cumulative Award Amt.: $299,850.00
• Proposal No.: 2021-04803
• Project Start Date: Aug 1, 2021
• Project End Date: Jul 31, 2025
• Grant Year: 2023
• Program Code: [NBTS]- New Beginning for Tribal Students

Recipient Organization
KANSAS STATE UNIV
(N/A)
MANHATTAN,KS 66506

Performing Department
Horticulture & Nat Res - CES

Non Technical Summary
This proposal aims to address several of the barriers Native American students face in pursuit of higher education. In keeping with the Land Grant Institution mission of Kansas State University to embrace diversity and to encourage engagement, this project aims to elevate the educational goals of Native students, and build on the goal to provide Native students with equitable access to higher education, the discovery of knowledge, and the encouragement of high school students moving toward undergraduate and graduate degrees. In this vein, the project leaders and recruited graduate student assistants will work with the Indigenous Faculty and Staff Alliance, Kansas Association for Native American Education, Haskell Indian Nations University, and the Kickapoo Nation School to use research on food sovereignty and community gardens to provide role models for Native youth which will:Increase the capacity of American Indian students to seek out and identify with a college-bound culture;Increase the capacity of American Indian students to prepare for college, and;Increase the capacity of Kansas State University to recruit, support, and graduate Native American students particularly to the Horticulture and Natural Resources Department and secondarily to the Agricultural Communications and Education Department, and the Colleges of Engineering and Business.

Animal Health Component

100%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

(N/A)

Applied

100%

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
102	1429	1060	50%
903	2410	0001	50%

Knowledge Area
102 - Soil, Plant, Water, Nutrient Relationships; 903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery;

Subject Of Investigation
2410 - Cross-commodity research--multiple crops; 1429 - Cucurbits, other;

Field Of Science
0001 - Administration; 1060 - Biology (whole systems);

Keywords

indigenous

native american

college recruitment

diversity

heirloom vegetable

Goals / Objectives
This proposal aims to address several of the barriers Native American students face in pursuit of higher education. In keeping with the Land Grant Institution mission of Kansas State University to embrace diversity and to encourage engagement, this project aims to elevate the educational goals of Native students, and build on the goal to provide Native students with equitable access to higher education, the discovery of knowledge, and the encouragement of high school students moving toward undergraduate and graduate degrees. In this vein, the project leaders and recruited graduate student assistants will work with the Indigenous Faculty and Staff Alliance, Kansas Association for Native American Education, Haskell Indian Nations University, and the Kickapoo Nation School to use research on food sovereignty and community gardens to provide role models for Native youth which will:Increase the capacity of American Indian students to seek out and identify with a college-bound culture;Increase the capacity of American Indian students to prepare for college, and;Increase the capacity of Kansas State University to recruit, support, and graduate Native American students particularly to the Horticulture and Natural Resources Department and secondarily to the Agricultural Communications and Education Department, engineering and business.Specific objectives include:1) Four Native students enroll in the Horticulture and Natural Resources Department by the end of the grant;2) Native students actively engage in higher education and persist to graduation as evidenced by a 15% increase annually as tracked in Planning and Analysis;3) KSU shows a 20% increase in readily identifying Native students;4) KSU contributes to the literature regarding Native Americans in higher education to show the effectiveness of honoring identities, honoring traditions, having high expectations, and providing introduction to higher education during teen development.

Project Methods
The focus on the Horticulture and Natural Resources Department is intentional, to link with the current interest in the food sovereignty movement in the Native community, and the other facets of the department, Park Management and Wildlife, which would both prove useful for tribal students returning to their communities to help manage tribal natural resources. The PD, Dr. Charles Barden has established a research and demonstration garden on the Haskell Indian Nations University campus, with satellite trial plots in the Kickapoo and Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation community gardens. He also leads annual gardening workshops on the two reservations (Galgamuwe 2013). Having a Native American grad student to help lead these events would serve as an important role model for tribal youth.Linkage with the university-level Department of Diversity and Multicultural Student Affairs, which works with nearly 4,000 students of color and other historically minoritized populations, through the Project IMPACT, a high school support and recruitment program at Kansas State University will be critical. This evidenced-based strategy, in the past, has not had a particular focus on Native American students. The department lacked the capacity, until recently with the addition of an Indigenous director of intercultural learning, student development, and academic success, who serves as a co-PI (Dr. Debra Bolton) on this project and who identifies with a Tribal Nation, Ohkay Owingeh. Working with the Indigenous Faculty and Staff Alliance (IFSA) and the Kansas Association of Native American Education (KANAE), these partnerships will allow the department to reach the broader Native American target audience, specific to tribally enrolled students, as well as the other tribal nations found in the region.The data from the Project IMPACT design illustrates the effectiveness of using a leadership development approach to reach under-prepared and often "invisible" students for academic pursuits.It further illustrates that repeated exposure to a broad spectrum of academic possibilities from a college education steers young people away from deteriorating factors that can lead to juvenile delinquency and poverty in their communities.That data prove that education contributes to greater self-efficacy, greater earning power, and well-measured returns on the investment for the funder and the overall community/society.The project's partners, Kickapoo Nations School, Kansas Association of Native American Education (KANAE) and K-State Native American Student Body will work with members of the Indigenous Faculty and Staff Alliance (IFSA) to identify and recruit Native students in high school, and for graduate school from Haskell Indian Nations University. With an evidenced-based approach, the Project IMPACT program will introduce the skills necessary to graduate high school, prepare for college, enroll to, persist in, and graduate from the university/college environment. Additional strategies, if an additional GRA is funded internally, include working with Recruitment and Admissions to expand their capacity to serve at-risk Native American student populations.?Especially important to help students maintain their identities, we propose culturally responsive experiential learning experiences for Native students that honor their traditions and culture better to connect their professional training to the perspectives of Indigenous peoples and Native nations.To reiterate, the Department of Diversity and Multicultural Student Affairs (DMSA), and its partners, propose to build upon the success of the Project IMPACT model for preparation, recruitment, retention, and graduation targeting Native American students, who tend to be first-generation, low socioeconomic status youth most at-risk of academic and social failures because of barriers to accessing higher education. We will emphasize matriculation into the Department of Horticulture and Natural Resources, but information on other areas of study, such as agricultural education, engineering and business, will be promoted and shared. Our intention is to develop further a network with Tribes, key partners, schools, and a statewide network of educators focused on the academic well-being of Native students in this three-year commitment to deliver an academic recruitment and leadership development program, using food sovereignty as the topic.

Progress 08/01/23 to 07/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audiance included 1) indeginous students from the four soverign tribes in Kansas and 2) faculty and students at Kansas State University and surrounding communities. Changes/Problems:The largest challenge we have had to achieving our project's goals are the loss, and role changes, of project investigators. We have changed primary investigators and are currently recruiting other investigators to move this project forward. Although this challenge has been significant, we are still excited and optimistic and we have successfully made positive headway in achieving our projects objectives. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We sent a PI (LaVerne Bitse-Baldwin) and member of the Kansas State University indigenous student scholars to the American Indian Science and Engineering (AISES) conference to network and receive professional development opportunities. Additionally, participation in Kansas State University's Indigenous Peoples Day activities provided enhanced opportunities for professional development for PIs, students, and technicians. 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?We have ambitious goals to accomplish during the next reporting period. First, we are working with Kansas State University administration to develop ways to accurately track enrollment and graduation of indigenous students. This task is key to reporting success of our grant. Second, we will be hosting more extension and outreach events with tribal educators to provide information regarding food security and sovereignty for tribal members. These efforts are important to reach out to tribal high school students and are also important avenues of connection and representation for college educators to highlight the importance of higher education. Third, we will be publishing work regarding to our efforts with this project and also providing recommendations to administrators of higher education concerned with providing opportunities to offer college educations to indigenous students.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We continue to strive to meet our stated objectives although staff turnover has been persistent. Below, I list the major accomplishments from our work during this reporting period. We have hosted 'College for A Day' that brought dozens of tribal high school students to Kansas State University to participate in events geared towards introducing students to what it is like to attend college. These events included panels with current indigenous students at Kansas State University, field trips to visit the Sunderland Innovation Center and Department of Horticulture and Natural Resources greenhouse operations, and meeting with faculty and staff from the Kansas State University Indigenous Faculty and Staff Alliance. This event also included presentations from various groups across campus. We have hosted multiple extension and outreach events with tribal students that introduced them to gardening operations on tribal land. The goal of these efforts were to start the conversations centered on tribal food security and sovereignty. These events were conducted by a past PI from this grant (Dr. Charlie Barden) and current graduate student (Ms. Mariah Gray, an indigenous scholar at Kansas State University). We participated in hosted portions of Indigenous Peoples Dayat Kansas State University. Activities during this event included meals prepared by an indigenous chef, seminars by internationally recognized tribal health and native artists, and panels on tribal health that included state experts and tribal leaders.

Publications

Progress 08/01/22 to 07/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:Members of the Kansas Native American community interested in food sovereignty and local food production issues. Indigenous students considering college. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A College for a Day event focused on Native high school students was held March 23, 2023. A total of 6 schools were represented, ranging in size from small, rural institutions, to the largest high schools in the state (Wichita). A total of 28 students completed surveys, and the pre- and post- test evaluations indicated project goals were met, such as increased interest in attending colllege, and increased likelihood of pursuing studies in agriculture. Several Native KSU students served on a panel during the program, describing their college experience. Additional student leadership development activitites included supporting attendence of 2 team members to the FALCON meeting in Albuquerque, NM and the attendance of 4 indigenous undergrads and 2 co-PD's to the AISES meeting in Palm Springs, California.Two Native students toured the KSU campus and visited with the project director. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The vegetable research results have been shared with tribal communities at the annual gardening workshops held in the spring on three of the four reservations in Kansas, organized by the PD. A status report was presented via Zoom to the NIFA NBTS leaders in February, 2023. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue to follow the plan outlined in the proposal, including helping with Indigenous Peoples Day, and hosting additional College for a Day events. We will continue to attend tribal college and career fairs. We will re-apply for the KSU student government assistance for an additional GRA position.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? All of the major program goals and activities for the second year of the project were accomplished, as listed in the timetable, section ii) on page 7-8 of the proposal narrative. The one exception was that the KSU student government did not fund a GRA position. Most notably, the project team organized an Indigenous Peoples Day (October 10, 2022) program dedicated to "Indigenous Kansas: Past, Present and Future". A total of 400 people participated, which included 64 high school students from 5 schools that completed KSU interest cards. Additional outreach events included organizing 4 gardening workshops on 3 Kansas reservations. Topics included blackberry and tree pruning on the Prairie Band Potawatomi, and vegetable gardening with the PBPN, Kickapoo and Iowa tribes. There were 76 total participants. Two Native students continued working on their Master's degree in the department of Horticulture and Natural Resources. Funding for assistantships and tuition was leveraged from an NSF-funding project related to rural resiliency, thus saving NIFA project funds for additional students. A College for a Day event focused on Native high school students was held March 23, 2023. A total of 6 schools were represented, ranging in size from small, rural institutions, to the largest high schools in the state (Wichita). A total of 28 students completed surveys, and the pre- and post- test evaluations indicated project goals were met, such as increased interest in attending colllege, and increased likelihood of pursuing studies in agriculture. Additional student leadership development activitites included supporting attendance of 2 team members to the FALCON meeting in Albuquerque, NM and the attendance of 4 indigenous undergrads and 2 co-PD's to the AISES meeting in Palm Springs, California.Two Native students toured the KSU campus and visited with the project director. Team members participated in several Tribal College and Career Days, including the Citizen Potawatomi in Shawnee OKlahoma, September 8, 2023, the Osage Nation College and Career Fair in Pawhuska, Oklahoma on November 2, 2022, and Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, KS on February 1, 2023. Addtional cultural events were supported by the attendance of team members including the Kansas University Pow Wow in April 2023 , and the Kaw Nation Youth Language Pow Wow in May, 2023.

Publications

Progress 08/01/21 to 07/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:Members of the Kansas Native American community interested in food sovereignty and local food production issues. Indigenous students considering college. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?One of the Native grad students working on the project received leadership experience by serving as a moderator at the Indigenous Peoples Day, and served on a college student panel for the College for a Day event. She will also present her research at the FALCON conference in October 2022. She also led several tours of her vegetable research plots. The PD has had numerous discussions with both grad students on conducting goood research practices, and continues in a mentoring relationship with them. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The vegetable research results have been shared with tribal communities at the annual gardening workshops held each spring on two of the four reservations in Kansas, organized by the PD. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue to follow the plan outlined in the proposal, including helping with Indigenous Peoples Day, and hosting additional College for a Day events. We will strive to attend more tribal college and career fairs, by reaching out to the organizers to get the events on the team's schedule with more lead time.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? All of the major program goals and activities for the first year of the project were accomplished, as listed in the timetable, section ii) on page 7 of the proposal narrative. Most notably, the project team organized an Indigenous Peoples Day (October 11, 2021) program dedicated to food sovereignty issues. Event surveys were received from 225 attendees, while there was over 300 people participating. Two Native students began working on their Master's degree in the department of Horticulture and Natural Resources. Funding for assistantships and tuition was leveraged from an NSF-funding project related to rural resiliency, thus saving NIFA project funds for additional students. A College for a Day event focused on Native high school students was held March 24, 2022. A total of 9 schools were represented, ranging in size from small, rural K-12 institutions (Kickapoo Nation School), to the largest high schools in the state (Wichita). A total of 43 students attended, and the pre- and post- test evaluations indicated project goals were met, such as increased interest in attending colllege, and increased likelihood of pursueing studies in agriculture. A Kansas State University recruiter participated in the Osage Nation College and Career Fair in Oklahoma on November 4, 2021. An Earth Day event was held at the Kickapoo Nation School (KNS) on April 28, with 45 participants. Instructors were the PD and the two Native grad students. Swamp and Butterfly milkweed seedlings, important for Monarch butterfles and other pollinators were raised in the KSU greenhouse, and planted with the students in the KNS outdoor classroom.

Publications