Recipient Organization
SOUTHERN UNIV
(N/A)
BATON ROUGE,LA 70813
Performing Department
College of Ag Fam & Cons Scs
Non Technical Summary
The goal of this project is to positively impact recruitment, retention, baccalaureate degree obtainments, and progression ofscholarship recipients in the food and agricultural sciences and related fields (FAS and RF). USDA/National Institute of Foodand Agriculture (NIFA) Scholarships will be accorded. Upon graduation an overwhelming majority of these students areexpected to be gainfully employed with the USDA workforce. The specific objectives are: (1) to leverage the USDA/NIFA 1890Scholarship Funds with other sources of students' financial support, (2) to assess the scholarships' impacts on recruitmentnumbers and retention rate, and (3) to determine the scholarships' impacts on students progressing and obtainingbaccalaureate degrees, and employment in the agricultural and natural resources workforce. The selected students must have aminimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 2.8 at the time of application, and maintain at least a 2.8 GPA on a semesterand cumulative basis while receiving scholarship support. Scholarship recipients must be enrolled as full-time students (12hours minimum). Approximately, 50 full and 40 partial scholarship awards will be granted. The departments primarily targetedare Agricultural Sciences, Family and Consumer Sciences, and Urban Forestry and Natural Resources. Where applicable, theUSDA/NIFA scholarship funds will be leveraged with other financial awards of the selected students.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
0%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
1. To leverage the USDA/NIFA 1890 Scholarship Funds with other sources of students' financial support.2. To assess the scholarships' impacts on recruitment numbers and retention rate.3. To determine the scholarships' impacts on students progressing, obtaining baccalaureate degrees, and employment in theagricultural and natural resources workforce.
Project Methods
Methodology for the project by objective include:Objective 1: To leverage the USDA/NIFA 1890 Scholarship Funds with other sources of students' financial supportTo be eligible for the USDA/NIFA 1890 Scholarship, students must be a high school senior or a college/transfer. The applicantmust have a grade point average (GPA) of 2.8 at the time of application and maintain at least a 2.8 GPA on a semester andcumulative basis while receiving scholarship support, and be enrolled as a full-time student (12 hours minimum). The College ofAgricultural, Family and Consumer Sciences (CAFCS) has three departments; scholarships will be awarded to students wantingto pursue a degree in one of the three departments. Applicants will be evaluated to ensure they meet the requirements. Toreceive a scholarship under the program, a student must satisfy all four of the following criteria: (1) must be a U.S. citizen orpermanent resident, (2) must be accepted for admission to Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge (SUBR), (3)must be enrolled at SUBR no later than one year after the date of acceptance for admission, and (4) must be pursuing a field ofstudy in the FAS and RF disciplines, such as in the Department of Agricultural Sciences, Family and Consumer Sciences, andUrban Forestry and Natural Resources.The 1890 USDA/NIFA scholarships will complement existing scholarships at SUBR and help to provide needed additionalfinancial assistance to a select number of high caliber incoming freshmen and college/transfers in the FAS and RF. The 1890USDA/NIFA scholarships criteria and method of selecting applicants and awardees will not duplicate an existing scholarship atSUBR. The department heads will work closely with the project director (PD), co-project directors (Co-PDs), and SUBR'sAdmission and Financial Aid Offices to ensure that each qualified undergraduate student who is eligible to receive theUSDA/NIFA 1890 scholarship does not exceed the maximum amount of the funds allowed by the University.We will leverage the USDA/NIFA 1890 scholarship dollars with a recipient's other financial support. In leveraging, we will take inconsideration the amount of a student's other financial awards excluding loans. Each student at the University has a "cost ofstudy" cap. A student cannot exceed the cap determined by the SUBR's Office of Financial Aid. A student's other financial aidsuch as work study, stipends, Honors College scholarship, and other awards will be applied first. Then our 1890 USDA/NIFAScholarship Award will be applied afterwards up to but no more than $8,000/academic year/scholar and no less than 50 fullscholarships the first year. Additionally, no more than $4,000/academic year/scholar and no less than 40 partial scholarships willbe issued the second year. This approach allows us to spread the scholarship dollars to more scholars. The scholarship dollars canbe used for tuition, room and board, student fees, and textbooks. Each department in the CAFCS will be provided a base fund of$120,000 for scholarship offerings, to be allocated equally among the program concentrations in each department. Theremaining $442,500/year is to be used in part for scholarship offerings at large rather than equally divided among departments.The USDA/NIFA 1890 Scholarship Program will assist us in increasing our undergraduate enrollment, retention, graduation ornear graduation of more baccalaureate degrees, and enhance employment in the USDA and strategic partners' workforce.Objective 2: To assess the scholarships' impacts on recruitment numbers and retention rateData will be collected each semester on enrollment numbers in the departments receiving the 1890 USDA/NIFA scholarshipfunds and statistically analyzed for significant differences each year. The data collected will include student enrollment,retention, degree attainment, and employment in the USDA and strategic partners' workforce. The variance in student enrollmentwill be recorded. The variance, retention, degree attainment, and employment in USDA will be treated as binomial variables andanalyzed with contingency tables [R Core Team (2019)]. Also, the measures for academic outcomes will extend to five yearsafter graduation as follow-up data. The data to evaluate the project will be analyzed by SUAREC Office of Planning andEvaluation (SOPE). At the end of the project's four-year period, summative evaluation will be conducted to determine the extentto which the project's objectives were achieved. SOPE researchers will analyze the data and make inferences about theproject's successes or failures. These researchers will develop an evaluation instrument that will capture institutional data suchas enrollment data, graduation rate, retention rate, and number of scholars working in the USDA and strategic partners'workplace. A survey instrument will be developed that will measure student's perception and viewpoints of their academicexperiences, program related activities, pre and post the academic years. The student responses for the pre and post years willbe statistically analyzed. The variables will be analyzed; the binomial variables with contingency tables, the Likert variables withthe package 'lkert' of R, the continuous variables with paired and non-paired t-tests (Bryer and Specrchneider, 2016).Objective 3: To determine the scholarships' impacts on students progressing, obtaining baccalaureate degrees, andemployment in the agricultural and natural resources workforceData also will be collected each semester on the full and partial scholarship recipients and their attainment of baccalaureatedegrees. Given that only 9% of SUBR students graduate in four years and only 26.9% graduate in six years, measureablevariables will include the following: (1) number and percentage of incoming high school and college/transfers scholars passinggateway courses in English, Mathematics, Biology, and Chemistry on the first attempt, (2) number of undergraduate scholarsgraduating in four, five, six, seven, and eight years, (3) number and percentage of scholars employed in a FAS and RF afterone, two, and three years post undergraduate graduation, and (4) number of scholars failing to maintain their scholarships. Thedata will be statistically analyzed and reported.