Recipient Organization
WALLA WALLA COMMUNITY COLLEGE INC
500 TAUSICK WAY
WALLA WALLA,WA 993629267
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
In the Walla Walla Agricultural Leadership project, we aim to learn more about how community colleges can comprehensively support an agricultural workforce to gain higher education, thereby lifting aspirant leaders into management-track agriculture jobs. It is vital that more Latinx and underrepresented groups opt in to agricultural leadership pathways, so that more agricultural leaders are Latinx or of another underrepresented population.In the proposed planning project, WWCC seeks to recruit more Latinx and underrepresented populations in its agriculture programs so that the department reflects the diverse community that is Walla Walla, but also so that the college graduates a higher proportion of Latinx and underrepresented students ready to take on higher-level management and supervisory positions in the agriculture industry. Through a redesign of its agricultural curriculum, more Latinx and underrepresented students will opt-in to higher education in agriculture, and be prepared to take on leadership roles in agriculture.
Animal Health Component
40%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
10%
Applied
40%
Developmental
50%
Goals / Objectives
Walla Walla Community College (WWCC), a recently-eligible NLGCA, seeks a Regular HSI Education grant. If not supported through the Regular grant program, WWCC would, as a first-time proposer, deeply appreciate being considered for a Regular Bridge grant. The planning project will increase WWCC's capacity to deliver high-quality agriculture education by investing in curriculum design and development to enhance agriculture and agri-business curriculum and programs to better support the needs of Latinx students.With a grant from NIFA's HSI Education Grants program, WWCC will develop a vanguard approach to agriculture education that will not only improve and enhance undergraduate curriculum and instruction at WWCC, but also provide a curriculum model from which other HSI IHEs can gain information and resources. This new course of study will be an inter-institutional collaboration that maximizes program quality, as well as an innovative approach to traditional subjects. The curriculum development project will be fully implemented and embedded at WWCC by the planning project's completion.WWCC's mission is to inspire all students to discover their potential and achieve their goals by providing relevant, equitable, and innovative learning opportunities and services. Located on approximately 130 acres, the main Walla Walla campus is a center for innovation, education, and training throughout the region (4 rural, SE Washington counties--Walla Walla, Columbia, Asotin, and Garfield--as well as bordering counties in Idaho and Oregon). Founded in 1967, WWCC prepares students with the necessary skills--especially historically underserved and first-generation college students--to enter the workforce.An open enrollment institution, WWCC provides pathways to family wage employment for non-traditional students: of WWCC's total students, 54% are first-generation college aspirants and 43% of them are historically underrepresented students of color (the largest subgroup among them being Latinx, at 27%). The proposed project will also better position for WWCC to engage in its role as an emergent HSI. 61% are female, 27% have children; 6% report a disability, and 61% receive need-based financial aid. Tuition is designed to be accessible: $4,850 for full-time study per year (its core investments per FT student, however, exceeds 15K). Overall, WWCC currently serves 7,531 students, 3,953 of whom are FTEs.In addition to providing courses in and through its main campus in Walla Walla, and its branch campus in Clarkston (98 miles to the northeast), WWCC also provides courses for 2,300+ in the justice system at the Washington State Penitentiary and at the Coyote Ridge Corrections Center. Local and regional high school students also enroll in WWCC courses for dual credit. In addition, WWCC provides distance education--even prior to the pandemic--for students in extremely rural areas. WWCC recognizes its unique role in supporting students who otherwise might not have access to higher ed or workforce training, and it continually seeks ways to build equitable pathways to earn a higher education credential.Among its other academic and workforce training, WWCC offers degree and certificate programs in agriculture. It offers coursework in agriculture business, agriculture science, agriculture systems, agriculture technology, animal science, enology and viticulture, integrated agricultural systems, irrigation business management, plant and soil science, and turf management.WWCC has served 25+% Latinx students since at least 2019; in 2021, 27% of WWCC's students are Latinx. That is welcome news for the college, because it has committed to serving Walla Walla's diverse communities since its founding. At the same time, WWCC observes that enrollment in certain departments at the college are not evolving in the same way as others. While WWCC's Nursing program (the largest Nursing program among all of Washington state's community colleges) now feature 41% Latinx students, the agriculture programs have not evolved in a similar way (70+% of agriculture students are white males). Because WWCC seeks to pursue equity across its programs, and it recognizes that imbalances exist, WWCC would like to secure planning funding in order to review questions of equity among its Agriculture programs, redesign and augment its course and curriculum offerings, and making these programs more inclusive so as to recruit and retain more underrepresented students in Agriculture and Agriculture Business studies. Through the establishment of an equity-driven Walla Walla Agricultural Leadership project, WWCC believes that the proposed project will be a novel and significant boost to reach a broad and diverse group of potential agriculture innovators.The Walla Walla Agricultural Leadership project will address USDA NIFA HSI priority need areas--such as 1. Curricula Design/Degree Programs and 6. Student Recruitment and Retention--and would attract and support undergraduates from underrepresented groups, especially Latinx students, to prepare them for careers related to agriculture and natural resources systems and sciences. This project would also enhance the quality of postsecondary instruction, and it will provide opportunities and access to agriculture careers in the public and private sector. By preparing a diverse workforce to enter agriculture and agriculture business, WWCC connects students to jobs that also positively impacts the region.By creating the Walla Walla Agricultural Leadership project, WWCC will also be able to graduate more Latinx students who have specific acumen and skills in the following Mission Critical Occupations: Forestry Technician; General Biological Scientists; Biological Science Technician; Soil Conservation Specialist; Soil Conservation Technician; Forestry Specialist; Soil Science Specialist; General (Ag) Business and Industry; and Agricultural Commodity Grader. Graduates of certificate and degree programs will be ready to take on good jobs in other Agriculture and Agri-Business fields, as well.Barriers to agriculture as a viable wage option is a challenge for farm laborers and for aspirant farmers. These challenges also have related equity gaps. Nationally, farm laborers are 57% Latinx; however, only 24% of all farm managers, inspectors, and supervisors are Latinx. WWCC believes that it can address this gap by recruiting and retaining Latinx agricultural students to prepare them to take on management, supervisory, and leadership roles in the industry by meeting them where they are, and providing meaningful and thoughtfully structured curriculum and content. WWCC's Walla Walla Agricultural Leadership project will complement WWCC's agricultural and agri-business curriculum and enhance it so that it is more inclusive, responsive, and inviting for more Latinx students. WWCC's core values--integrity, a sense of community, teamwork, diversity, innovation, health and humor, personal and professional growth, excellence, and sustainability--along with its commitment to and track record in agricultural education are uniquely suited to address these barriers and challenges. The chief outcome of the Walla Walla Agricultural Leadership project will be that graduates of the program will take on more management-track agricultural jobs.
Project Methods
The methodology for this project will be an inquiry-based approach to understanding what strategies WWCC might take so that it can recruit more Latinx and other underrepresented populations in its agriculture programs.Launch listening phase and solidify core elements related to inclusion and belonging. Host listening sessions at WWCC for Latinx and underrepresented agricultural workers and stakeholders and engage regional employers for localized conversations with Latinx and underrepresented agricultural workers. Research assistants will document and record data. Key core elements will emerge. These core elements will be articulated as central values for the new program.Assess listening and survey data. Identify areas of convergence, and rank key findings.Assess existing agricultural coursework and identify where the listening/survey data can improve course content, curriculum, or approaches. Through observation protocols, syllabi reviews, interviews with faculty, students, and alumni, the research team will identify areas of convergence.Conduct a landscape scan of agriculture programs at community colleges that are also HSI's. This will involve a landscape scan conducted by research assistants. A standardized system (matrix) for comprehending core elements of these other initiatives will be developed, as well as an interview protocol. After identifying an initial set (~10-15) of initiatives that exemplify WWCC's aspirations, interviews will be conducted to gain deeper awareness and understanding of each initiative's elements and features. Following the interviews, the research assistants will identify a smaller subset of these to conduct site visits and gain a deeper understanding of these best-in-class programs and initiatives.Outline new courses. As part of the landscape scan, the team will identify inspiring courses and certifications that are being taught in other IHEs. With these, as well as the list of stackable certifications, the Project Director will identify a first set of courses to offer at WWCC. Curriculum developers will establish a set of learning goals and objectives to be met with the new curriculum. New curriculum, content, and strategies will be developed.Gain feedback. Solicit feedback from local/regional stakeholders, from the community colleges participating in the landscape scan, as well as national leaders in equity and inclusion in agriculture. Whenever possible, re-connect with first groups and gain their feedback concerning areas of improvement and areas that still require refinement. As needed, incorporate feedback to further refine content, curriculum, and/or approaches.Propose new courses and certificate programs (specializations) to be adopted by WWCC. The Project Director will propose these new courses and secure approval.Develop new courses. Curriculum developers and WWCC subject matter experts will develop the new courses by designing detailed syllabi and lesson plans for each, including teaching strategies and learning objectives. The Project Director will refine these syllabi by gaining feedback from those who were part of the landscape scan/interview process.Recruit students. After gaining approval for the new series of courses, the Project Director will liaise with the college's admissions and marketing departments to begin recruiting students. Alumni, local small producers, and larger agricultural companies (for example, Broetje Orchards, the county's largest agricultural producer/employer) will also be a resource for recruiting students. An increased number of partial to full scholarships will be made available as a way of incentivizing participation in the new program.Implement courses. The program will launch, recruiting students for its 1st cohort in Y3.Evaluation. Biweekly team meetings will address emergent issues and questions, calibrating as needed to ensure project success. Throughout the semester, observations will take place. Following the conclusion of each quarter, student and faculty surveys will assess program impact and import, as well as areas for further improvement. Survey findings will be shared among the project team, with suggestions for refinement.WWCC has an evaluation team that is well poised to prepare and present an evaluation of the project's success. This team is led by Dr. Nicholas Velluzzi, Vice President for Enrollment Services and Institutional Effectiveness. The evaluation team will collect output as well as outcome data as part of its evaluation process. Output data will include numbers of students / alumni participating in the program, number of faculty and staff engaged in the program, and other stakeholders participating in the program. Metrics will include the increases (numbers and percentages) of underrepresented participating students and faculty, the number of new courses and pathways developed, and the number of new strategies (e.g., flipped classroom) employed in the curriculum redesign. A detailed student count by Classification of Instructional Program codes will be included in all evaluations.The evaluation team will also evaluate outcome data by conducting a multi-modal evaluation that will include observations and observation protocols; student satisfaction surveys; faculty surveys; community stakeholder surveys; and alumni surveys. Student and alumni surveys will assess content acquisition as well as skills built during individual courses as well as the degree (or certification) overall. Student and alumni survey instruments will also determine the extent to which the new curriculum has been beneficial in terms of improving their workforce options and their relative competitiveness in the job market compared to other alumni who have not had this additional curriculum.Faculty surveys will assess program satisfaction as well as their reflections on the relative efficacy and import of the program. Stakeholder surveys will assess perceptions of program value to them as small producers and agriculture stakeholders adjacent to WWCC. The evaluation team will also review the curriculum developed during the course of this project and benchmark it against existing curriculum, as well as curriculum developed by peer institutions. A peer review may also be conducted. Finally, a cost analysis will be conducted, to determine project/program effectiveness and efficiency.Activities will be evaluated in multiple ways. Outputs will be tracked via a Gantt tracking tool (shared below), to ensure that the project is progressing in accordance with the proposed timeline; it will be used as a project management and tracking tool. This Gantt chart will facilitate objective, clear reporting against desired activities. Each high level task has subtasks, also articulated below. The Gantt chart will be filled in at bimonthly meetings to monitor and evaluate progress against desired outcomes.Outcomes will be evaluated across a variety of modes, including surveys, observation protocols, as well as peer review/feedback loops. In the evaluation plan section, below, program evaluation is outlined in detail. Survey data will be collected via Surveymonkey or Qualtrics, to maintain objectivity. Data will be presented in Excel format, Powerpoint, or Tableau, as appropriate. Observations will be conducted by multiple research assistants, to ensure consistency. All data related to the project will be restricted to project team and evaluators and will be covered by a project-specific confidentiality agreement, so that privacy is sustained. Any hard copies of data will be retained by the project team or evaluators in locked cabinets; passwords to online resources will be changed every sixty days.