Performing Department
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Non Technical Summary
Our project "Development of Enhanced Education and Training (DEET) in FANH" brings together two 1994 Land Grant colleges to build sustainable educational and experiential systems on preparing Tribal College students to enter into the agricultural and STEM workforces. Using Student Scholarships (SSP), Experiential Learning (ELP), and Outreach and Engagement (OEP) activities our proposal offers holistic support to students to successfully achieve both academic and career goals. Our Tier II proposal brings Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College (PI Courtney Kowalczak), Leech Lake Tribal College (Co-PI Melinda Neville), as well as USDA focused internship partnerships with USDA APHIS, and the American Indian College Fund. Our goals are to:Build institutional capacity at FDLTCC and LLTC through the DEET partnership by leveraging existing programs for student access to FANH-related courses and opportunitiesSupport students throughout their educational journey with academic and financial assistance with access to mentoring, peer-to-peer learning, and scholarshipsProvide experiential learning opportunities for youth, college students, and community to explore FANH disciplines through field trips, research projects, internships, and camps.Increase student interest in food and agriculture careers through community outreach, career counseling, direct recruiting, and professional developmentThe DEET project will result in greater capacity to deliver FANH classes and activities at the TCUs, increased student retention and matriculation rates, stronger partnerships with UDSA and project collaborators, increased capacity for outreach and experiential learning opportunities, and as a result, more students prepared for and interested in careers with the USDA.
Animal Health Component
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Research Effort Categories
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Goals / Objectives
Located in Northern Minnesota, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College (FDLTCC) and Leech Lake Tribal College (LLTC) have served their Anishinaabe communities by providing higher education opportunities based in Indigenous values. Chartered by their respective Bands, FDLTCC and LLTC fulfill the land grant mission through teaching, research, and service with an emphasis on environmental sustainability. This proposed partnership,Development ofEnhancedEducation andTraining (DEET) in FANH, leverages our unique program strengths at each campus to increase student interest, access and success in future FANH careers.Our goals are to:Build institutional capacity at FDLTCC and LLTC through the DEET partnership by leveraging existing programs for student access to FANH-related courses and opportunitiesSupport students throughout their educational journey with academic and financial assistance with access to mentoring, peer-to-peer learning, and scholarshipsProvide experiential learning opportunities for youth, college students, and community to explore FANH disciplines through field trips, research projects, internships, and camps.Increase student interest in food and agriculture careers through community outreach, career counseling, direct recruiting, and professional developmentFor Tribal communities, higher education provides the opportunity to continue to build strong Nations. Not only does the attainment of higher education provide for a more skilled workforce, but it also enriches Tribal economies with entrepreneurs, job creation, and economic development in Indian Country. More specifically, Tribal Colleges provide Native identity affirming learning environments, rooted in Indigenous ways of thought, language, and culture that serve their communities. Tribal Colleges contribute to Nation building and these investments in higher education serve both socioeconomic and cultural interests of their (NCAI, 2012)."
Project Methods
Goal 1: Building Institutional CapacityWith new programs, both LLTC and FDLTCC seek to strengthen and build upon the current momentum. For this goal, we seek to formalize both policy and methodology for course sharing and dual enrollment. In our first year, we will identify a subset of courses that are well adapted to distance delivery to begin the exchange. We will offer the first shared course at the beginning of Year 2 and provide enough courses that LLTC students could enroll in an Environmental Sustainability Certificate based onFDLTCC's programby Year 3.To expand our FANH course offerings and maintain our accreditation, some faculty will enroll in graduate-level courses. Our project will support faculty to teach and innovate in our SUST and ISCI courses for the next five years. Supporting faculty will allow our Tribal colleges to build up our programs through scholarships, recruitment, and retention of students without the strain of continuously securing adjunct faculty to teach these new courses.Goal 2: Supporting Student AchievementOur proposal creates a net of support for our Tribal college students at several touch points to ensure success as they pursue either higher degrees or STEM careers. To address student identified barriers and implement best practices for academic and career success, we propose a series of proactive steps.Scholarships:The array of challenges awaiting lower-income or first-generation students and other historically under-served Native American students are pervasive and generational. Each Tribal college will offer scholarships that ease the burden of attending college. These scholarships will target students that enroll in Sustainability and Indigenous Science coursesCollege Preparation:We work towards the constant improvement of curricula and programs at our colleges. FDLTCC and LLTC will work together to host workshops, presentations, and tours that will help DEET students prepare for the challenges they will face at a 4-year university. College Prep week will feature presentations from financial aid staff from regional colleges and universities. Students will receive help with their FAFSA and applying for scholarships and financial aid.Mentorship:Role models and mentors influence students' decisions to pursue science careers and mentoring relationships help students develop the personal skills necessary to navigate the social interactions in their careers and increase their sense of competence and self-sufficiency (Armstrong et al., 2007; Adams et al., 2016). Our project offers mentorship at many levels, starting with multigenerational learning during summer programming for youth, DEET students in the local high schools, TCU graduates mentoring current TCU students, and we are offering a graduate fellowship with an active role in mentoring upcoming students.Goal 3: Experiential LearningDEET will use experiential learning to create a pathway from youth to college students with hands-on experiences that encourage Native American students to consider a career in FANH disciplines.Multigenerational Informal Education:Using the connecting thread of harvest, both in the sense of food sovereignty and traditional cultural events, we will ground youth in community and skills that build resiliency (Fig. 2). The foundation of programming is cultural connection, youth engagement, cultural events, youth mentorship, and leadership all built around a holistic understanding of harvest. Using seasonal harvest of traditional foods as well as organic agricultural production students will gain skills, knowledge, and connection through the understanding of food sovereignty. Our programming will connect our youth to regional food system experts as well as USDA professionals. Continuing our partnerships with USDA APHIS, NRCS, and SARE, we will create a network of state and federal agricultural staff that widens the youth's ideas of career opportunities in the USDA. By grounding our programming in food sovereignty, we are hoping for an increase in participation in traditional food harvest, growing and consumption of fresh, local foods, and participation in traditional seasonal activities. FDLTCC brings a successful model of multigenerational learning to the DEET partnership from which LLTC will learn and grow through student and staff exchange opportunities. The goal is to offer multigenerational programming at LLTC by Year 3 of the DEET project.Experiential Projects:Undergraduates who engage in faculty-mentored research experiences are significantly more likely to graduate with STEM baccalaureate and graduate degrees, and engage in STEM-related careers (Hernandez et al., 2018). We will expand our capacity through DEET by developing meaningful internships through relationship building and modeling mentorship best practices for new partnerships.LLTC and FDLTCC summer research program supports TCU students for 10-14 week full time research internships working with Tribal, State and Federal agencies on local natural resource research and restoration.The LLBO Reservation is co-located with the Chippewa National Forest; our USDA partnerships have primarily been with the US Forest Service.FDLTCC, through our USDA Area of Expertise grant, has developed a model of student research that builds both regional mentors through partner research institutions and peer to peer mentorship. As our students move through our research program, they build leadership skills, take on responsibility for the projects, and support new students entering the program.Internships:Through our program, we offer internships that build important mentorship relationships and tiers of experience that build skills and confidence in students so that they can be successful in FANH careers. A barrier to successful internships for Native American students has been a lack of understanding between agency and student. The DEET program will support students and agencies to foster successful experiences and create opportunities on both sides of the equation. The TCUs will provide guidance to agencies on how to attract and retain Native American students at their institutions, and how to support interns when a lack of reliable transportation, responsibility for family care, need for ceremony, or financial constraints become issues. Interns are supported by TCU mentorship, problem-solving, and advocacy.Goal 4: FANH CareersUSDA APHIS will partner with FDLTCC and LLTC to create a job shadowing internship. This internship will be tailored to meet our student needs by being close to home, flexible length, and based on a relationship built between the APHIS staff and our colleges. The American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) is acting as an internship liaison between NRCS and TCUs. AIHEC is working on internship best practices for tribal college students. Our project will take advantage of this relationship building and place our students with NRCS opportunities. AIHEC has also created a long distance internship model, Climate Resilience Research program, which includes leadership building, Peer to Peer Mentoring, and guided professional development. We will be working with AIHEC to learn this model with the intention of building a similar model among other TCUs.Our College Prep and Leadership series will bring in USDA professionals to speak about their careers and academic paths. Our research projects will have our students working directly with both USDA and other FANH staff. Our internship projects will bring students into USDA agencies to get direct career experiences. DEET students will gain skills, knowledge, and a network of mentors that encourage pursuit of careers in USDA and FANH.