Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The Barry University CRAFT Scholars program (Cultivating Resilience through Agriculture and Food Training) will recruit, retain, and train a diverse group of Barry University undergraduates that will be well-equipped to enter the USDA workforce. The project goals align with those of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) USDA NextGen Program, including targeted recruiting of diverse and low-income students, academic and social supports throughout college, increased awareness of food and agriculture career opportunities, access to summer experiences that build research and extension skills across the food and agriculture system, and creating lasting connections and student pathways between a smaller, urban, undergraduate university and a large agriculture-oriented institution. The complex issues surrounding food production, distribution, natural resource management, food safety, and economic concerns in American communities require that educational institutions attract, recruit, train and retain students from diverse ethnic & socioeconomic backgrounds from both urban and rural areas. However, at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) like Barry, there is limited awareness of agricultural careers and their relevance to undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds. To increase the number of students entering graduate programs in agriculture and improve awareness about careers in agricultural and food sciences, Barry University will partner with the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS), and with Urban GreenWorks (UGW), a Miami-based nonprofit focused on food-systems solutions to human and community health. UGW will provide a 15-week local, experiential learning project that shows participants first-hand the environmental and health-related impacts of our changing food system on their own communities. Coupled with strong faculty and peer mentoring components, the CRAFT Scholars program provides thirty (30) undergraduate and five (5) graduate scholarships, a seminar series, field trips to USDA sites and UF, twenty (20) paid summer internships and study abroad opportunities. Student experiences increase induration and intensity as students progress through their undergraduate careers, to address family hesitancy about studying away from home. The partnership between Barry, an HSI, and UF/IFAS, a large land-grant institution and national leader in agricultural research, builds on each institution's complementary strengths and supports reciprocal professional development where Barry faculty will learn about USDA-related career opportunities, internships, and research taking place at UF, while UF/IFAS faculty will learn how best to recruit mentor, and support students from diverse backgrounds to enter careers in Food, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Human Sciences (FANH).
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
CRAFT Scholars will contribute to an engaged, diverse, and talented agricultural workforce by increasing recruitment, retention, and completion rates of undergraduates in FANH allied degrees, building awareness of agriculture-related careers for scholars and faculty advisors, creating pathways into graduate school and the future USDA workforce, and providing agriculture-related experiential learning at every level of the undergraduate degree.Specific target objectives:1) Recruit and award 30 scholarships to a diverse population of students from urban, HMLI backgrounds into FANH allied undergraduate majors at Barry. Recruit 5 students into Master's programs at UF, and award graduate fellowships. Aligns with NextGen Priorities 1 & 10.2) Increase retention and sense of belonging for scholars with academic and social support through the CRAFT Scholars Learning Community (CRAFT-LC) and a project in planetary and local food systems. Aligns with NextGen Priorities 1, 2, 4 & 83) Increase awareness of FANH career opportunities through a seminar series featuring UF researchers and USDA personnel, Spring Break cohort trips to USDA offices in Washington, DC, and training faculty mentors and advisors. Aligns with NextGen Priorities 3 & 64) Build research and extension skills across the food and agriculture system through access to intensive summer experiences for scholars and other Barry students: in the first summer - a 12-day ASCEND (Advancing Skills, Competency, Experience, Networks and Dialog) Career program; in the second summer - UF agriculture courses and study-abroad opportunities; and in the third summer - paid research internships at UF. Aligns with NextGen Priorities 2, 3 & 45) Create lasting connections between Barry, a mid-size, diverse, urban, minority-serving, primarily undergraduate institution (PUI) and UF, a large, R1, land-grant university, through reciprocal faculty development workshops. Aligns with NextGen Priorities 6 & 10
Project Methods
Undergraduate CRAFT Scholars will be selected and supported by scholarships for 4 years. Scholars must be US citizens, nationals, or legal permanent residents, express interest in FANH or related discipline, have HS GPA of 3.0 or higher, and have unmet need by FA and FASFA. A HS teacher letter and a video or essay responding to prompts about background strengths & career goals are required. Cohort 1, 10 scholars from students accepted into eligible majors at BU will be invited to apply. Cohort 2 (20 students) recruiting begins F23 with outreach to Title I HS in Miami-Dade.Scholars participate in a Learning Community (LC) with faculty and peer mentors. In Y1, scholars learn about campus resources, and must participate in one-day field trips to local research sites, and a planetary and local food systems project. The Urban GreenWorks partnership provides scholars with a 15 wk. experiential learning project on Planetary and Local Food Systems. Here, scholars learn about global and environmental impacts on our changing food system and experience these impacts in South Florida and in local communities. During Spring Break of each cohort's 1st year, scholars travel to Washington, DC to visit USDA offices and other sites.Faculty mentors will use "intrusive advising", soliciting early warnings for low grades, missed classes or incomplete work from course instructors, and develop individualized plans for time and work management with struggling students to ensure continued eligibility. Peer mentors will be hired for the one-week scholar orientation (Cohort 2) and for each cohort's first 2 academic years. Peer mentors will learn background-specific strengths-based framework, meet bi-weekly with scholars and have ongoing guidance from the Faculty Mentors. They will help plan, suggest events, and attend field trips, LC meetings, seminars, the planetary and local food systems project, and the Spring break cohort trip with scholars. They will ensure their mentees are attending events and help faculty mentors track attendance.Twice per semester, researchers from UF or USDA will give seminars at BU and meet with students and faculty to provide information about research/internship opportunities. Seminars expose students and faculty to new research areas, technologies and programs supported by the USDA and to current UF/IFAS faculty research. Scholars are encouraged to attend the seminar series and to take part in experiential opportunities.In each cohort's 2nd summer, BU students may apply to UF as non-degree students and enroll in approved online courses in agriculturally related academic areas. Courses will count as electives and in-state tuition will be covered. A BU faculty mentor will enroll and take select courses with students, to enhance the sense of community and reduce apprehension of interacting with unfamiliar instructors. The courses will enrich BU students' degrees and enable them to gain knowledge in FANH areas. Alternatively, students can choose among the 30 UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences faculty led study abroad programs. Tuition, lodging, and travel expenses are budgeted for 10 students.In each cohort's 3rd summer, UF will provide 10, 8 wk. research internship placements.In the project's 1st summer, BU faculty will travel to UF for 1 week to learn about USDA-related career opportunities, internships, and research at UF. In the 2nd summer, UF faculty will travel to BU to learn about our campus and our students and to attend workshops on mentoring students from low-income backgrounds.Formative evaluation using quantitative and qualitative measures will generate data on project objectives, outcomes, and program administration achievements.1. Foster and increase participation of students from diverse backgrounds in FANH programs through strategic recruitment and selection processes (students). Quantitative data on students through online tracking and online forms.Informational sessions; min 5 per yearStudents attending sessions; min 20 per sessionScholarships awarded -target 10, Y1; 20, Y2Participants from low-income households -target 80%Female student participants -min ½ of total (T)First-generation participants -min ½ TParticipants identifying as African American -min 1/3 TParticipants identifying as Hispanic, Latino/a, or Latinx -min ½.TStudents residing in urban areas.2. Increase student participants' sense of belonging and social support through active group, peer, and individualized mentoring (student & faculty mentor). Mixed methods-quantitative and qualitative such as Pre/Post surveys and Interviews of students and FacultyStudents in the CRAFT Scholars program -target 30Completion rate, Percentage of students who complete the CRAFT Scholars program -target 4-yr completion rate 60%Change in perceived social support scores via a modified version of the social support instrument in Hirschi et al. (2011) -improved scores above baselineChange in reported sense of belonging measures adapted from Kember and Leung (2010) and Hoffman et al. (2002). -Improved scores above baseline3. Increase knowledge and awareness related to postgraduate programs and careers in Food and Agricultural Sciences for participating students and faculty (students, faculty mentors and other participating faculty). Mixed methods-quantitative and qualitative information such as Pre/Post surveys and Interviews of students and faculty mentors and other participating faculty.Participants' change in knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy related to graduate study, STEM programs, and careers in Food and Agricultural sciences. Instruments will be adapted from Likert-type items in Kitchen, Sonnert, and Sadler (2018) & Watts et al. (2019). Open-ended questions from Zhang and Barnett (2015) will be adapted to qualitatively assess knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy changes; target-Improved scores above baseline.4. Increase participants' research and leadership skills and intercultural competence (students and faculty mentors). Mixed methods-quantitative and qualitative information such as Pre/Post surveys and interviews of students, faculty mentors.Change in perceived development of research knowledge and skills scores (Measured via a set of adapted instruments: the Undergraduate Research Student Self-Assessment (Weston & Laursen, 2015), the Views About Science Survey (Halloun, 1998), the Survey of Undergraduate Research Experiences (Lopatto, 2004), the Classroom Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) Survey (Lopatto & Tobias, 2010), and research readiness self-assessment (Ivanitskaya et al., 2004). target-Improved scores above baseline.Change in leadership development and employability scores. Kouzes and Posner's (2003)Leadership Practices Inventory will be used to assess student participants' leadership development. The Dispositional Measure of Employability (DME) by Fugate and Kinicki (2008) will evaluate students' adaptation to work and career environments. Murray et al. (2018) and informed the selection of these measures. target-Improved scores above baseline.5. Increase institutional relationships and collaborations between BU and UF. (students and participating faculty) Mixed methods-quantitative and qualitativeAcademic outputs co-authored by faculty, students, and staff from BU and UF -min 2 manuscripts; conferences min 1 per year for BU-UF collaborating facultyGuest lectures/presentations/training delivered by BU faculty and staff at UF -target: 2 per yearGuest lectures/presentations/training delivered by UF faculty and staff at BU -target: 2 per semesterFaculty, students, and staff who participate in organized exchange activities between BU and UF. -targets:10 BU faculty travel to UF; 10 UF faculty travel to Barry; 30 BU students take part in at least 1 summer extension activity; 5 BU students enter Master's program at UF