Progress 06/01/23 to 05/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:The NextGen Learning to Lead (L2L) Project focuses its efforts inthe Salinas Valley in Monterey County, California, Imperial County, California, and Yuma, Arizona. L2L supports pathways in four high-skill agricultural associate and baccalaureate degree programs leading to high growth occupations in which Latinx students and women are severely underrepresented. The four pathways are: Agriculture Plant Science; Agriculture Food Safety; Agriculture Business Management; and Industrial Automation/Mechatronics. The project is designed to support success of students at the project community colleges (Hartnell College andImperial Valley College) while building strong transfer pathways to project 4-year universities (CSU Monterey Bayand the University of Arizona, Yuma). All project institutions are Hispanic Serving Institutions. Target audience of main goals of L2L Outreach and engagement- high school students and community Recruitment-high school students, community, community college & university students Experiences to increase employability skills-high school students,community, community college & university students Activities to increase enrollment, retention, transfer, and degree completion-community college & university students Changes/Problems:Several factors impacted our L2L expenditures in year 1. Both community colleges have emergency scholarships to award designed to ensure students can maintain enrollment uninterrupted when faced with financial bumps. In year 1 we put in place award processes for these scholarships, but we look forward to year 2 when we can fully utilize these scholarships to support students. We had great connections with our high schools in year 1, but we are looking forward deepening engagement with more and earlier visits, tighter support of high school teachers, and increased work with FFA. Delays in hiring: support staff needed to be hired at all four L2L partner schools, a significant task. Delays occurred due to avariety of institution-specific issues and processes. In year 2 and ongoing, maintaining full staffing will be a priority. Regardless of staffing gaps in year 1, L2L is on track with goals, objectives, and outcomes. Unexpected outcomes For internships, our proposal called out a few specific types of internships. During our first year, we have found a new internship modality particularly effective. These internships are approximately 75 hours of work with a stipend of $1,200. This amount of time is flexible around a student's schedule, is long enough engage a topic in a meaningful way, and is a comfortable amount of time for new industry and government partners. Some examples are students working with local food banks, growing and/or distributing food, students studying to take their FAA Part 107 drone test with hands-on experience, and first-time USDA placements in the Imperial Valley area. As we enter our first full summer, we willcontinue to work to align, build and find internships and internship structures that meet allstudent needs, progressing from high school to career. The L2L project is heavy on student support, and ensuring effective communication with students can be challenging. Utilizing and evaluating the effectiveness of a variety of communication with students will be an on-going part of our program. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During year 1, Hartnell College and Imperial Valley College provided 65 internships and 34 other career development activities. Internships In year 1, Learning to Lead (L2L) placed students in 65 paid internships. IVC colonized new ground with their new Ag internship program, with many new partners and placements. Hartnell surpassed its first-year goal for internships by 280%. Placements included: USDA Agencies ((RD, NRCS, FSA, APHIS, ARS), ALBA (Ag & Land-Based Training Assn), Farm NG, Monterey and Imperial Food Banks, Bio Bee, Sabor Farms, Green Rubber, Rio Farms, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. Short Internship Modality- 75 hours: Of the 65 internships, 66% were quite short term. These internships are approximately 75 hours of work with a stipend of $1,200. We found this effective internship modality a bit by accident. The first NextGen summer was a bit truncated, but offering early internship opportunities was a key goal of our program. To bridge that gap, we quickly worked with an existing partner, ALBA, to place students in a 75-hour seed to harvest experience. Subsequently, we have used the 75-hour internship to build the new ag internship program at IVC, to place students at regional foodbanks, and to train students in drone skills. 75 hours is flexible around a student's schedule, long enough engage a topic in a meaningful way, and a comfortable amount of time to start off with for new industry and government partners.We have found this to be an effective length to teach a set of skills, provide hands-on learning, give context to academic learning, and develop confidence to pursue longer-term internships. A student described their 75-hour experience "The internship at the Foodbank of Monterey County allows students like myself to gain hands-on educational experience, teaches the value of community support, and cultivates meaningful relationships. I performed tasks essential to farm operations, including pre-harvesting duties, installing irrigation drip tape on raised row beds in preparation for planting, direct seeding and transplanting several crops. Throughout my internship, nourishing vegetables were successfully harvested, providing the warehouse with fresh produce inventory." Longer-term Internships: The remaining opportunities were more traditional 6-8 week, full-time experiences. Partners where we placed students include: Farm NG, Bio Bee, Sabor Farms, Green Rubber, Rio Farms, USDA FAS and APHIS. As we enter our first full summer, we willcontinue to work to align, build and find internships and internship structures that meet allstudent needs, progressing from high school to career. USDA-focused Highlight: Hartnell College launched a team of 5 to participate in the 2024 USDA Foreign Foreign Ag Service (FAS) Agriculture Export Market Challenge. They worked with one Hartnell and 2 FAS mentors on a case study and were recognized for a high level of interest. Subsequently, FAS reached out with an interest to bring one of the students on for a 10-week, full-time internship in the summer. After reviewing resumes of possible students, in the end 4 Hartnell students were offered 2024 summer internship opportunities with USDA-FAS. Career Development Activities A key anchor of the L2L program is the monthly participant meetings (15 held across colleges in year 1), with topics like internship preparation, transfer exploration, and industry speakers. One student identified an industry speaker as particularly important: "A specific moment/experience that has had a significant impact on me from the L2L program would be the seminar that was hosted by a Food Safety Specialist for Driscoll's company. This seminar introduced me to the career path of Food handling, Shipping, transportation, and everything else involved with providing safe-to-eat produce. This introduction made me interested in pursuing a career in this field." College to University events (11 in year 1) engage community college students with possible transfer campuses encouraging them to take this next step in their education. Industry tours and skills workshops (8 in year 1) provide students with information and role models toward their possible careers. Conferences and Summits Our students attended the ¡Adelante! Leadership Institute, a three-day event filled with presentations, workshops, luncheons, and a town hall meeting, part of the 2023 HACU Conference in Chicago. One of the students was sponsored by USDA-OPPE. They also had the opportunity to network with conference exhibitors and recruiters. This event is designed to enhance the career and leadership skills of undergraduate students. More than 700 students from across the U.S. and Puerto Rico participated. 6 HC and 3 IVC students attended the 2024 Spring NextGen Student Summit in Washington, DC. Students got deep exposure to structure and functioning of the USDA, networked with other NextGen students, and in all cases visited our national capital for the first time. A student reported the impact on the group as "We joined students from other schools that are part of the same scholarship program that funds L2L. Seeing the resources they invest in us to pursue careers in agriculture was truly impactful. The whole trip was incredibly bonding for us as students and it really motivated us to work harder and move forward." How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The L2L community colleges did extensive outreach in the first year of our grant. In the agricultural communities of the Salinas and Imperial Valleys, youth and other potential workers often are discouraged from considering agricultural careers when they see or experience the difficulties of working in the fields and processing facilities. Through our outreach and engagement activities, L2L is looking to provide a much broader view of high-wage, high-demand, high-skill careers in agriculture. In our first year, 4,726 high school students and community members were exposed to new career options in agriculture, new learning tools like internships, new educational paths including certificates, associate degrees, and transfer options. High School Outreach Across activities like college tours, open houses, and school visits, 3608 high school students learned about agriculture careers, opportunities in higher education, and the L2L grant. When possible, students were engaged in career-relevant, hands-on activities. A typical college tour at Hartnell College was a four-hour visit. Participants engaged with college faculty, staff, and students in 3-4 career-technical labs, including options like mechatronics, welding, diesel, and our simulation room where they could practice driving heavy-equipment like loaders and semi-trucks. The Agriculture/L2L session of the tour was designed to get participants to think about their personal career goals in the context of agriculture with discussion questions like "is ag a business?", "does ag need lawyers?" They then learned a bit about soil science and did a hands-on activity taking cores from a small candy bar as a model of soil cores. When surveyed, more than 90% of participants indicated they had learned about a new job in agriculture. Another highlight: Imperial Valley College hosted the 2024 Agri-STEM Field Day: Cultivating College and Career Readiness with the University of Arizona- Yuma. More than 200 regional students attended sessions like "AgriKOOLture- Ag is For You! In agriculture there is a career for everyone" and "Engineering and Technology- Come explore the crossroads where Agriculture and Engineering meet with exciting possibilities for the future". Community and adult populations We engaged 1118 community participants in opportunities like workshops, demonstrations, and event tabling to learn about educational pathways and ag careers. We tabled at local adult schools and gave campus tours for community organizations, like Young Farmer and Ranchers. As drones are becoming increasingly important for local agriculture, L2L helped support several 4- to 20-hour drone events where participants learned about local uses for drones, earned their certificate to fly for personal use, and got some hands-on flying time. Two of the participants have gone on to do an 8-week, half-time internship at a local company that uses drones to deliver beneficial insects, and 13 did a 75-hour internship where they learned about mission planning, date acquisition/mapping, and earned a certification that allows them to use drones for commercial use With these 4,726 total engagements, the Learning to Lead project exceeded its annual goal of 1000 outreach and engagements by 473%. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Year 2 be the first time our incoming community college cohorts will have access all of the planned project activities. With transfer of our first cohorts in the summer of 2024, in year 2 all four L2L partners will be engaged in supporting students. A through line across all institutions will be the monthly participant meetings. In the summer and fall, our external evaluator will work with the L2L evaluation team to complete a formative evaluation on the effectiveness of L2L to meet its year 1 goals. Upcoming work on main goals Outreach and engagement (high school and community). Year 1 had a larger than anticipated level of outreach and engagement, but most/all events and activities will carry into year 2. The yearly goal for outreach and engagement is 1000 per year. Recruitment to partner community colleges. We are currently recruiting incoming students for the 2024-25 academic year. We anticipate having at least a 10% increase of L2L students at both HC and IVC. Incoming L2L students will start their participation with the Learning to Lead Institute, a bridge-type activity designed to provide college success skills, career exposure, and networking/leadership skills. Participation in employability experiences (like internships) In year 2, we have a significant scale planned for the number of community college students placed in internships, with at least a 50% increase from year 1 to year 2. Additionally, summer 2024 will place students into transfer internships, where student intern at their transfer institution scaffolding the transition between institutions- 10 students have already been placed within the L2L pathway universities. Other summer placements are being finalized, with some particularly exciting opportunities gellingwith the USDA. Completion of certificates/degrees and transfer to a four-year program. By the end of the 2024-25 academic year, HC and IVC will have completers that have benefited from 2 years of L2L programming, such as career development activities and internships. For year 1, transfers tended to be within the region, either Hartnell to CSUMB or IVC to University of Arizona, Yuma. For year 2, we will look toward getting increased cross region transfers. Retentionwe will have our first retention data in year 2.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In Year 1 Learning to Lead (L2L) Project activities focused on building and supporting student pathways at the two project community colleges: Hartnell College (HC) and Imperial Valley College (IVC). Outreach and engagement (high school and community). The community colleges did extensive outreach in the first year of our grant. Through our outreach and engagement activities, 4,726 high school students and community members were exposed to new career options in agriculture, new learning tools like internships, new educational paths including certificates, associate degrees, and transfer options. Across activities like college tours, open houses, and school visits, 3608 high school students learned about agriculture careers, opportunities in higher education, and the L2L grant. When possible, students were engaged in career-relevant, hands-on activities. Through engagement opportunities like workshops, demonstrations, and event tabling, 1118 community members were engaged learning about educational pathways and ag careers. These 4,726 total engagements were 473% over our annual goal of 1000. Recruitment to Learning to Lead Program at the community colleges. For the 2023-24 academic year, we had 77 students in the Learning to Lead program at Hartnell College and 36 at Imperial Valley College. Students are in the following majors: 47% Ag Plant Science, 37% Ag Business, 10% Mechatronics. 94% are working an associate, while the remaining 6% are focusing on a certificate. In the words of 1st year student: "When I went to the first meeting introducing L2L, was a significant time for me. It was the first time I ever went to a college campus alone, fresh out of high school. I was extremely nervous but when I showed up I was able to feel comfortable with the campus and more prepared for school to start. That L2L meeting also made me excited for school, all the things we did and talked about helped me see that College wasn't scary but that it is just full of experiences, opportunities, and help." Improve student retention Student retention is being supported by a number of the components of the L2L program. We have monthly meetings to support cohort development and college connection. In year one, 77 students had access to peer mentors, who they meet with at least monthly to get a peer perspective on challenge, resource suggestions, and increase connection. The remaining 36 students were supported by a dedicated staff member, filling a similar role. One student reported, "The support from the L2L community has motivated me to strive for excellence. Overall, L2L has equipped me with the tools, connections, and confidence needed to succeed in my academic journey and future career in agriculture." As another retention tool, the L2L students at the community colleges are eligible to apply for emergency scholarships of up to $2,000. Though the financial amount may seem small, the stories we are hearing about the impact is significant. Student 1 was laid off from her job due to restaurant going out of business and she was worried this would force her to drop out of college. As a result of receiving an emergency scholarship, the student was able to finish her classes at IVC and complete an internship with UDSA APHIS at Calexico Border Crossing. For 2024-25, she will transfer to University of Arizona, Yuma to pursue her bachelor's degree with a $30,000 transfer internship. In another case an L2L staff was following up with student 2 when he disclosed he had lost his job, left school, moved out of the area, and was living in his car. He was unsure what would happen regarding his education as he had significant financial hardship. The student was advised to apply for an emergency scholarship and was approved. With the funds, he was able to return home and register for classes. Situations like these can divert students away from higher ed forever; these investments allowed the students to stay on their path. Participation in employability experiences (like internships) In year 1, Learning to Lead (L2L) placed students in 65 paid internships. IVC colonized new ground with their new Ag internship program, with many new partners and placements. Hartnell surpassed its first-year goal for internships by 280%. Placements included: USDA Agencies ((RD, NRCS, FSA, APHIS, ARS), ALBA (Ag & Land-Based Training Assn), Farm NG, Monterey and Imperial Food Banks, Bio Bee, Sabor Farms, Green Rubber, Rio Farms, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. As we enter our first full summer, we willcontinue to work to align, build and find internships and internship structures that meet allstudent needs, progressing from high school to career. Completion of certificates/degrees and transfer to a four-year program. We have 29 Learning to Lead students transferring from community college to university for Fall 2024. Continuing in the L2L pathways, 11 are transferring to CSU Monterey Bay and 7 to the University of Arizona, Yuma. Students who transfer to L2L-partner universities are eligible to apply for $30,000 to use to complete their bachelor's degrees, as well as an opportunity to participate in transfer internships the summer before their program starts. We look forward to data about degree-completion once the 2023-24 school year completes for both community colleges.
Publications
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