Source: SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
BUILDING A BRIDGE: DEEPENING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY AND OUR HISPANIC COMMUNITIES
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1031412
Grant No.
2023-77040-41145
Cumulative Award Amt.
$199,370.00
Proposal No.
2023-04480
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 15, 2023
Project End Date
Sep 14, 2027
Grant Year
2023
Program Code
[NJ]- Hispanic Serving Institutions Education Grants Program
Recipient Organization
SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
HUNTSVILLE,TX 77341
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The SHSU project team will develop strategic linkages with the Houston Hispanic community; bolster Hispanic student recruitment in the School of Agricultural Sciences and deliver transformative learning experiences to enhance students' agricultural literacy. We will host Agricultural Awareness/College Preparation Summer Camps, Ag-Celerate Experiential Learning Events, and conduct high school visits--impacting 500+ Hispanic secondary students over a four-year period. These events will include experiential-based seminars in various agricultural contexts along with seminars focused on college preparation. This project will serve to bolster our ability to recruit Hispanic students and understand the needs, perceived barriers, and aspirations of these underrepresented students.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
0%
Developmental
0%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
80660993020100%
Knowledge Area
806 - Youth Development;

Subject Of Investigation
6099 - People and communities, general/other;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;
Goals / Objectives
The goal of this project is to build the capacity of the SHSU School of Agricultural Sciences to better recruit and serve Hispanic students. To accomplish this goal, we have three main objectives:Objective 1: Develop strategic linkages with the Hispanic community in our major recruiting base areas (i.e., Houston).Objective 2: Bolster the recruitment of Hispanic students in the School of Agricultural Sciences.Objective 3: Develop & deliver transformative learning experiences to enhance students' agricultural literacy.
Project Methods
To accomplish the first objective, the research team will first seek to determine the motivations and barriers to Hispanic students pursuing degrees in agricultural sciences. This will be facilitated by a two-pronged approach. First, we will conduct a qualitative case study to determine Hispanic students' aspirations or barriers to pursuing agricultural degrees.For objective two, we will purposively recruit Hispanic students to the SHSU School of Agricultural Sciences through multiple engagements with the students. The experiential events (i.e., AACP summer camps and Ag-Celerate events) we will host as part of this project will serve as recruitment events for Hispanic students.To accomplish objective three, we will host three AACP summer camps and we will host a one-day agricultural degree exploration workshop each fall of the project. Aside from the planned on-campus events (i.e., summer camps and workshops), we will also recruit students by sending out our SHSU Agricultural Ambassadors to visit schools in the Houston area.Dr. Victoria will conduct both formative and summative evaluations. In the formative part of the evaluation, Dr. Victoria will interact with the student participants and the faculty involved in developing hands-on experiential learning activities and help the project team to fine-tune camps and experiential learning activities. Dr. Victoria will develop and administer a survey instrument to measure the participant satisfaction with various sessions of the camp along with their opinions on possible improvements to the future camps. The evaluator will participate in the annual project meetings to assess the progress made in last year and to plan for the upcoming year. The evaluator will use the participant survey results along with the discussions with other stakeholders (faculty, high school teachers, parents of participants, Ag Ambassadors) to identify any weaknesses in the first camp and will suggest specific improvements for the camps in years 3 and 4.?

Progress 09/15/23 to 09/14/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience for these events is Hispanic students involved in AFNR at Houston Area High Schools. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?For the AgCelerate@SAM event, we offered professional development expeirences for high school students in various context of Agricultural Sciences. Specifically the following professional development sessions were held at the event held in November of 2023: The following sessions were provided: Ag Business Session -The industry expects teamwork. Participate in team-building exercises, then understand why trade matters through a simulation game. Ag Communications Session - Learn to interview and advocate for agriculture. Ag Engineering Technology Session - Use Torchmate CAD software and CNC plasma table to design, draw, and cut take-home metal art. Use power tools to design and cut a state of Texas from plywood and then brand with SH logo. Animal Science Session - Hands-on activities with Digestive System of Ruminants and Equine Reproduction: Semen Evaluation. Plant & Soil Sciences Session- Explore fertilizer technology and use and plant propagation techniques. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, we plan to accomplish the following items to further the goals and objectives of our grant project. Develop spanish based recruitment materials. Host another AgCelerate@SAM event in November of 2024. Host Saturday@SAM events in the Fall and Spring semesters. Host an experiential learningevent in the Summer of 2024.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? While the first year was mostly used to plan future events in the second year of the project period, we did make steps towards the enhanced recuritment of Hispanic students in the SHSU School of Agricutlural Sciences. The AgCelerate@SAM Event, held in November 2023, served as a recruitment event and an agricugltural literacy event (serving to address Objectives 2 and 3 of this grant project). This event allowed for 130 students to visit our campus and meet with the faculty members from the School of Agricultural Sciences. The grant activities in year 2 will serve to address the first objective of this project, while further enhancing our ability to bolster recruitment and provide further transormative learning experiences.

Publications