Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/17
Outputs Target Audience:START NOW implements key practices that enable first generation Hispanic undergraduates to succeed, including hands-on research training, exposure to a broad range of disciplines and subjects, mentoring supports, the opportunity to do real science and real work through a plant and soil-based international experience synergizing the unique strengths of each participating institution, the direct interaction of students with USDA employees in research, professional, and competitive contexts, research-based experiential learning, and preparation for professional certification in the plant and soil sciences. The START NOW program understands the issues of underrepresented students (personal and/or family financial needs, adjustments during the first year of college, lack of connection between academic coursework and potential careers; lack of advancement to graduate degrees) and has mitigated obstacles by: 1 organizing an alliance of four institutions that have proven experience to successfully lead collaborative HSI grant projects; 2. encouraging creativity and interdisciplinary problem solving among students and faculty so that underrepresented students can see themselves as having an important role to play in addressing agricultural challenges in the future; 3. paying stipends for internships and research activities; and 4. providing mentors (institutional and USDA) who encourage students to challenge themselves to achieve past their personal expectations. As can be seen from the documented accomplishments of the first year, experiential learning opportunities and the multiple career and educational supports of this grant have allowed 26 underrepresented students from South Texas, many of whom come from situations of severe socioeconomic challenges, to take advantage of this program to increase their academic and career success. Ninety-two percent (92%) of the 21 B.S. students, four M.S. students, and one Ph.D. student are bilingual (English and Spanish), which, in turn, will greatly assist USDA in its services to agricultural producers. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?START NOW supports hands-on research training for students across a wide range of the agricultural sciences. Through this training opportunity, students are beginning to understand what USDA employees do in their careers, and the summer interns and researchers have returned to classes with a new vision and can better see themselves as future employees of the USDA. Majors being pursued include, among others, Plant and Soil Sciences, Agricultural Science, Animal Sciences, Engineering (Civil and Industrial), Biology, and Environmental Sciences. Having access and opportunity to engage in research and career training experiences allowed these HSI students, mostly first-generation college attendees, to enhance their acquisition of needed skills that will be required to replace a retiring USDA workforce while also increasing USDA employee diversity. Jonah Trevino attended the Soil Judging Competition in Ruidoso, New Mexico, in October 2016 with faculty advisors Dr. David Ruppert and Dr. Shad Nelson. From June 19 through July 2, 2017, the START NOW project supported 12 undergraduate students and 9 faculty members in traveling to the Soltis Center for Research and Education in San Isidro, Costa Rica, for research and academic activities within preserved tropical forest ecosystems. In preparation for the trip, grant faculty from the four institutions used their interdisciplinary relationships, knowledge, and skills in plant and soil sciences to create a workshop that inspired the scientific imagination of student participants. The workshop featured four of six NIFA Priority Areas, including Priority 1: Climate Variability and Change (all faculty); Priority 4: Food Security (all faculty); Priority 5: Sustainable Bioenergy (Dr. Heidi Taboada), and Priority 6: Water for Agriculture (Dr. Shad Nelson). Classes and activities included Worldwide Trends in Agriculture, NIFA Priority Areas, Sustainable Agriculture Techniques, Universal Soil Loss Equation, Soil Health, Minimizing Erosion, and Uses of Organic Matter. Additionally, students studied tropical agriculture, plant ecology and genetic engineering, plant diseases and agriculture entomology. Trips to a biodynamic farm, an arenal volcano, coffee plantation, rainforest hike, and Earth University provided enrichment for students and faculty. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?All the participating institutions have conducted seminars to explain the program, its benefits, and the applicant selection criteria. Through the summer trip to the Soltis Center in Costa Rica, information regarding USDA priorities and opportunities was disseminated not only to the Soltis Center staff and researchers, but also to the students, faculty, and researchers at Earth University, an agricultural college with a focus on investigating sustainable agriculture in tropical environments. Student and faculty presentations and publications are a large part of the dissemination plan for the START NOW grant, which enhances the professional development for students. These international experiences, along with the skills and knowledge of the partnering research institutions (Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico) and the expertise of USDA agencies, facilitates an energetic and organic dissemination of important events and findings to communities of interest. Drs. Shad Nelson and Randy Stanko, and Ph.D. candidate Consuelo Donato attended the HSI Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico on February 17, 2017, with current and former HSI grant funded students from TAMUK who presented at the conference. Dr. Krish Jayachandran from Florida International University attentded the NACTE 2017 Conference in June, 2017 at Purdue University, and represented the START NOW programl. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the remaining summer months of 2017 and into grant Year 2, students, faculty, and researchers will be presenting internship and research findings from Year 1 to prfessional audiences at their home institutions, at professional conferences and meetings, and to students who may qualify for support from the grant. The Soils Professional Certification Exam Prep course will be fully implemented and at least 50% of students who take the exam will successfully pass the exam, START NOW students will compete in the USDA coached intercollegiate Soils Competition, with a multi-institutional team and a TAMUK team attending the the Soil Judging Competition in San Marcos, Texas, Studets will be participating in USDA agency FY18 internships. Mentored research and international trips will be scheduled. Co-PIs will attend the HSI Project Directors' Conference. START NOW students will move closer to graduation and to employment with USDA related agencies.
Impacts What was accomplished under these goals?
Through the partnership of the four HSIs on the grant and USDA partnering agencies, most of the grant funded students will experience both a USDA internship and a faculty-mentored research experience and, in the grant's first year, 26 students were directly supported with stipends/scholarships during the reporting period to date. Twelve undergraduate students and 9 faculty members, funded by this grant, spent two weeks in Costa Rica at the Soltis Center, which backs onto the Children's Eternal Rainforest, the largest private nature reserve in Costa Rica, covering almost 54,000 acres of primary and secondary forest. From June 19 through July 2, 2017, the START NOW project supported these students and faculty members in research and academic activities, related to 4 of 6 NIFA priority areas, within the tropical ecosystems of the rainforest. The partnership among the project's institutions is strengthened by the strong collaborations in place between the START NOW program and USDA facilities and researchers. Consequently, an important aspect of the program is the active engagement of graduate and undergraduate students in mentored research and in internships across a range of research topics and agencies. In Year 1, the mentored research provided by the START NOW program and USDA agencies directly increased 23 of the 26 underrepresented students' access to careers in the agricultural and related sciences. Students shadowed or interned with mentors from Forest Service, National Resources Conservation Service, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Agricultural Research Service, and Environmental Protection Agency, National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), an NSF sponsored ecological observation facility in Puerto Rico that gathers and synthesizes data on the impacts of climate change, land use change and invasive species on natural resources and biodiversity, AEE, Puerto Rico Electrical Energy Authority, as well as with researchers from the grant partner institutions. According to the University of Texas at El Paso's institutional research department, research provides students with real-world learning opportunities. These experiences in research laboratories not only expand student earning power but also promote deeper learning, improve retention and graduation, reduce time to degree, increase first-generation student confidence and motivation to pursue graduate study, and improve job placement and career success. In its first year, this grant, by focusing its efforts not only on skills acquisition and on-the-job internships, but on research-based experiential learning with low student to faculty-mentor ratios, exposed students to the research communities within the partnering institutions of the grant, as well as to USDA agency internships, thus increasing underrepresented students' opportunities for acceptance to graduate school and for careers with USDA agencies.
Publications
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