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5
Extending Beyond the University:
External Partnerships to Effect Change
This report focuses on the need to effect change in undergraduate
education in agriculture. Through improvements in instruction, assessment,
and curricula, colleges and universities will be able to provide a relevant
education in the context of the evolving food and fiber system for years to
come. Effecting that change, however, is not limited to undergraduates or
even to higher education institutions.
Many opportunities for intervention that will indirectly affect the num-
ber, training, and composition of students interested in undergraduate study
in agriculture occur outside universities. Many kinds of intervention help
to expose students to agriculture during their precollege years, including
formal classroom activities in K–12 settings and academic enhancement
programs. Others involve various types of informal education settings, from
such extracurricular activities as the National FFA Organization and 4-H to
activities organized by local gardening groups.
Stakeholders in undergraduate agricultural education include employers
outside the education sector who are interested in the “products” of the
nation’s colleges and universities. Companies, public agencies, and other
organizations that seek to hire college graduates well trained in agricul-
tural disciplines have an obvious interest in improving education. Despite
employers’ concern for the quality of college graduates, they often have
few connections to undergraduate institutions and often limited awareness
of undergraduate curricula. There is a need for enhanced communication
and collaboration because agriculture professionals may not be aware of the
issues and constraints faced by academic institutions; conversely, faculty,
students, and academic administrators may have little understanding of the
needs of industry or other nonacademic employers.
This chapter describes a number of programs that involve partners from
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Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
outside the university that will lead to improvements in undergraduate edu-
cation in agriculture. The committee believes that partnerships are not just
value-added opportunities but essential components of systemic reform of
agriculture education. As will be discussed in Chapter 6, many stakeholder
communities will need to participate in changing how agriculture is taught,
learned, and perceived.
PARTNERSHIPS WITH k–12 AND PRECOLLEGE PROGRAMS
Almost all undergraduates enter college after graduating from the nation’s
K–12 education system. Therefore, one strategy for increasing the number
and quality of students pursuing undergraduate study in food and agriculture
is to encourage more students to pursue careers in agriculture before they
reach college. Even when the immediate target audience is at the K–12 level,
precollege programs may play an important role in affecting the number and
preparation of future undergraduates.
Over the years, a number of highly successful K–12 and other precollege
programs have provided students and teachers with firsthand knowledge
of the broader educational and career opportunities in the agricultural sci-
ences. Several of the most prominent such programs have been developed
or supported, at least in part, by colleges and universities. For example, a
number of colleges and universities provide teachers with innovative cur-
riculum and teaching materials and provide research-based internships for
students.
However, many colleges and universities seem slow to engage in the
partnerships despite the effect that K–12 and precollege programs can have
on students’ educational and career choices. In part, that may be because
higher education institutions are unaware of the types of programs that have
been developed or because faculty receive little benefit from engaging in
“recruitment activities.” As discussed in Chapter 3, faculty rewards play an
important role in faculty motivation.
The committee believes that higher education can play a more substan-
tial role in outreach to high school and other precollege programs. Precol-
lege programs, in particular, often involve engaging students in educational
or scientific activities—common in a college setting—and giving them a
taste of what a career in a field will entail. Sometimes, that is done by
developing curricular materials or offering an agriculture-focused curricu-
lum; more intensive initatives may have extracurricular or summer programs
that bring students to college campuses for research and study. Agriculture
colleges are well positioned to address each of those activities. Fostering
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Extending Beyond the Uniersity
“engaged learners” at an early stage helps to provide a framework for the
concept of a lifetime of learning.
Some examples of K–12 and other precollege programs are discussed
below; a few of them have been in operation for more than 30 years.
k–12 Curricular Programs
K–12 curricular programs provide valuable classroom resources to
supplement and enhance an existing curriculum by increasing coverage
of agriculture (see Box 5-1 for an example). Many of the programs pro-
vide materials that are reviewed, tested, and evaluated by teachers, con-
tent specialists, and curriculum experts for quality, appropriateness, and
content accuracy. The materials are often aligned with national and state
learning standards1 and help classroom teachers and curriculum coordina-
tors to understand how they can fit into a curriculum without a sacrifice
of required content.
Several curricular programs have associated faculty-development activi-
ties in which K–12 teachers have the opportunity to learn more about the
materials and to be trained in their use. Many also have state-level networks
that provide continuing local support from volunteers or state-level coor-
dinators. It is also common for the programs to have partners in a variety
of sectors, often including business leaders and policy-makers. Although
there are often some connections to colleges and universities, higher-edu-
cation institutions are not especially well represented among the programs’
partners; this suggests that there are additional opportunities for university
faculty to be engaged in developing materials and in working with K–12
teachers in faculty development and implementation.
The federal government has recognized the value of connecting K–12
students to agriculture. Although the bulk of the National School Lunch Act
deals with such issues as nutrition, it also includes provisions for linking
schools, agricultural producers, parents, and other community stakeholders
to help students to understand the source of their food (42 U.S.C. 1769).
Many states also have established farm-to-school programs that link students
to producers.2
1The predominant national standards include the National Science Education Standards
(NRC 1996b) and Benchmarks for Science Literacy (AAAS 1993).
2See, for instance, the National Farm to School Program at .
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0 Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
BOX 5-1
Agriculture in the Classroom
Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) is a grassroots program coordinated by
the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA); its goal is “to help students gain
greater awareness of the role of agriculture in the economy and society, so that
they become citizens who support wise agricultural policies.” AITC is regarded as
a flexible educational program designed to supplement and enhance teachers’
existing curriculum by providing teaching materials, strategies, interactive exer-
cises, helpful links, and awards for excellence in teaching about agriculture. AITC
is carried out in each state, according to state needs and interest, by people who
represent farm organizations, agribusiness, education, and government. USDA
supports each state organization by helping to develop AITC programs, acting as
a central clearinghouse for materials and information, encouraging USDA agen-
cies to assist in the state programs, and coordinating with national organizations
to increase awareness of agriculture in the nation’s students.
Additional information about AITC is available at .
Urban Agricultural Education Programs
As the nation’s population has become more urban and suburban, there
has been a decline in the number of students who grew up on farms. The
urban and suburban environments potentially have many highly qualified
students who would be interested in pursuing careers in food and agricul-
ture but have not been exposed to such opportunities. The concept of spe-
cialized urban agricultural education programs has been around for more
than 50 years, most notably since the development of the W.B. Saul High
School of Agricultural Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Esters and
Bowen 2004). The last 20 years have seen increasing interest in educators
in establishing urban agricultural education programs in other major cities.
Agriculture-focused schools can now be found in some of the nation’s larg-
est cities and include the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences in
Illinois and the Agricultural Food and Sciences Academy (AFSA) near St.
Paul, Minnesota.
These public or charter schools prepare students for leadership and
professional opportunities in the agricultural sciences. In addition to a stan-
dard college-preparatory curriculum, they typically offer a number of agri-
culture-related courses, including both science-based and business-based
courses. They also place an emphasis on engaging students in their learning,
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Extending Beyond the Uniersity
using hands-on and experiential approaches and problem-solving related to
agriculture. AFSA also engages its students in public outreach, helping to
increase agricultural literacy in the Twin Cities urban population; this type
of community engagement at the high-school level can serve as excellent
preparation for extension activities once students get to college.
Summer High-School Enrichment Programs in Agriculture
In addition to formal K–12 school environments, a number of summer
programs are designed to provide precollege students with exposure to
careers in agriculture. One of the most successful is the intensive summer
enrichment program offered by the Governor’s School for Agricultural Sci-
ences in a number of states, including Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia
(see Box 5-2 for an example). Governor’s schools offer several week-long
summer academic experiences for high-achieving students and are generally
on the campuses of state public academic institutions.
In part because they are on college campuses, such summer residential
BOX 5-2
Virginia Governor’s School for Agricultural Sciences
The four-week Virginia Governor’s School for Agricultural Sciences was started
at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in 2004 with
52 students and has since grown to 92 students. Such organizations as the Virginia
Farm Bureau and the Virginia Agribusiness Council recognized that an agricultural
governor’s school would be a tool to develop gifted and talented students’ knowl-
edge of the food and fiber system, recruit students to study agricultural sciences in
higher education, and motivate them to pursue careers in the industry. The Depart-
ment of Agricultural Extension Education in the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture
and Life Sciences is the administrative body for the school, and the department’s
faculty and staff develop the curriculum and activities (Cannon et al. 2006).
Students selected to attend the school choose a major in agricultural economics,
animal sciences, food science, natural resources, plant science, or veterinary
medicine. Each student takes a course in each of the six fields of study and one
specialized course in his or her major (Cannon et al. 2006). Students also take
elective courses, such as communication and leadership, and participate in inde-
pendent group projects, which allow students to conduct research on real-world
problems related to agriculture in Virginia.
Additional information about the Virginia Governor’s School for Agricultural Sciences
is available at .
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Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
programs provide some of the clearest connections between K–12 students
and four-year institutions. For example, the Pennsylvania Governor’s School
for Agricultural Sciences involves about 70–100 faculty and staff from Penn-
sylvania State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences each year. It is
not uncommon for governor’s school participants to choose to attend their
state’s college of agriculture, and attracting students seems to be a common
goal of such programs.
Similar in some ways to governor’s schools are high-school summer
research programs. They provide students the opportunity to spend from
a week to two months conducting research on a college campus. High-
achieving high-school juniors and seniors are paired with faculty or graduate-
student mentors. Many of these programs are targeted at members of under-
represented minorities.
Even briefer, the Iowa Agricultural Youth Institute brings Iowa high-
school sophomores, juniors, and seniors together for a four-day retreat on
agricultural career opportunities and issues facing Iowa and U.S. agriculture.
Students in the program have the opportunity to participate in such educa-
tional experiences as a team-building course, travel to the Iowa State Capitol,
and a roundtable discussion with Iowa commodity representatives.
The committee believes that there are substantial opportunities for states
and universities to expand the scope and size of these programs. States
without agriculture-focused summer programs may wish to start them. They
seem not only to help to expand the number of high-achieving students
interested in agriculture but to help to connect high-school students with
the state’s colleges and universities. States that already have programs may
wish to consider whether they can be expanded in size, inasmuch as such
programs typically reach fewer than 100 students a year. Even without spon -
sorship from a governor’s office, colleges and universities may be able to
initiate similar programs on their own. In addition to educating and attracting
students, such programs constitute an important way to connect university
faculty with K–12 teachers.
There are also opportunities to incorporate agriculture into existing
programs. For example, the Center for Talented Youth (CTY), run by Johns
Hopkins University, enrolls over 10,000 gifted and talented students per
year in summer programs at sites throughout the country.3 Adding courses
in agriculture to several of the CTY programs would expose a collection of
some of the nation’s best middle- and high-school students to the excitement
and opportunities in agriculture.
3See for more information about CTY.
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Extending Beyond the Uniersity
youth-Enrichment Programs in Agriculture
In addition to formal curricula and academic programs, there are oppor-
tunities to provide K–12 students with exposure to agriculture and related
fields through extracurricular youth enrichment programs, agricultural sci-
ence clubs, and the like. Such programs can complement coursework and
allow students to have a long-term engagement in learning about agricultural
concepts.
Two of the most prominent such programs are 4-H and the National FFA
Organization, both of which have connections to federal agencies: the U.S.
Department of Agriculture for 4-H and the U.S. Department of Education
for FFA. Each provides opportunities for young people across the country
to be involved with an agriculture-focused national organization, to gain
leadership skills, and to connect with scientists, practitioners, and other
agriculture professionals.
The 4-H network, for example, claims to reach nearly 6.5 million young
people through locations in all 50 states and territories and makes connec-
tions to higher education through programs at more than 100 land-grant
institutions.4 FFA, founded in 1928 as Future Farmers of America, reaches
over 500,000 members 12–21 years old through over 7,000 local chapters.5
More than one-third of FFA members live in urban and suburban areas, and
there are chapters in 11 of the 20 largest cities in the country.
There are also programs that specifically expose minority-group students
to educational and career opportunities in the agricultural sciences, includ-
ing the precollege outreach program of the National Society of Minorities
in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences—Junior MANRRS—
and the Retired Educators for Youth Agriculture Program, which bridges
minority-group youth and agriculture professionals in Oklahoma.
In addition to programs focused on agriculture, several general youth-
development programs include some exposure to and programming around
agricultural issues, including the Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts USA,
Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Many of the messages in the report about the changing nature of agri-
culture also apply to the way that it is portrayed in youth-focused programs.
These activities have the same responsibility as agriculture faculty to ensure
that the treatment of agriculture in courses and curricula reflects the cutting
edge and the increasing focus on issues such as sustainability and concern
for the environment.
4See for more information about 4-H.
5See for more information about FFA.
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Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS
Academic institutions seem to exist largely in isolation from one another.
Connections even within the same geographic area are often based on per-
sonal connections between individuals rather than institutionalized. Each
institution may try to excel in everything rather than partner and choose to
create stronger opportunities for all. Partnerships between academic insti-
tutions can take several forms, including building connections for students
to move from one institution to another and establishing joint and multi-
institutional programs that are stronger than any institution can do on its
own.
Connecting Two- and Four-year Institutions
It is increasingly common for students to enroll in community colleges
instead of beginning their undergraduate study at four-year institutions; com-
munity colleges now enroll nearly half of all U.S. undergraduates, includ-
ing 47% of black and 55% of Hispanic undergraduates.6 To interest those
students in possible careers in food and agriculture, it will be essential for
community colleges to offer programs in agriculture and to facilitate the
transfer of community-college students into four-year agricultural degree
programs.
Many states are promoting transfer between two-year and four-year
institutions to increase systemic efficiency and effectiveness in educating
their citizens (Ignash and Townsend 2000). The most common type of col-
laborative effort among four-year institutions and community colleges has
been the articulation agreement, a formal agreement that identifies the
types of credits that transfer and the conditions under which transfer takes
place (Kisker 2007; Zirkle et al. 2006). The committee believes that there
are particular opportunities to extend articulation agreements with two-year
institutions among the 1994 tribal land-grant colleges and other minority-
serving institutions to provide opportunities for members of underrepre-
sented minorities to advance their education. Articulated programs of study
have several benefits, including ease of transition from one institution to
another, articulated courses that may eliminate the coursework duplication
6From American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) analysis of January 2007 data
from AACC, U.S. Department of Education, and College Board, accessed February 2008
.
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Extending Beyond the Uniersity
that some students experience as they move from one institution to another,
and a reduction in educational expenses.
Most states operate articulation agreements under deregulated or regu-
lated transfer systems. In a deregulated state system, individual institu-
tions have the responsibility for establishing articulation agreements about
which courses, programs, and degrees will transfer from one institution to
another. In a more regulated system, the state may provide some general
guidelines and incentives for institutions to develop the agreements; in
a highly regulated system, a state may mandate that the associate of arts
degree be accepted at all state institutions, as is the case in Florida (Ignash
and Townsend 2000).
In one study, Ignash and Townsend (2000) found that 34 of 43 states
had statewide articulation agreements. Fifteen of them had developed or
improved existing agreements within the preceding five years—an indica-
tion of the attention that articulation and transfer policies have received
from state higher-education agency officials, legislatures, colleges and uni-
versities, and the public in the last decade. In some states, the impetus to
develop strong articulation agreements was a legislative mandate. Ignash
and Townsend (2000) noted the need for improvements in developing
articulation agreements for program majors and for the inclusion of private
institutions in statewide agreements.
Articulation agreements are beginning to play a role particularly in
teacher education: universities are strengthening partnerships with commu-
nity colleges to prepare elementary-school and secondary-school teachers
(Zirkle et al. 2006). Box 5-3 describes an articulation program in Ohio that
addresses a shortage of business-education teachers, and Box 5-4 provides
an example related to teacher education in Texas. Those efforts are meant
both to address teacher shortages in subject-matter fields—such as math-
ematics, science, and agriculture—and to assist in the hiring of teachers who
have diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds (Townsend and Ignash 2003).
Although articulation agreements have been touted as an essential first
step in providing broad access to the baccalaureate degree (Ignash and
Townsend 2000; Rifkin 2000), many scholars have argued that educators
must move beyond articulation agreements to active collaboration with
complementary institutions (Case 1999; Chatman 2001; DiMaria 1998).
One type of partnership that has emerged in recent years is what Kisker
(2007) has referred to as a transfer partnership—a collaboration between
one or more community colleges and a bachelor’s degree–granting institu-
tion for the purpose of increasing transfer and baccalaureate attainment for
all or for a particular subset of students.
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BOX 5-3
Articulation for Business-Education Teachers in Ohio
To address the shortage and diversity of business-education teachers in Ohio,
Ohio State University (OSU) and Columbus State Community College (CSCC)
recently developed an articulation program designed to allow a seamless transfer
between the two institutions. The primary rationale for the development of the
program focused on four points: the location of both institutions in Columbus,
institutional missions that mention the need for community outreach and linkages,
the OSU College of Education’s goal of exploring ways to be on the cutting edge of
new initiatives, and the opportunity for OSU to recruit a diverse student body into
its teacher-education program from the student population of CSCC.
Preliminary results indicate that the OSU–CSCC articulation program has
resulted in an innovative approach to addressing the shortage of teachers in busi-
ness education. Its success can be ascribed, in part, to the inclusion of specific
attributes characteristic of successful agreements, including taking the first two
years of coursework at the community college, students’ ability to complete most
of the university general-education requirements at the community college, junior-
class standing for students transferring to the university, and easy transfer and
articulation policies to provide OSU credit for coursework taken at the community
college (Zirkle et al. 2006).
BOX 5-4
Articulation for Teaching Education in Texas
Texas A&M University–Commerce (TAMUC) and Collin County Community
College District (CCCCD) partnered to develop a program for articulated teacher
education. CCCCD was the first community college in the country authorized
to provide professional certification of teachers. TAMUC has a strong history
in teacher education and sought to provide master’s-level coursework in con-
junction with the CCCCD teacher-certification program (Chambers et al. 2003).
This alternative teacher-certification model established a university–community
partnership designed to ameliorate the national shortage of qualified teachers.
The TAMUC–CCCCD partnership provides a venue for people working toward
certification through the community college to be awarded graduate experiential
credit toward a master’s degree that is not traditionally awarded to students taking
courses at community colleges.
One essential element of the success of the partnership is a mutual commitment
of each institution that outlines several criteria, such as enrollment requirements
and use of classroom space and educational-technology equipment. Perhaps the
most important effect of the TAMUC–CCCCD partnership is that it allows students
to extend their education toward a master’s degree while they are completing
teacher-preparation courses at the community college (Chambers et al. 2003).
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One partnership that has achieved success involves a large public
research university in southern California and nine area community col-
leges (Kisker 2007). The partnership was established to develop a rigorous
transfer-focused academic culture in each community college by address-
ing the persistent problems of weak academic preparation and inadequate
academic counseling. Specific goals included increasing minority-group
members’ transfer to the university, using strategies that academically accel-
erate—rather than remediate—underprepared students, and promoting
interaction between two-year and four-year faculty and discussion about
preparing students for coursework at the university level (Kisker 2007).
Partnership activities included several programs, such as implementing a
rigorous theory-based tutoring model, accelerating community remedial
sequences, and bringing two-year and four-year faculty together to discuss
how they could arrange the community-college curriculum to facilitate stu-
dent matriculation. Kisker (2007, p. 297) noted that “the utility of community
college–university transfer partnerships is greater than simply increasing the
number of students who move from one institution to another.” In particu-
lar, transfer partnerships can raise students’ awareness of the opportunities
available to them after community college, assist in marketing and public-
relations efforts, and create a culture of transfer on community-college
campuses, especially among faculty.
As another example, Iowa’s public and private four-year colleges and
universities have historically had strong relationships with the state’s com-
munity colleges (Blong and Bedell 1997). By the 1980s, community colleges
and the three state universities7 had signed articulation agreements that
allowed any person who had earned an associate in arts degree at an Iowa
community college to enter a state university with junior status in the college
of liberal arts. Recently, Iowa State University and Iowa Valley Community
College District (IVCCD) joined forces to make it even more convenient
for IVCCD students to transfer to Iowa State. Through a joint admissions
program known as the Admissions Partnership Program, IVCCD students
who plan to pursue a bachelor’s degree at Iowa State will receive special
benefits to pave the way for academic success at both schools, including
academic advising and career counseling, opportunities to participate in
early orientation and registration before transfer to Iowa State, and guaran-
teed acceptance into a bachelor’s degree program at Iowa State, provided
that all college and program requirements are met at the time of transfer.
7Iowa State University, University of Iowa, and University of Northern Iowa.
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Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
Connecting Institution Types
Expanded partnerships may allow better integration of large research-
intensive land-grant institutions with the 1890 historically black and 1994
tribal institutions8 and with community colleges. Because 60% of tribal
colleges have articulation agreements with local high schools, expanded
partnerships could allow connections from the K–12 system to land-grant
universities via tribal colleges. In fact, Kisker (2007, p. 299) argued that
“community colleges occupy a unique position within a network of edu-
cational institutions that enable them to work with both high schools and
4-year universities.” By instituting and publicizing transfer partnerships,
especially partnerships that include all three educational sectors, two-year
colleges can become the central agency to assure students a seamless transi-
tion from secondary school to college degree (James et al. 2001).
There are 32 tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) spanning 12 states.
Several offer four-year degrees, although most remain two-year institutions that
focus on certificate and associate degree programs (James et al. 2001). Key
components of the TCU curriculum are cultural studies, community service,
internships, and business training. Most TCUs seek to award transferable
certification and maintain articulation agreements with four-year institutions
to ensure that course credits can be transferred (Cole 2004). For example,
the College of Menominee Nation in Wisconsin has articulation agreements
with the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point and Green Bay and with
Wisconsin technical colleges in Wausau, Appleton, and Green Bay (American
Indian College Fund 1996). In 1993, under the leadership of the Montana
University System, 15 community colleges, tribal colleges, and other state-
funded colleges and universities agreed on a core of 30 semester-hours that, if
taken at one institution, could be applied as a block to the general-education
requirements at another (Crofts 1997); the agreement was reached by a
course-by-course identification of equivalence at the institutions.
Establishing Multi-institutional Centers of Excellence
Academic institutions may be able to do more with less by establishing
multi-institution partnerships in which they work together on programs of
common interest. The resulting consortia can offer a wider array of high-
quality programs and opportunities than can a single institution alone. Such
partnerships allow cost savings by diminishing the duplication of resources.
8See Chapter 2 for a discussion of the history and types of land-grant institutions.
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BOX 5-5
Midwest Poultry Consortium
The Midwest Poultry Consortium was established in 1993, with the generation
of the idea from the Midwest-United Egg Producers. The specific goals were to
support and enhance poultry science programs in the Midwest, encourage stu-
dents to enter poultry science, increase basic and applied research, and facilitate
coordination in the poultry science community (Graves 1998).
Most relevant for this report is the consortium’s Center of Excellence Program,
which offers research-based education for students from 14 states in the Midwest
and Florida. Although all courses are offered at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
during two summer sessions, the faculty come from throughout the consortium and
credits are transferred to the student’s home university.
The program therefore provides access to students from a wide geographic
area that might not be available at their individual campuses, and also provides
access to laboratory training, industry field trips, and lectures and discussions with
poultry science experts.
Additional information about the Midwest Poultry Consortium is available at
0 Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
practical learning that has been shown to improve the quality of learning,
increase student satisfaction, and enhance job placement. That disconnect
indicates a need to encourage the involvement of undergraduates in out-
reach and extension.
The committee is enthusiastic about applied learning experiences for
many reasons. They can challenge students to apply theory to practice,
provide experience in solving complex problems, offer opportunities for
communication to a variety of audiences, and build skills in negotiation and
conflict resolution with diverse stakeholders. In addition, the experiences
often provide a valuable service and link the university to the community.
Involving undergraduates in extension is also a natural mechanism for inte-
grating service learning and community engagement, which is becoming
a field of concentration in many institutions (see Chapter 3 for additional
discussion).
High-quality learning experiences in outreach and extension have the
potential to recruit undergraduates to agriculture majors by giving them a
glimpse of the diverse ways in which professionals contribute to community
well-being. Facilitating the involvement of students in diverse disciplines
will help to open their eyes to the exciting potential of careers in agriculture
and natural resources.
To ensure high quality in practical learning, faculty must devote ade-
quate time and resources to planning and oversight. Objectives, timelines,
assignments, procedures, evaluation approaches, policies, and student
expectations must be clear to both participating community partners and
to students. Students must have accurate job descriptions and must not
be assigned to menial work. The committee encourages opportunities for
students to share their work through presentations or poster sessions on
campus and in the community; nonmajor undergraduates, student news-
paper reporters, faculty members, and community partners should be
invited to the presentations.
Student internships and experiences in the extension service are advan-
tageous because they provide a natural arena for applying theories learned
in agriculture and natural-resources classes. In addition, they give students
direct knowledge about career opportunities in extension (see Box 5-6 for
an example from Florida).
Some opportunities in outreach are not associated with formal extension
activities. An example in community-supported agriculture is discussed in
Box 5-7.
Extending Beyond the Uniersity
BOX 5-6
Summer Internships in Extension at the University of Florida
For 6 years, the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) at the Uni-
versity of Florida in Gainesville has sponsored a summer internship program for
10 undergraduate students in county extension-service offices in response to
proposals from county agents. Preference is given to minority-group students and
those majoring in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University
of Florida, but students in any accredited college or university in the state are
eligible. Interns are asked to plan and teach programs at the local level under the
supervision of an extension agent. The internship does not provide academic credit
directly, but some students arrange to get credit by working with resident faculty
advisers in their home institutions. Students are often placed in their own home
counties, which makes housing arrangements less challenging. Seven former
interns have been hired in permanent positions as county agents in Florida, and
this provides at least anecdotal evidence that internships are an effective method
of training and recruiting extension professionals.
Additional information about IFAS is available at .
PARTNERSHIPS WITH NONGOvERNMENTAL ORGANIzATIONS
There are a variety of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) whose
interests include agriculture; partnerships with these organizations offer
opportunities for service learning and community engagement. Several are
devoted to sustainable or organic farming or to fostering rural develop-
ment. In fact, connecting with such groups can be a way to engage students
directly with farmers (see Box 5-8 for an example). Others can connect stu-
dents with those concerned with environmental impact, such as the Green
Lands, Blue Waters Project described at the summit, which promotes multi-
functional agriculture in the Upper Mississippi River Basin (see Box 5-9). A
number of community-based independent organizations across the country
foster students’ interest in gardening. For example, Mixed Greens uses school
vegetable gardens at ten public schools in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to teach
urban youth about health, nutrition, agriculture, and the environment.10
Growing Hope focuses on underresourced and disadvantaged populations
in Ypsilanti, Michigan with school-based and community gardens.11 These
types of community-based organizations serve as important partners in
10See for more information about Mixed Greens.
11See for more information about Growing Hope.
Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
BOX 5-7
Opportunities in Community-Supported Agriculture
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a system of small-scale commer-
cial gardeners and farmers. Shareholders pay in advance to cover costs of a
farm or garden operation; in return, they receive a share of the farm’s vegetables,
flowers, fruit, herbs, milk, and meat products by way of weekly deliveries or pick-
ups. CSAs are ideal for practical learning about production in a setting that values
both high-quality food and high-quality care for the land, plants, and animals. They
illustrate the characteristics of a small-scale closed market and can appeal to stu-
dents’ values and interests even if they are not majoring in agriculture or natural
resources. Especially now, when more and more students in agriculture-related
majors do not have any direct agrarian experience, CSAs can provide valuable
experience and perspective to both majors and nonmajors.
The Cook Student Organic Farm at Rutgers University is operated as a CSA
and is the largest organic farm managed by university students. The farm, founded
in 1993, provides paid internships in the summer in which students learn about
greenhouse operations, crop planning, pest and disease control, irrigation, post-
harvest storage, soil building, fertilizer, composting, mulching, and weed control.
Interns grow vegetables organically, gain experience in managing an operating
farm, address issues of hunger in the community, and gain leadership training
while they earn an income and raise their own food. The internship attracts a wide
array of students; the farm’s Web site (http://www.cook.rutgers.edu/~studentfarm/)
shows interns majoring in nursing, public health, journalism, English, and natural
resources. Students provide food for CSA shareholders and donate and deliver
surplus produce to a local soup kitchen called Elijah’s Promise.
Many universities with agriculture and natural-resources departments offer
similar student farm experiences.
increasing public consciousness about agriculture and offer opportunities
to engage precollege students in agriculture-related activities. In addition,
some of the NGOs have sources of financial support beyond federal agen-
cies, such as local foundations, local governments, and local businesses.
NGOs can also provide a number of opportunities that are discussed
below with respect to employers. For example, faculty can look for oppor-
tunities to spend sabbaticals working at these organizations or serve in an
advisory committee. Similarly, the leadership and staff at NGOs might be
able to serve in various advisory capacities to academic institutions or to
suggest problems and challenges that might serve as case studies in relevant
classes. Internships and other student learning opportunities might be espe-
cially appropriate for NGOs: these organizations can get low-cost assistance
Extending Beyond the Uniersity
BOX 5-8
Connecting Farmers: Practical Farmers of Iowa
Those involved in production agriculture throughout the country are engaged
in a number of activities that provide professional development for farmers. For
example, Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) brings together over 700 members
in Iowa and neighboring states to research, develop, and promote agricultural
approaches that are ecologically sound, that enhance communities, and that have
been found to be profitable.
Organized around sustainable agriculture, PFI organizes a number of programs
and projects of interest to members in areas such as grazing clusters, developing
niche pork markets, and improving horticulture through fruit and vegetable clusters.
The organization not only fosters information sharing and community building,
but can help promote science-based approaches to agriculture and help sustain
family farms.
PFI has also been active in the educational arena, organizing a summer camp
for youth and their families, offering a youth leadership program, and developing
sustainable agriculture curricula for both elementary and high school students.
Additional information about PFI is available at .
BOX 5-9
The Green Lands, Blue Waters Project
The Green Lands, Blue Waters (GLBW) Project involves a partnership between
more than a dozen nongovernmental organizations and several land-grant univer-
sities to support multifunctional agriculture in the Upper Mississippi River Basin
that incorporates an increased number of perennial plants and other continuous
living cover. GLBW incorporates such goals as sustainable grazing systems, use of
perennial plants to obtain biofuels and oils, agroforestry, and wetland agroecology
by working through an interdisciplinary, cross-sector collaboration.
The educational partnership involves formal coursework at affiliated institutions
and summer internships in which undergraduate students in several disciplines are
placed in a variety of enterprise development settings. Academic coursework at
the University of Minnesota includes service-learning courses on the ecology of
agricultural systems that incorporate systems thinking and an extensive service-
learning project (Jordan et al. 2005). Another course offers a larger world-view
challenge that explores the nexus of sustainable development, engagement, and
professionalism; this course engages students collaboratively in considering the
“Corn Belt” of 2036.
Additional information about the GLBW Project is available at
Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
on issues of concern while students can receive course credit for applying
their classroom learning to real-world situations.
CONNECTIONS BETWEEN ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS AND EMPLOyERS
Colleges of agriculture send many of their students to careers in industry,
but students are often unaware of the full array of career options that await
them once they leave the university. The committee sees many opportunities
to develop the connections between academic institutions and employers.
Some would directly affect student experiences, others would indirectly
influence the undergraduate curriculum. The connections provide abundant
benefits in enriching student experiences, enhancing career placement, and
improving program quality. Partnerships at the faculty level can help fac-
ulty to understand the changing needs of industry, make connections with
industry scientists, and learn real-world examples that can be taken back
to the classroom.
Colleges must build true reciprocal partnerships and avoid viewing
industry only as a source of funding, in-kind support, resources, and intern-
ships. Lasting relationships require that both parties benefit in a true recipro-
cal interaction. The committee encourages academic institutions to engage
industry more fully in many of its activities, including asking for input on
curricular decisions and for guidance on the kinds of educational programs
that will best prepare their students for future careers.
Opportunities for Students
Agriculture and natural-resources programs and colleges are encour-
aged to devote adequate time and resources to developing internships and
cooperative education programs in industry settings. Students and their
supervisors need clear learning objectives, timelines, and definitions of
deliverables, procedures, and policies. Students also need opportunities to
showcase what they learn in internships to a wide audience, including to
students in their own and other disciplines, faculty and administrators in
a variety of departments and colleges, and partners outside the university.
The benefits of poster sessions (or other mechanisms of sharing) are many
and include student recruitment, résumé building, and enhancement of the
reputation of the department or college. Boxes 5-10 and 5-11 describe two
well-established partnerships between academic institutions and industry
that provide opportunities for students to gain experience in the corporate
world even before receiving their degrees.
Extending Beyond the Uniersity
BOX 5-10
Professional Practice at the Georgia Institute of Technology
The Division of Professional Practice at the Georgia Institute of Technology
(Georgia Tech) has one of the oldest and largest optional cooperative-education
programs in the nation. The program involves more than 3,000 student participants
and 700 employers each year and is supported by a staff of 20. It is consistently
ranked as a premier program. The division also houses a structured student intern-
ship program that includes an orientation program required of all participants.
The cooperative-education and internship programs both have carefully
planned structures, policies, procedures, support systems, requirements for
students and employers, and handbooks for students and employers. Student
handbooks describe eligibility and requirements, policies, résumé writing, ele-
ments of a successful interview, the job and internship search process, and use
of job-search tools. Employer handbooks describe benefits of the programs to
participants and sponsors, requirements for employers, and the process of post-
ing internship and cooperative-education positions and openings.
Georgia Tech places a high value on experiential learning and dedicates
resources to provide a high-quality experience for all participants. Benefits to
students include early career exploration, the ability to confirm career choices,
developing skills in résumé writing and interviewing, honing job-search skills, be-
ginning a professional network, earning a competitive wage while learning, and
improving after-college job prospects.
Additional information about the division is available at
Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
BOX 5-11
Internships at General Mills
General Mills, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, identifies six core food-science pro-
grams in universities around the country on the basis of program quality. Core
programs, which are highly ranked by General Mills scientists, provide a source of
diverse students and have a track record of recruiting and retention success. The
company designates an employee to serve as recruiting leader who is a graduate
of the assigned institution and several more junior graduates who travel to the core
campus each year. While on campus, company representatives attend career fairs,
make classroom presentations, and interview applicants for internships and jobs.
General Mills has a well-developed internship program that seeks to iden-
tify high-quality candidates to take jobs after graduation. General Mills scientists
compete to have interns work in their units by submitting proposals for intern-led
problem-solving projects in their divisions or units. The best and most challenging
proposals are chosen by a team of scientists and the company’s human-resources
department. The interns are assigned to technical units and have well-defined
practical projects in those units when they arrive on the General Mills campus. An
experienced manager supervises the assigned project, provides midcourse and
summary performance appraisals, and offers regular coaching about personal and
professional development.
General Mills uses a competence-based model for hiring and performance
appraisal that also guides the choice and coaching of interns. Desired compe-
tences include judgment and problem-solving, energizing and developing people,
delivering outstanding results, collaboration, adaptability and flexibility, technical
excellence, leadership of innovation, and integrity and ethics.
success. College “career days” in which industry professionals visit with
students and offer career advice can broaden the array of careers to which
the students are exposed. Those intersections need not take place only on
the college campus; opportunities for “job shadowing” and industry open
houses can provide more information about the work of an agriculture pro-
fessional in a single day than a week’s worth of workshops.
Opportunities for University Faculty and Agriculture Professionals
University professors and food and agriculture professionals operate
largely in different spheres. Although there are certainly some people who
have moved between industry and academe, there are many benefits of
increased permeability between various sectors. University faculty can
gain increased insight into the corporate world, the kinds of problems that
Extending Beyond the Uniersity
exist there and approaches to them, and firsthand experience with the
opportunities that may be available to their students. Food and agriculture
professionals can benefit from a more direct role in undergraduate and
graduate curricula, and they have enormous expertise—and often differ-
ent perspectives—to offer to individual students and to departments and
institutions. In addition to the education benefits, fostering increased part-
nership between academic and nonacademic professionals also increases
the likelihood of research collaboration. Intellectual property issues may
pose a concern, especially with cutting-edge research, but the committee
is hopeful that these issues can be addressed through general agreements
and memoranda of understanding between academic institutions and their
industrial partners. Box 5-12 describes a program at the Massachusetts Insti-
BOX 5-12
The Industrial Liaison Program at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Industrial Liaison Program
(ILP) is an example of partnerships between a university and a business outside
the agriculture sector. Companies that pay a fee to join the ILP are assigned an
industrial liaison officer (ILO) who has business experience and in-depth knowl-
edge of MIT. The ILO is the direct contact for the company’s managers, advocates
for the company’s needs, and serves as a liaison with MIT faculty and programs.
Throughout the year, the ILO updates the company on MIT’s activities, introduces
MIT innovations and knowledge that could help the business, and takes other steps
to meet the company’s objectives.
Mars, Incorporated, is one corporation that has a partnership with the ILP. The
company uses the partnership in various ways. For example, eight MIT doctoral stu-
dents spent two months at the Mars technical center working on a project to optimize
the company’s manufacturing process and its economics on a global scale; and train-
ing classes provided for Mars managers by a faculty member at MIT’s Sloan School
of Management led to the adoption of a variety of new business techniques and
new intellectual-property strategies. Mars research and development vice presidents
noted that the ILO became a part of their research family, rather than an outsider,
and that the ILO was a partner, not just an information provider.
The MIT ILP demonstrates several benefits that can accrue from academic–
business partnerships. Students at all levels gain valuable experience in working
on practical problems in real business settings, faculty members have opportunities
to leverage their research and teaching, and member companies improve their
processes and solve problems more quickly because they can access expertise
and research results from a world-class research university.
Additional information about the ILP is available at .
Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World
tute of Technology that involves students, faculty, and industry researchers
in a multifaceted partnership.
INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS
Chapter 3 discusses the value of increasing the coverage of international
perspectives for undergraduate students by both expanding opportunities for
learning abroad and including global viewpoints in U.S. courses. Achieving
these aims will require faculty members and graduate instructors who are
knowledgeable about international issues and prepared to bring a variety
of perspectives into their teaching.
International faculty exchanges and temporary international teaching
assignments would increase the global perspective in both course content
and research focus and should be encouraged. It will be important that such
exchanges are rewarded in faculty promotion and tenure to reinforce the
value that the institution puts on these experiences.
Programs could also be developed that would enable graduate students
to spend a semester or year working and studying in another country. The
international connections resulting from such exchanges will last for decades
as graduate students launch their faculty careers with a personal understand-
ing of the importance of international perspectives.
Unique approaches to funding and supporting globally focused pro-
grams should be developed. Universities should consider collaborations
with foreign governments, and industry around the globe should be con-
sidered to make the programs lasting.
