One of the five Objectives of the Sustainable Dairy project is to educate future leaders, voters, and consumers--particularly those from urban and minority-serving institutions--on the contributions of the dairy industry to economic and environmental sustainability. The Education project team leads this effort at their various institutions and through their connections to the sustainability and dairy science community at large.
The portfolio of education activities includes:
Undergraduate Internship Program
The Sustainable Dairy project will offer multiple research internships in the summer of 2016. All internships will include competitive compensation, travel support, and professional development in skills that students will be able to use in future studies or careers in the sciences.To learn more about the summer internship program, please refer to that website: http://www.sustainabledairy.org/About/Projects/Pages/Internships.aspx
Throughout the life of the Sustainable Dairy project, opportunities are arising for undergraduate internships and mentoring. The Internship Program is tasked with identifying, circulating, and supporting these opportunities. Beyond simply making opportunities available, the program aims to ensure that all students participating in research and outreach activities are aware of the broader context of their work and have access to PIs and other trainees outside of the lab where they are placed. Particular efforts are being made to invite minority serving institutions to participate in the educational network through dissemination of internship information and learning opportunities by emails, flyers and announcements at the biennial agricultural research director symposium.
For more information please contact Millie Worku, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T), worku@ncat.edu
- High School Agricultural Education
This effort is anchored at Vincent High School (VHS), a large public high school on the far north side of Milwaukee, WI. About 3 years ago, two teachers at VHS identified opportunities of interest to them for developing innovative curriculum in career and technical education focused in agriculture. VHS is surrounded by about 90 acres of undeveloped land and was originally built to be an "Ag High School" along the lines of the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences. With guidance from the VHS teachers, administration and support from the Milwaukee Public School system, a work plan was developed and incorporated into the USDA NIFA CAP proposal.
The project supports a staff person who is a certified Agricultural Education teacher with significant University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension experience. Based at Vincent High School, this Outreach Program Manager interfaces regularly with VHS staff, students and community advocates, supporting their interests in developing an agriculture/food systems curriculum at VHS and learning from the experience of all concerned with the specific goal of abstracting general insights of potential relevance for other interested high schools.
For more information, please contact Gail Kraus, Outreach Program Manager, at gmkraus@wisc.edu
- Sustainability Curriculum Development
Many project investigators are currently engaged in the creation of curricular materials and the instruction of courses – at the undergraduate and graduate level -- related to agricultural sustainability at their respective institutions. Collaborations and cross-institutional communication are being fostered such that project investigators are able to share these materials both within and beyond the project.
For more information, please contact Heather Karsten, Pennsylvania State University, at hdk3@psu.edu