During the second five-week summer session, the students, who receive a stipend, attended morning classes and spent afternoons in a lab with a faculty mentor, all to help them make the transition from their home communities to the university environment.

The course, for which they receive three credit hours, covers computer instructional technology applications, introductions to laboratory safety and techniques, study skills, critical thinking and the benefits of diversity and ethics in the agricultural sciences.

“Our objectives are to promote awareness of food and agricultural science disciplines and careers to under-represented groups,” says Dr. Brenda Alston-Mills, Animal Science Department professor. “And we want to enhance the course work to help incoming students make the transition into academic careers, while encouraging studies of food and agricultural sciences.”

Alston-Mills and Dr. Gregory Fenner, associate professor in the Crop Science Department, are the project’s directors and co-principal investigators.

The students, their hometowns and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences mentors are Andrea Bedford, Hubert (mentor, Brenda Alston-Mills, Animal Science); Jermaine Blount, Washington (Leon Boyd, Food Science); Jaynie Lynch, Lumberton (Charlotte Farin, Animal Science); Walt Pierce, Ahoskie (Fred Yelverton and Jerry Weber, Crop Science); Sheba Robinson, Seaboard (Gerry Luginbuhl, Microbiology).

The program — Agricultural Education: Empowering Rural Students Through Science and Technology — is funded through a $38,160 U.S. Department of Agriculture Challenge Grant.

The College contributes $1,500 in matching funds and services.

—Art Latham