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Beginning in 2011 the University of Puerto Rico has provided the lead for the Resident Instruction for Insular Areas Grant (RIIAG)- Phase VII and the University of the Virgin Islands has been the lead institution for the Distance Education Grant (DEG)- Phase II. In the preceding RIIAG and DEG, starting in 2005, the University of Guam served as the lead institution for the consortium. Dr. Gladys M. González, Professor of Agricultural Economics will be the project director for the RIIA portion of the consortium application. Twenty-five percent of her time has been assigned as the PD to this grant.
This application has been developed as a collaborative effort of all eight land-grant colleges and universities in the insular areas. This overarching proposal describes our goals and activities as a group. In addition, each institution has provided a detailed narrative of how they will address our collective goals and their unique needs at their respective college and university. Proposed deliverables and timelines are described both for the collective effort and for each of the institutions.
In 2005, CariPac was formed as a consortium of all of the Land Grant institutions in the insular areas to help address the challenges of providing food and agricultural education to college and university students in the Caribbean and Pacific islands (CariPac). Over the years, CariPac institutions have strengthened their academic offerings with resident instruction funds by facilitating outreach activities to prospective students, equipping some labs with state of the art equipment and rooms with Virtual Classroom (VC) capabilities, providing for faculty development trainings, activities and salary support, reviewed and updated curricular offerings, providing scholarships to agricultural and related science students, and by offering some hands-on, research and study abroad (within U.S. and territories) opportunities for undergraduates. As in past years, the eight land-grant colleges and universities in the U.S. insular areas have come together to leverage their respective resources, develop new collaborative efforts and to further strengthen their own programs through resident instruction. The goals of CariPac are to harness research and education to help address local food, agricultural, and environmental needs; support local economic growth; and to prepare students to achieve their own personal career goals. To do this, CariPac is striving to help meet workplace needs through increasing the quality of undergraduate instruction, by developing new methods for delivering instruction, modernizing instructional technologies and methodologies; updating courses and improving students' analytical, interpersonal, leadership, communications, problem-solving, computational, decision-making, and entrepreneurship skills and abilities. Our Mission summarizes our group's intent: To provide excellent higher education in Agriculture and Food Science, within the Insular Areas, to meet the evolving needs of a global society.
The RIIAG mission is to provide excellent higher educational services for the insular area colleges of Agriculture, Food and related Sciences and to meet the critical mass of agriculture, food, and related sciences professionals needed in the insular areas, U.S. Territories and Free Associated States, that form the Consortium as they continue to face increased isolation, limited budget allocations to run academic programs, low number of applicants in key programs, limited infrastructure and lack of access to educational resources. We have found that the major road-block to implementing successful agriculture, food and related science programs across the insular areas of the Pacific, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands is the lack of appropriate budgets to provide students excellent and compelling academic programs and services, supported with needed faculty and staff, state of the art technologies, equipment, and materials. This proposal will continue to address the technological needs of each CariPac member institution as well as outreach activities to prospective students, acquisition of state of the art equipment, providing for faculty development trainings, activities and salary support, reviewing and updating curricular offerings, providing scholarships to agriculture and related science students, and offering some hands-on, research and study abroad (within U.S. and territories) opportunities for undergraduates. We intend to help students achieve their professional goals by upgrading the quality of undergraduate instruction through modern instructional technologies and methodologies, updating disciplinary content, and by developing students analytical, interpersonal, leadership, communications, problem-solving, computational, decision-making, and entrepreneurship skills and abilities and global competencies.
The University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez (UPRM) will take the lead to develop presentations and arrange for meetings with potential partners and collaborators at individual universities and with other education associations. UPRM will look for opportunities to better share and leverage resources with the consortium as they address common or similar objectives. Consortium Directors have set aside funds to hire an evaluator who will be charged with reviewing all evaluative methods outlined in each of the proposed projects and assessing both outcomes and impacts for the entire grant.
The RIIAG funds received from the Phase VIII will be used by individual consortium members to strengthen their academic programs, make outreach activities to prospective students, update disciplinary content, provide study abroad (within U.S. and territories) opportunities, equip some labs with state of the art equipment, provide faculty development trainings, activities and salary support, provide scholarships to agriculture and related science students, and offer hands-on and research experiences for undergraduates. These objectives are the foundation goals that move all consortium members towards meeting the NIFA Program Goals 1 and 2. Table 1 highlights RIIA accomplishments and outcomes of consortium members from Phases VI and VIII.
Table 1: Summary of Consortium RIIA Accomplishments & Outcomes Phases VI-VII, 2011/12.
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Hosted CariPac Summer Science Program for Consortium members (10 students participated); 13 scholarships to undergraduate students granted to increase retention, Tropical Agric. Science majors increased from 7 to 20; 5 HS participated in Summer internship program (3 students enter in Tropical Agriculture or are in developmental courses); Development of course on Agroecology for Island Sustainability offered as an upper division or graduate course; Developing a M.S. graduate program in Agriculture and Life Sciences with three tracks is underway.
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Freshmen enrollment: 2010- 235 (37% increase); 2011-210 (22% increase);
Eight undergraduate student scholarships granted; A career oriented 2011 Summer Internship in Agric. Sciences for 13 high school students (k10-11) was completed, three of them chose agricultural science programs as major, a poster presentation was made in the Annual Meeting of the Puerto Rican Society of Agricultural Sciences; 2 undergraduates participated in CariPac Summer Science Program on UOG; 15 students and 6 faculty members are participating in Intramural Practicum for undergraduate students; Entomology, Phytopathology lab equipped with stereo and compound microscopes, ca. 120 students will be impacted per year
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Provided 4 undergraduate students research experiences in AES labs, these students presented results at the UVI Students Symposium, ABRCMS conference in NC , the SAAS meeting in TX and in the Caribbean Food Crops Soc. in Barbados; two students working in Biotechnology and Agroforestry program won first or second place awards in undergraduate posters competition in SAAS conference and in the 9th Annual Spring Symposium on St. Croix; students that participated in CariPac Summer Science Program on UPR and UOG have continued toward careers in Sciences and sponsored with scholarships; Two other students have continued studies in Vet Sciences or Animal Sciences
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43 and 34 participants in 2010 and 2011 Summer Institute, Enrollment in Agriculture, Consumer and Natural Resources Program (ACNR) increased from 64 in 2006 to 160 in 2011 (104 in 2010), 5 students that completed ACNR continued to Bachelor or MS programs in US universities; Student lab Learning Resource Center use increased from 250 in 2006 to 1772 in 2011; 90% of students in ACNR completes the Program; Faculty increased three fold; 2 students participated in CariPac Summer Science Program on UOG
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Instructional equipment and material bought; 6 high school juniors participated in a 6-week summer apprenticeship program in agriculture, aquaculture, nutrition and water quality; 6 high schools received materials and supplies for their agriculture and home economics classes; a CMI student participated in CariPac Summer Science Program on UOG; a curriculum design training for primary and secondary teachers is scheduled for Summer 2012
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Opening of Certificate Program in Agriculture and Food Technology increased enrollment from 9 in 2007 to 137 in 2011; 95% retention to second semester and completion of Certificate to move to Associate Degree in Ag Science (enrollment increased from 3 in 2008 to 50 in 2011; some students with Associate degree in Agriculture has moved to complete BS in UOG; 5 students has completed the CariPac Summer Science Program on UPR and UOG and have shared their experiences through seminars to colleagues, Teaching staff trained in new technologies and techniques; courses in Food Safety and Human Nutrition produced by UPR were reproduced and distributed to all libraries and Department of Health; these courses has been of extended value to the new Nursing Program and will be the basis for the first Distance Learning courses of the Program; 9 students participated in experiential learning trip to Palau and Guam to explore alternative entrepreneurial activities in agriculture (planned to be repeated on summer 2012)
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15 students were granted scholarships in the Program of Natural Resources Management; 65 students declared NRM program as their major or they double major in NRM, enrollment in the course “Introduction to Agriculture Science increased to 22 students; 22 HS students participated as apprentice with NMC-CREES professionals in Plant Pathology, Aquaculture, Entomology, Food Safety, and Nutrition; 2 students participated in CariPac Summer Science Program on UOG
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17% of all incoming PCC students selected Agriculture Science as a major; 80% of Agriculture Science students maintained a CGPA ≥ 2.00; retention rate of 78% (goal is 80%); 100% of Agriculture Science students graduated within scheduled time.
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