This workshop will cover three major topics: an overview of the NIFA National Needs Fellowship (NNF) Program and the request for applications (RFA); the proposal development experience from the perspective of a distinguished professor from Florida International University (FIU) over the past decade and more; and the experiences of the NNF award once received at FIU. Our objective is to inspire workshop participants with the following question: "Why is any given institution a compelling place to offer graduate training opportunities in food and agricultural science Targeted Expertise Shortage Areas to students who will increase the diversity, equity, and inclusiveness of the workforce?" The workshop will rely on qualitative and quantitative data about the NNF Program, and case study-like experiences from FIU. With this data, we plan to showcase the diversity of institutions with successful NNF Program awards, and the real-lived experiences from the perspective of FIU to make NNF Program proposals into reality. We plan to convey perspectives on how a non-land grant institution of higher education can make NIFA’s competitive programs work in their context. We'll also highlight professional paths of some students who are former fellows from the grant. Pre- and post-reflective activities will engage the audience in relating the information presented to their own institution, subject area, and student audience. Our presentation touches upon conference themes of scholarship and innovation in teaching and learning, as well as global education.