Session moderated by Kayla Alward

Presentation 1 - Relationship Between Interpersonal Factors and Isolation Among First-Year College of Agriculture Students    
Christopher Estepp    
University of Arkansas    

Isolation has been identified as lowering undergraduate students’ sense of belonging in college and can influence their decision to stay or drop out. Feelings of isolation can emerge as freshmen enter into new, unfamiliar college environments; however, interpersonal factors, such as peer relationships and empathetic, supportive faculty can potentially ease this transition. Thus, research on interpersonal factors that may be related to perceived sense of isolation among new college students is warranted. This study sought to determine perceived isolation among first-year students (n = 233) entering a college of agricultural, food and life sciences, and to determine the relationship between isolation and student perceptions of peer support, faculty support, and faculty empathy. Data were collected in all freshman orientation course sections during the seventh week of the fall 2022 semester using an online instrument. All constructs were measured using summated Likert scales with individual items measured on a 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) scale. Overall, students neither agreed nor disagreed (M = 3.04, SD = 1.10) they felt a sense of isolation; they somewhat agreed that peers (M = 3.58, SD = 1.08) and faculty (M = 3.81, SD = 0.89) were supportive, and that faculty were empathetic (M = 4.03, SD = 0.72). Partial correlations were used to determine the relationship between each individual predictor (peer support, faculty support, and faculty empathy) and isolation when controlling for the effects of the other predictors. Peer support was the strongest unique predictor of isolation (rp = -0.58, p < .001). Neither faculty support (rp = 0.03, p = 0.70) nor faculty empathy (rp = -0.01, p = 0.88) were significantly related to perceived isolation. Instructors and colleges of agriculture should facilitate in and out of class opportunities for first-year students to build positive relationships with peers.

Presentation 2 - College Student Ranking of the USDA NIFA's High-Priority Areas    
Gaea Hock    
Kansas State University    

Agriculture contributes significantly to most of the world’s cultural, environmental, and political systems. Each year, approximately 51,300 students across the nation graduate from their university’s agriculture program. These students make up a large percentage of the future of American agriculture. Therefore, the consideration of investing and investigating those students and their thoughts on long-term viability of agriculture needs to be a key focus today. Higher education is working to meet the needs of the current and future agriculture industry by educating their students. It is important to examine college student perceptions of key agricultural areas to determine areas of improvement. In the fall of 2021, Kansas State University students were asked to rank the importance of six agricultural topics the USDA National Institute of Food & Agriculture (NIFA) has identified as “critical issues facing the long-term viability of agriculture.” Students (N = 87) ranked (the lower the mean the more important) the issues from top to bottom: food security (M=2.28; SD=1.19), water (M=2.52; SD=1.38), food safety (M=3.63; SD=1.64), sustainable energy (M=3.75; SD=1.39), climate variability and change (M=3.84; SD=1.74), and childhood obesity prevention (M=4.99; SD=1.28). The results indicate that students at KSU believe food security and water are the most important issues. The next three were closely ranked with ‘childhood obesity prevention’ ranking sixth. The ranking may be an indication of the majors in the college of agriculture at KSU. Replication of this survey in other colleges and universities is recommended. We encourage USDA NIFA program leaders collaborate with students at universities to help build a better understanding for the future of agriculture and why these priorities were chosen. Additionally, faculty members should help their students understand funding areas and how USDA NIFA choses their priorities. They can also be used to help structure current topics courses, discussion prompts, and grant writing assignments.
 

Presentation 3 - Progressive Dinner: A New Strategy for Undergraduate Student Career Networking    
Joy Morgan and Andrew Waaswa
North Carolina State University    

As educators, our number one goal is to prepare our students with the skillset they need to enter the workforce upon graduation. Through the delivery of content and an understanding of the interests and needs of our students, we can carefully cater lectures, assignments, and activities to further their knowledge and skills for their future dream careers. However, an additional item that we should also add to our class goals is the opportunity for students to network with other career professionals in their desired careers. While most universities proudly boast career fairs where hundreds of employers sign up to host a booth for a day-long event, these career fairs lack the personal experience that can stem from networking opportunities within classes. In a junior and senior level course, the course instructors incorporate guest speakers for each major module and host a career progressive dinner. Many of us utilize guest speakers in our classes, however, the career progressive dinner exceeded our expectations. For the progressive dinner, instructors selected eight agricultural professionals who aligned with the student's career interests. From there, each career professional hosted different students throughout the evening for the different courses. We found this dinner allowed the students and careeer professionals to engage in deeper conversations about their career journey and also discuss the students interests. Several of the students walked away with internships and job interviews as a result. All walked away with business cards and new connections within their desired field. The dinner was held at our university club and sponsored by several businesses and one individual donation. Course instructors provided bios prior to the dinner and students signed up to meet with the individuals. The event lasted approximately two hours and students reported they valued this event more than the campus career fair.
 

Presentation 4 - Best Practices: Lessons Learned from a Study Abroad Program    
Kate Fletcher    
University of Florida    

As facilitators of an international service-learning (ISL) study abroad program within a College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, taking place over four separate years including both pre-COVID and post-COVID programs, we have experienced numerous challenges, created a variety of solutions, and learned many practical lessons. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss best practices, pitfalls to avoid, and assignments for facilitating an optimal learning environment and experiences for students on a study abroad program in a College of Agricultural and Life Sciences setting. Our presentation will focus on what we have learned from undergraduate students who participated in a study abroad program, which included a service-learning component at two locations in the Republic of Ireland, one rural and one urban. The findings are based on analysis of prospective student interviews, pre-departure sessions, reflective journals during program, weekly in-person group reflection sessions (on program), and end-of-program debriefing. The results regarding best practices include grace periods, pre-departure meetings, mindfulness practices, inductions, accountability partners, weekly group reflection sessions, communication, and itinerary. The results regarding pitfalls to avoid include negativity, pre-departure interviews, and expectations. Assignments for facilitating an optimal learning environment include: preflection, mindfulness assignment, gratitude assignment, weekly in-person group reflection sessions, weekly guided journals, cultural journal, electronic portfolio, grace periods, and scheduled free-time.
 

Presentation 5 - Employer Priorities for a Career-Ready Workforce for the Future of Agriculture    
Mark Russell    
Purdue University    

The objectives of the study are to improve practices that ensure a diverse and career-ready workforce for the future of agriculture, food and natural resources. Employment demand for positions related to agriculture, food and natural resources are expected to grow 2.6% by 2025 for college graduates with bachelor's or higher degrees (Fernandez, et. al., 2019). 34 employers of university agriculture BS graduates were interviewed regarding the competencies they are prioritizing at the university student level. Mid-level leading employer decision-makers at Midwest university career fairs and career center lists of national employers of agricultural graduates were invited to interview via a Qualtrics survey. Face-to-face or Zoom interviews were then conducted to ask employers questions regarding their choice of colleges/universities, importance of a diverse workforce qualities, prioritized competencies and experiences and their level of overall satisfaction and suggestions to universities for improving the workforce to meet industry needs. Data about how employers decide which universities to recruit, their priorities of competences and student experiences, methods of assessing these employability priorities will be shared. Well established qualities were similar to those reported by Seemiller (2013) and Crawford and Fink (2013 & 2020), but more emphasis was on data management, student work mindset, working well with "others", internship/project experiences and actual diversity of candidate identities themselves. Most revealing was when asked about what universities could be doing to improve the workforce, they shared not the content, but the teaching methods need to be more experiential, problem-based and out of the students' comfort zones. Barriers for successful interns or employees included location of employment, lack of problem-solving team experiences, work commitment and experiences with social differences. Employers/alumni seek more opportunities to collaborate with academic programs to collaborate and co-develop a more diverse and professional preparation pipeline from universities of agriculture.