Presented By: Erika Kraus, USDA-NIFA
Co-Authors: Ray Ali, USDA-NIFA
Krish Jayachandran, Florida International University

This presentation will give an overview of the NIFA National Needs Fellowship (NNF) Program and the NIFA AFRI Predoctoral Fellowship program and the respective requests for applications (RFA); consider case studies of projects in these programs to understand student success, as well as overall project success including mentorship, innovativeness, and institutional support. The presentation includes the perspective of a distinguished professor from Florida International University (FIU) and a national program leader from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Our objective is to explore the following question: "Why is any given institution or individual compelling for graduate training opportunities in food and agricultural sciences for students who will increase the diversity, equity, and inclusiveness of the workforce?" The workshop will rely on qualitative and quantitative data about the competitive grant programs, and case study-like experiences. With this data, we plan to showcase the diversity of successful awards in these competitive grant programs, and the real-lived experiences from the perspective of FIU to make the proposals into reality. We plan to convey perspectives on how institutions and individuals interested in 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 grants. Our presentation fits within the NACTA theme of student support/development/advising, as well as global education.