BARRY UNIVERSITY CRAFT SCHOLARS -- CULTIVATING RESILIENCE THROUGH AGRICULTURE AND FOOD TRAINING

CRAFT Scholars will contribute to an engaged, diverse, and talented agricultural workforce by increasing recruitment, retention, and completion rates of undergraduates in FANH allied degrees, building awareness of agriculture-related careers for scholars and faculty advisors, creating pathways into graduate school and the future USDA workforce, and providing agriculture-related experiential learning at every level of the undergraduate degree.Specific target objectives:1) Recruit and award 30 scholarships to a diverse population of students from urban, HMLI backgrounds into FANH allied undergraduate majors at Barry. Recruit 5 students into Master's programs at UF, and award graduate fellowships. Aligns with NextGen Priorities 1 & 10.2) Increase retention and sense of belonging for scholars with academic and social support through the CRAFT Scholars Learning Community (CRAFT-LC) and a project in planetary and local food systems. Aligns with NextGen Priorities 1, 2, 4 & 83) Increase awareness of FANH career opportunities through a seminar series featuring UF researchers and USDA personnel, Spring Break cohort trips to USDA offices in Washington, DC, and training faculty mentors and advisors. Aligns with NextGen Priorities 3 & 64) Build research and extension skills across the food and agriculture system through access to intensive summer experiences for scholars and other Barry students: in the first summer - a 12-day ASCEND (Advancing Skills, Competency, Experience, Networks and Dialog) Career program; in the second summer - UF agriculture courses and study-abroad opportunities; and in the third summer - paid research internships at UF. Aligns with NextGen Priorities 2, 3 & 45) Create lasting connections between Barry, a mid-size, diverse, urban, minority-serving, primarily undergraduate institution (PUI) and UF, a large, R1, land-grant university, through reciprocal faculty development workshops. Aligns with NextGen Priorities 6 & 10