National Higher Education Day occurs annually on June 6 to celebrate access to higher education opportunities. USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) partners with Institutions of Higher Education, such as Land-grant and Non-Land-grant Colleges and Universities, Minority-serving Institutions and community colleges to expand opportunities to prepare students for careers in Food, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Human Sciences.
NIFA’s education programs are designed to enhance the food and agriculture workforce pipeline, including disciplines supportive of the food and agriculture sector, through programs that support workforce development, increase agricultural literacy, strengthen student recruitment and retention and build educational capacity.
NIFA administers more than 25 education, training and capacity building program with more than $250 million in annual appropriations (see NIFA’s Agricultural and Food Education Pipeline Webpage). In FY2023, the agency launched the From Learning to Leading: Cultivating the Next Generation of Diverse Food and Agriculture Professionals Program (NextGen) program. NextGen’s primary goal is to enable 1890, 1994, Hispanic-serving, Alaska Native-serving, Native Hawaiian-serving and Insular Area Institutions to build and sustain the next generation of the food, agriculture, natural resources and human (FANH) sciences workforce, including the future USDA workforce. Due to the large size and geographic reach of this investment, NextGen has the potential to significantly strengthen the next generation of agriculture and food professionals to find innovative solutions to the most pressing local, national and global problems.
Many colleges and universities utilize a combination of USDA grants, as well as institutional collaborations, to develop FANH education programs. Institutions such as University of California, Santa Cruz and Florida International University have expanded the impacts of their programs by leveraging NIFA’s investments, enabling them to better support students in entering the FANH workforce.
University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC)
In California, UCSC developed a Bachelor of Arts program in agroecology, expanded land-based internships and connected the university with community colleges and youth organizations through funds from the Higher Education Challenge (HEC) grant. Two Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduates (REEU) AFRI grants supported underserved students in the Supporting Undergraduates by Promoting Education, Research, Diversity and Agricultural Resilience (SUPERDAR) research and mentoring program. Additionally, a Higher Education Multicultural Scholars (MSP) grant currently supports students in research, service learning and leadership activities while a Hispanic-serving Institutions Education (HSI) grant trains and funds Ph.D. students to effectively mentor undergraduate students. A second HSI Education grant expanded experiential learning and leadership opportunities, as well as campus-community collaborations, connections with USDA staff, a garden-based food program and a food justice conference. Building upon these investments has enabled USCS to support students and connect communities.
Florida International University (FIU)
FIU established an agroecology and sustainable agriculture program to provide education, research, outreach and leadership activities to multicultural minority students. The USDA has awarded over $16 million to FIU through 45 grants, including several HSI awards and collaborative grants, MSP awards, an REEU award, National Needs Fellowship (NNF) grants and a Non-Land-grant Colleges of Agriculture (NLGCA) grant. FIU has leveraged these investments to expand its agroecology program, including hosting field courses abroad, establishing summer agroecology workshops for K-12 teachers, designing new courses and hosting an Annual Agroecology Symposium since 2006. Two hundred fifty students participating in FIU’s program have completed internships through USDA grant support and 20 have secured USDA jobs. Additionally, an FIU student received an AFRI Predoctoral Fellowship in 2016. Finally, through the Beginning Farmers and Ranchers (2501) programs, FIU has supported the development of 15 new farms and farming businesses by socially disadvantaged farmers and veterans and supported more than 100 farmers with USDA grants and loan applications.