Researchers Receive $1 Million Grant to Increase Hispanic Degree Pursuit, Completion in Food, Agricultural, Natural Resources and Human Science Disciplines
By: George Watson
The grant was awarded by the USDA-NIFA Cooperative State Research Education & Extension Service.
When Texas Tech University met the initial student enrollment threshold in 2017 to be designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), researchers from the College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources (CASNR) began having discussions with counterparts at Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU) on how that could benefit both institutions.
Specifically, their focus was on developing a pipeline between the two schools in order to increase and retain Hispanic undergraduate students for degree completion at Texas Tech and encourage pursuit of graduate degrees in agricultural and natural resources (ANR) disciplines.
The solution was to develop the Initiating and Mobilizing a Pipeline in Agricultural Careers Training (IMPACT) Program, designed to address the problems of low student retention, low degree completion and low pursuit of graduate degrees in ANR disciplines among Hispanic students. That program recently received a huge boost from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture's (NIFA) Cooperative State Research Education & Extension Service, which awarded Texas Tech researchers Amy Boren-Alpízar and Erica Irlbeck a $1 million grant.
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