Texas State to prepare Hispanics for agricultural science careers through USDA program

Inside TXST

Jayme Blaschke | July 10, 2023

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded Texas State University a grant to prepare more underrepresented populations to enter the agricultural, natural resources and human sciences (FANH) workforce.

Texas A&M-Kingsville is the lead institution on the $20 million grant, which is part of the “From Learning to Leading: Cultivating the Next Generation of Diverse Food and Agriculture Professionals Program” (NEXTGEN). Texas State will receive a $2.9 million subaward for the project, with Merritt Drewery, an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Sciences, serving as project director at Texas State. Other participating institutions include New Mexico State University and the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez.

Texas State’s portion of the project, LEADING (Leading and Enhancing Agricultural Development In the Next Generation) Hispanics to Federal Agency Employment will focus on improving retention and graduation rate, time-to-degree and USDA career placement of Hispanic students by increasing scientific, technical and soft skills. It will also create a pipeline for Hispanic students to progress from high school through undergraduate and graduate degree programs, and to federal employment in the FANH workforce. 

Participating universities will establish and foster peer-peer, teacher-student, faculty-student and federal employee-student mentoring relationships to enhance Hispanic student awareness and preparation for internship and career opportunities at USDA agencies. They will also develop cooperative links and sustainable partnerships with local high schools and USDA agencies to promote FANH degrees and careers.

NEXTGEN aims to enable Land Grant institutions, Alaska Native-serving institutions and Native Hawaiian-serving institutions, Hispanic-Serving Institutions and insular area institutions of higher education located in the U.S. territories to build and sustain the next generation of the FANH workforce. This will be achieved through providing student scholarship support, meaningful paid internships, fellowships and job opportunity matching. NEXTGEN also facilitates opportunities to learn the processes and pathways leading to training and employment in the federal sector.

For more information, visit the USDA NEXTGEN website.