Description and Application

Program Description:

Modern agriculture is a highly technical field of science that often requires an interdisciplinary approach involving professionals with specializations in chemistry, biology, environmental science, engineering, and traditional agriculture and food science specialists. The workforce demand for well-trained agriculture and food science professionals is very high. USDA makes special efforts to attract minority students to the field. However, students majoring in science often do not correlate their professional training with career opportunities within food and agriculture. To bridge this gap, for the last four years, we have successfully run USDA-funded FANE and REEU projects that train high school and college students and their educators in collaboration and mentorship with graduate students for STEM EDUCATION to build careers in agriculture and food science, address all levels of preparation as one segregated pipeline. We focus our activities around one central interdisciplinary research topic related to a new generation of super-fruit called Aronia berries. We practice interdisciplinary active, experiential learning (AEL) principles in a frame of group pedagogy.

 Our project, called ASTEMA – Advancing STEM in Agriculture in HBCUs, is designed to attract high school and undergraduate STEM students majoring or planning to major in chemistry, biology, environmental sciences, and technology majors to careers in high-tech agriculture using active, experiential learning techniques, that has proven to be a powerful tool to increase student’s awareness, involvement into studies, leadership, and critical thinking abilities. During the academic year, program trainees participate in bi-monthly webinars in STEM in agriculture topics addressing agricultural engineering, genomics, and biotechnology, along with professional development and leadership topics, including choice and preparation for college, application package, writing the resume, successful interviews, patenting workshop, application to federal jobs and more. This is followed by summer experience on campus for five weeks for college students and three weeks for high school students and their educators, where they form interdisciplinary teams and work on active experiential learning problems that cannot be solved by one major only. Their summer activities are organized in week-long, theme-focused sequences of webinars, laboratory, and field-active experiential learning research activities. A series of pre-and post-workshop assignments, reports, and presentations help assess program effectiveness. Two graduate student-mentors and some faculty mentors participate in all activities. All trainees receive certificates by the end of the program upon completion of all program requirements and a modest stipend. Travel camp transportation and housing are covered, and each participant has a limited food allowance.

 Jookender Community Initiatives Inc. is responsible for the logistics of the summer travel camp and participates actively in recruiting and training participants.

 The program has an external evaluator who attends part of activities and observes the performance of participants and mentors.

Request for Application for the 2024-25 Cohort - Students and Educators: Please, Read the Official Announcement Below, then download the application forms.

Internship opportunity: ASTEMA - Advancing STEM in Agriculture in 1890 HBCUs - via Team Active Experiential Work of College and High School students with Travel Camp. 

Twelve positions for high school students and two for teachers/educators working with high school students are available at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in collaboration with Jookender. The program is for high school students who are planning to attend college and major in STEM disciplines and who are interested in exploring how such majors can be applied to build a career in agriculture with USDA. The program consists of online meetings twice a month during October-May, followed by the in-person three weeks of travel camp activities on and off the UMES campus. A set of pre- and post-activities assignments will be submitted anonymously for evaluation but not grading purposes. Part of the online activities will include lectures and discussions in STEM science in agriculture, genomics, biotechnology, phytochemistry, and the use of technology and engineering in agriculture. The other online meetings will be devoted to professional and leadership development and college preparation. Travel camp will include active team experiential learning led by trained college students and their mentors, workshops in small electronic devices building, 3D printing, drones in agriculture, soil analysis, medical herbal teas, and many others, field trips to agricultural and demonstration facility, wet experiments in the lab, reporting and final presentations by teams of trainees. Travel and housing expenses and food allowance will be provided during the travel camp. At the same time, a stipend of $1,000 will be paid to each High School participant and $ 1,500 to each Educator upon completion of all program activities. In addition, each High School student will earn up to 120 community hours, and each Educator will receive a certificate listing 120 Professional Developing hours. 

Criteria for the program participants selection are as following:

For high school students:

1)  Belongs to one of the following populations: minorities underrepresented in science, women interested in agricultural careers, new immigrants in US, first generation in US college students, and Ukrainian refugees.

2)  Has an interest in STEM science.

3)  Has a desire to explore STEM in agriculture.

4)  Completed at least one course in high school science with a grade C and above.

5)  Merit, based on the application - one-page essay, resume, and school transcripts.

6)  Available to participate in Zoom webinars twice a month during October-May at late evening times weekdays.

7)  Committed to a three-week travel camp.

8)  Not yet graduated from high school.

An applicant must match all the criteria above.

To apply, please follow the link Student application form.docx - Google Drive, download the application, and have the following documents ready: a one-page essay explaining your interest in STEM in agriculture and how the internship will help advance your career, a resume (must include applicant’s and parent/guardian’s emails), unofficial school transcripts.

 The application deadline for the 2024-25 cohort is September 15th, 2024, at 5 PM EST - documents required: one-page essay describing why you are interested in the program and how this program would advance your career goals, resume, unofficial school transcripts, application form, proof of eligibility to work in the US for any employer will be required for all accepted participants.

For educators:

1)  Committed to participate in all webinars and the travel camp above.

2)  Teaching in school/after-school program that works with minorities underrepresented in science, women interested in agricultural careers, new immigrants in the US, first-generation US college students, and Ukrainian refugees.

3)  Willing to act as an educator and a chaperon during the travel camp.

4)  Interested in incorporating materials on STEM in agriculture into at least one of the classes/after-school activities. For this purpose, teachers must submit a one-page proposal of activity that will be used for selection criteria.

5)  Willing to submit a final report of the implementation of such activity in the classroom during two months from the end of the travel camp.

The applicant must match all of the criteria above.

To apply, please follow the link Educator application form.docx - Google Drive, download the application, and have the following documents ready: a one-page essay explaining your interest in STEM in agriculture and how the internship will help advance your career, resume (must include applicant’s email), one-page proposal on what and how will be implemented in the course or after school activity – please describe the activity, the place where it will be delivered or conducted, and the population that will be involved.

 The application deadline for the 2023-24 cohort is closed for students, but opened for educators until December 30th, 2023, at 5 PM EST - documents required: resume, one-page essay describing why you are interested in the program and how this program would advance your career goals, a proposal for materials implementation in at least one of your courses, proof of being educator, proof of eligibility to work in the US for any employer will be required for all accepted participants.

Before you apply, please have all required documents ready as MS Word or Google Docs files - combine all documents into one file. Send the file and the cover letter directly to the project PI - Dr. Victoria Volkis of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Email: vvolkis@umes.edu . The application form and the workbook for high school students on how to write a resume are available below.

If you have any questions, please email them to the project PI – Prof. Victoria V. Volkis, via email to vvolkis@umes.edu . On October 2, 2023, at 8:30 PM EST, we will conduct the Q&A webinar via Zoom for all potential applicants. The link is published on this website in the 'Announcement' tub.

Link to download application forms from google drive:  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aTd-MWFDYsMHEHdPcnWoNEKFgmb_JZsp?usp=sharing