June 12, 2007 |
1. Carver program provides taste of graduate school
3. Our first blog: "An Arkansan in Edinburgh"
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1.Carver program provides taste of graduate school
Monique Fahie of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Lakeitha Rena Ruffin of Fayette, Miss., are conducting economics and horticulture research projects this summer with faculty mentors in Bumpers College.
Fahie and Ruffin are among 21 undergraduate students participating in the George Washington Carver Research Program at the university. The internship program helps prepare minority undergraduate students for graduate school.
Fahie is a senior at Alcorn State University, Lorman, Miss. Ruffin is a 2007 graduate of Alcorn State. Both are agricultural economics majors. Their research at the U of A began May 20 and will continue through July 13.
Ruffin is working with Curt Rom, HORT, conducting an economic analysis of organic management systems for apples. She is examining different types of mulch, fertilizer and other treatments.
"We're looking at 12 different management systems with everything needed to establish an organic orchard," Ruffin said.
Fahie is working with Dan Rainey, AEAB, on an analysis of what Arkansas has done or needs to do to compete in a global economy. Part of the study includes collecting data on Arkansas higher education and occupations since 1970 to see how college majors correlate with the state's job market.
"We're trying to find out what more Arkansas can do to attract investments in the state and its people," Fahie said. "That includes learning what schools are doing to attract students to majors in marketable careers."
The Carver Research Program gives prospective graduate students from historically black colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving institutions the opportunity to work directly with a faculty mentor and experience graduate-level research.
Carver Students (Photo attached) -- Lakeita Rena Ruffin, left, and Monique Fahie are conducting research this summer in the George Washington Carver Research Program.
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A team of students, faculty and alumni from Bumpers College are helping to start a large garden to provide food for St. Mathew's Elementary School in Belize. The project is part of a larger project involving students and faculty from several colleges and sponsored by the Honors College. The Bumpers college team left on May 20 for a month in Belize. Printed below is a progress report from faculty sponsor Nilda Burgos, CSES, to Dean Greg Weidemann.
Dear Dean Weidemann:
It is with great pleasure that I report to you the progress that has been made on our CAFLS school garden project at St. Matthews Elementary School, Pomona, Belize. First, allow me to recap the student composition of this pioneering group. The students who traveled to Belize for this project are: Kerri Boling, Misti Clark, Ashley Jones, Heather Markway, Evreda Rice, Laura Sossamon, Mioko Tamura, and Lauren Webb. The faculty leaders are Jennie Popp and yours truly. The students are spending one month there, while Jennie and I are spending two weeks each, with a few days overlap. I have just returned from my two-week assignment and Jennie will stay with the students until the end of their term in Belize.
The garden area is about one-tenth of an acre and our first crop will be hot peppers. This will be a cash crop with an identified buyer - Marie Sharp's hot pepper sauce company. The income is intended to help buy food items for the canteen and inputs for the next vegetable crops (cabbage, hot pepper, and onion). The ground had been tilled twice and 105-ft beds were formed. Vegetation and cut tree roots had been removed. There was substantial amount of these because the site had been a perennial grassy area, bounded on two sides by huge trees and on one side by a citrus orchard. We were able to establish a connection with the local Ministry of Agriculture Research Station for Stan Creek District. This made possible the mechanical tillage and forming of planting beds. There used to be no active link between the school and the local Agriculture office because of the absence of even a seminal agriculture class at the school. It is not part of their curriculum. The established link with agriculture also made possible the delivery of rice hulls for mulching, free of charge. It would have cost us about $75 USD for one load. Other invaluable contributions by the local Ag personnel to our project so far includes assistance in pricing and procuring supplies for the irrigation system and the water catchment project. The latter is a major expense and requires transportation of a 400-gal tank and large pieces of hardwood for the tank platform. The hardwood would have also cost us a lot of money if not for the assistance provided by the Ag personnel who have the right connections. Rain water will be used to supplement ground water to irrigate the garden. Procurement of supplies is a major deal as several are not available in Dangriga (the largest town in the district where we are staying), but had to be ordered from Belmopan or elsewhere. One Ag personnel volunteered to help assemble the irrigation system (distribution line and drip lines) while another (a hot pepper specialist) volunteered to visit the site once a week to help monitor insect pests and diseases, once the crop is planted. The Citrus Processing Laboratory, which is located within two miles from the school, delivered one load of citrus peel compost (already ameliorated with lime) free of charge. We had distributed the whole load throughout the garden area and incorporated it into the planting beds using the garden tiller that was purchased there using Dr. Popp's fund. (By the way this material is heavy). We have enlisted the help of a Peacework contract worker to put up a chain link fence to secure the garden area. The beds are ready to be planted. Unfortunately, the hot pepper transplants, which are being raised at the Central Farm near Belmopan, are delayed. The seedlings had been ordered and paid for in advance. Tillage of the land also was behind schedule (it was supposed to be done one week before we get there), but this setback in the development of transplants is very critical. This is making us very nervous. Jennie and the girls will pick it up this Friday as they have a scheduled meeting in Belmopan then.
They hope to transplant the peppers next week before they leave. Our original plan was to transplant the peppers before I returned to Fayetteville. Instead, I had to give them a crash demonstration on setting the plants, applying basal fertilizer, sidedressing and an abbreviated lesson on applying pesticides. It is inevitable that some insecticide and fungicide will be applied for peppers. The crop calendar we obtained from the Agriculture office for hot peppers is very management intensive for insects and diseases. We had solicited three St. Matthews faculty volunteers to be closely involved in managing the garden. I wish I had more time training them on pesticide application. Jennie will conduct a review lesson when they recalibrate our sprayer using an appropriate nozzle. (The nozzle is another story) Herbicide application may be needed before transplanting as rain had started falling intermittently now, in small quantities, to signal the onset of rainy season. I noticed weeds had started to emerge in the site. A broadcast application of Roundup may be necessary. We hope that the mulch would help keep the weeds down and reduce the time needed for the kids to hand weed the garden. In the future, we hope to use other kinds of mulches for supplemental weed control so herbicide use and handweeding is minimized. The intensive use of insecticide and fungicide in their system would not be sustainable as resistance can evolve quickly. There is an opportunity to look at IPM approaches there in the future.
As an aside, Dr. Paul McCleod indicated interest in working on insects in Belize. If fact, we traveled back from Belize City to Fayetteville together. He and his wife were in Belize at the same time that our group was. I think he had already started the leg work on insect scouting there. I shared with him our initial contacts in Belize. Perhaps we can coordinate an IPM training there in the future, with the Ministry of Agric. for insects, weeds, and diseases.
Besides working in the garden and procuring supplies, our students had also put together a series of lectures for kids from standard 3 to 6. Topics include composting and mulching, transplanting and plant care, among others. In general, two lectures had been planned per week, to be conducted in the afternoon, during their science class. We ended up with having three sections of kids to teach as the faculty asked to include younger kids in the lectures. Thus, we have divided our group into three teaching teams. Our students had come up with innovative ideas to actively engage the young kids in these topics. As far as the sections that I had observed, and based on the lecture outlines that our students had developed, I am amazed at the maturity and skills that our undergraduates had demonstrated in this endeavor. As part of the active learning activity, our students had assembled two composting units, which they had started to fill with organic waste during the composting lecture session. The kids at school are supposed to continue filling up this compost pit and witness its transformation into organic fertilizer.
Besides the delayed transplanting, other projects left to do include the irrigation system, the water catchment, and hopefully, putting up durable trash cans for the whole school. Trash management is one issue that our students think we could also help with, conceptually at least.
One day, after getting drenched by the first rain that came through Pomona, we had the good fortune of meeting someone up the ladder in the Ministry of Agriculture who happened to drop by the local Agriculture office in Stan Creek. He wanted me to offer them some technical expertise, but since I was leaving, Jennie had followed up on a meeting with him in Belmopan. He had proposed to set up a meeting with all the Agriculture Agents in Belmopan.
We had met with the PTA at school, upon special request. We had decent attendance considering that it was scheduled at 1:00 p.m. Of course, the majority of parents are working. Two personnel from the Stan Creek Agriculture Office also attended. This was a general briefing/inspirational meeting to encourage the parents to get involved with this project in the long term. Our students did an excellent job of planning the flow of this meeting and took the initiative of preparing a brief information manual about the project and contact people, for distribution to interested parties and group leaders.
Six students from the Ecumenical Junior College (EJC) in Dangriga volunteered to help us in the garden. Unfortunately, all of them are graduating so they will only be there for a short period of time. Thus, in our meeting with the Dean, we discussed the possibility of involving first year junior students as well. The Dean (Anthony Sabal) is pushing for creating a course (perhaps an elective) of three credit hours, tied with our project. This way, their students can get credit for their involvement in the project other than community service hours. The EJC students who helped us are brilliant kids, who had already satisfied their community service requirements, but just wanted to get involved, anyway. We will work with a faculty at EJC who is charged with developing this course. Dr. Popp will give us more update on this later, if she gets the chance to meet with the EJC faculty.
Our group is scheduled to meet with Marie Sharp tomorrow (June 7). One of our students, Lauren Webb, has an extra assignment to do for an internship in this area, under the Food Science Dept. Besides looking at the processing plant, the group also hopes to tour the pepper production fields at Marie Sharp's compound.
There are several more follow-up meetings to set up for planning and coordination purposes. The critical ones being with the St. Matthews faculty, the Stan Creek Agriculture group, and the women's group. I think that management of the garden will depend on the leadership of St. Matthews faculty in close collaboration with the Agriculture personnel. Marketing the produce rests on the women's group, some of whom are also members of the St. Matthews PTA. These remaining activities will be in Dr. Popp's capable hands.
I would also like to mention that our alumni duo - Danis Copenhaver and Drew Cogbill have done an exemplary job from the beginning. These two had demonstrated admirable astuteness in planning and organization of diverse activities and locations of more than 60 people. They are invaluable assets and had afforded our CAFLS group much help. Pomona is about 13 miles from Dangriga. Although we did not request it, they had the foresight of arranging for one vehicle just for the CAFLS group - for us to use everyday in going back and forth to Ponoma. Looking at how the purchasing of supplies and materials came about, and with some initial troubles with equipment needing to be fixed or examined, this dedicated vehicle was heaven-sent. They have also arranged for another vehicle to be shared by the other groups.
We have used our time in Belize very well. In fact, I wish we had more time. This progress report turned out long, but I hope that it had vividly portrayed the hard work that our students had put into laying down the foundation for this project. We did our best to establish ties and we hope to strengthen them with time. We ended up with a team of brilliant, motivated, diversely talented, mentally and physically tough young girls, which made the challenging task enjoyable and tenable. I love working with them.
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3. Our first blog: "An Arkansan in Edinburgh"
The Bumpers College Web site has its first actual blog on the Global Studies Web site. The blog is by Dru Glaze, an agricultural education, communications and technology major who is working in Edinburgh on a summer internship. You can read Dru's postings as "An Arkansan in Edinburgh," and send her your responses. (Note that she will review responses before posting them.)
Our first "online journal" (we called it a blog, but it doesn't have the response feature) was provided by perennial first-adopter Curt Rom, HORT, and students about their Italy Study Tour.
Coming soon is another online journal: "Letters from Belize," also to be on the Global Studies Web site. The progress report posted above as Item 2 will be the first entry. There will be others.
AAES and Bumpers College Web sites:
http://aaes.uark.edu/
http://bumperscollege.uark.edu/