Focus on Your Future
US Department of Agriculture
Hispanic Serving Institutions Education Grant
"Focus on the Future Program"
Hispanic Students in the College of Agriculture at Cal Poly Pomona:
Turbocharge your education and professional development - and get an iPad2!
The College of Agriculture has been awarded over $290,000 to help prepare students of Hispanic origin across all disciplines in the College of Agriculture for careers in leadership.
The program will help participants develop key business skills to make them fully career ready on graduation. Through a series of seminars and other special events on campus, participants will hone their critical thinking and communication, skills.
- They will receive mentoring by faculty and industry executives to assist them in their academic and professional development.
- They will be sponsored to attend professional meetings in their field, where they can listen to the latest developments and network with executives.
- Through site visits and classroom speakers they will be able to explore career pathways and will receive special support to help them secure that first career opening on graduation.
- They will also have access to special library and multimedia facilities, to support them in their studies.
- On completion of the program, they will receive a framed certificate of completion.
The program is designed to run in parallel with participants’ degree programs. It will involve regular meetings as part of a one or two unit course that can be used as a restricted elective within their program. All books and materials are provided to participants at no-cost. All participants will also be equipped with an iPad2. The iPad is an important learning tool that will support them in their studies.
The program will give participants a valuable addition to their resume and provide an impressive element in their ePortfolio to share with prospective employers as they seek internships and those vital first career openings.
The "Focus on the Future" program seeks to enroll students in the fall quarter each year to benefit from this program. For more information view the Poster and/or contact one of the program officers.
Program Officers
- PI: Dr. Ron Heimler (Email: rheimler@csupomona.edu)
- Co-PI: Dr. Nancy Merlino (Email: namerlino@csupomona.edu, Tel: 909-868-2270)
- Co-PI: Dr. Peter Kilduff (Email: pkilduff@csupomona.edu, Tel: 909-869-2082)
This project was supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant no. 2011-38422-30808 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
USDA Focus on the Future poster
(View PDF)
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