E-Campus enrollment in CAS courses has grown from 506 to 1,184 students in five years, primarily due to four of its departments creating 100% online degree programs (Fisheries & Wildlife, Agricultural Sciences, Horticulture, and Environmental Economics & Policy). Though some of the students are local and are not completing a full online degree program, the numbers nonetheless reflect a tremendous need for delivery of distance education programs.
http://oregonstate.edu/admin/aa/ir/enrollmentdemographic-reports#enroll-sum
Established through the OSU Foundation, the Global Experience Fund has provided $12,883 of support to a total of 13 students participating in international internships over the past two years. The fund is intended to broaden international perspectives related to agriculture, and has secured five years of funding from Hiram Larew, director of International Programs in the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Larew, who holds a masters degree in botany and plant pathology and a doctorate in entomology at Oregon State University, was recognized in 2010 with the College of Agricultural Sciences Legacy Award.
Up to five awards will be made annually on a competitive basis. Recipients of the award will contribute a report on how their program of study, outreach effort, or research project has been enhanced as a result of the global experience, to be published in CAS’s quarterly on-line newsletter, The Source. Award recipients also will discuss their experiences with students enrolled in the College’s World Agriculture course. The popular course is offered annually and includes an optional international travel experience. Recent recipients include:
Rachel Patterson: sea turtle research internship with the Archelon Sea Turtle Protection Society along the Gulf of Kyparissia, Greece.
Jocelyn Stokes: working at the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre, Borneo.
Rebekah Holman: wine business internship for Agricole Vallone in Puglia, Italy
Andrew Futerman: studying fisheries in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area.
http://agsci.oregonstate.edu/main/main/global-experiences-fund
The Summer Ag Institute is a continuing education course that provides a hands-on pedagogical experience for Oregon educators. Since it began in 1989, more than 500 teachers have completed the weeklong program and earned OSU graduate credits. As 10% of Oregon’s economy, the agriculture industry generates $29 billion annually and creates over a quarter million jobs. Agriculture accounts for 60 percent of exports, and Oregon farmers produce more than 230 major crops. Successful farming requires knowledge in many disciplines, from biology and engineering to law and economics. And with the demands of a growing population and changing climate, education is more crucial now than ever.
Teachers have a choice of two sessions of the Summer Ag Institute, one on either side of the Cascades. The eastside experience, based in Union, includes Columbia Basin wheat ranches, timber operations, seed farms, and cattle ranches. The westside experience, based in Corvallis, showcases the Willamette Valley’s cornucopia of fruit, nuts, vegetables, microbreweries, and Christmas trees. The program gets teachers outdoors in the field, testing, tasting, and learning about agriculture first-hand.
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/winter-2013/q-how-can-kids-learn-where-food-comes
The newsletters include stories about grants, awards, and funding, as well as international connections and faculty spotlights. The link is the CAS comprehensive list of 2015 Departmental newsletters:
http://agsci.oregonstate.edu/main/newsletters
A succulent chicken-bacon-ranch sausage created by animal science student Claire Logue won a Reserve Grand Champion award at the 2015 Northwest Meat Processors Association convention in Seaside. Logue’s creation joins the award-winning hams, bacons, and sausages made and sold by OSU’s meat science students at the student-run Clark Meat Center, where students gain hands-on experience in every phase of meat processing, from slaughtering to crafting value-added products like bacon and sausage.
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/summer-2015/student-entrepreneurs
http://anrs.oregonstate.edu/system/files/Spring%202015%20Newsletter_1.pdf
At last summer’s American Cheese Society competition, the mozzarella variety of Beaver Classic Cheese—made and marketed by AgSci students—won first place in its category, beating out commercial entries from all over the United States.
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/summer-2015/student-entrepreneurs
In 2014, the College completely revamped the OSU Dairy to reflect contemporary management and research relevant to Oregon’s 3rd largest agricultural industry. AgSci maintains campus-based living laboratories for research in horticulture, crops, botany and plant pathology, and animal sciences.
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/summer-2015/things-are-moooo-ving-osu-dairy
Luisa Santamaria, a plant pathologist with OSU’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center, teaches plant disease prevention measures to local nursery workers. Since 2011, Santamaria has reached about 500 Spanish-speaking workers from 25 nurseries through a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Institute of Food and Agriculture. She is currently working in collaboration with OSU’s Professional and Continuing Education Program to create a certification that focuses on plant disease prevention. Her work is crucial to the preservation of Oregon’s largest agricultural commodity: the $745 million nursery industry, which produces 18% of the nation’s nursery crops.
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/bridges/bilingual-outreach-keeps-agricultural-businesses-sanitary
