Virginia Western Community College has received a $343,209 Advanced Technological Education (ATE) grant from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. government’s independent science agency.
The three-year grant will fund the College’s project, “Cross-Pollination Skillsets: Growing Mechatronics and Agricultural Collaborations for Producing Skilled Agricultural Technicians,” which will test Virginia Western faculty members’ ideas to improve technician education.
“We are very grateful to receive this substantial grant from the National Science Foundation,” said Dr. Robert Sandel, Virginia Western’s president. “Our faculty are always seeking innovative ways to equip our students to meet community needs, and this collaboration builds on that strength. Our state leaders have identified key workforce needs in the agricultural sector, and we are ready to help make Virginia a welcome destination for these employers.”
The Cross-Pollination Skillsets project targets a state government priority for developing business opportunities through controlled environmental agriculture (CEA), according to Dr. David Berry, assistant professor and Mechatronics Program head. As principal investigator, Berry will lead the new initiative with Dr. Mallory White, assistant professor of biology and Agriculture Program head, who is serving as co-principal investigator. The concept of the grant is to train the next level of technicians needed in the state’s agriculture workforce.
Integral to the project’s formation was the partnership with the project’s Business and Industry Leadership Team (BILT). Contributing as members of the BILT are: Matthew Lohr, Virginia Secretary of Agriculture; Arturo Gomez Mazatan, Red Sun Farms; J. Scott Lowman, the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research; Gus Brennan, Greenswell Growers; Jared Heffron, Novenesis; Stefanie Manbeck, Cattlemen’s Insurance Agency; Kate Stevens, James River High School – FFA advisor/agriculture teacher; and Walter Grigg, TORC Robotics.
“This project has been shaped by our community partners, and we are so grateful for their support,” said Dean of STEM and Workforce Solutions Amy White. “Our faculty investigators were very open and flexible as we began the planning process, and so we were able to be very nimble to respond to the BILT’s input.”
Industry members outside the BILT also note the value of the project’s synergies. “Integrating agriculture and technology into college curriculums is essential for businesses like MOVA Technologies Inc. or Vegg Inc., which offer climate-smart ag-tech solutions,” said Luke Allison, director of advancement and communications for MOVA Technologies, Inc. “The next generation of workers must be leaders in environmental stewardship while advancing technological progress. Higher education needs to ignite their imaginations, fostering a proactive approach to creating innovative solutions for challenges that have yet to arise.”
Through teamwork with Shelley Lyons, Virginia Western’s grant coordinator, and Dean Amy White, investigators Berry and White began preparing the grant proposal with mentoring and technical support from Mentor-Connect, which provides mentoring and technical resources to help two-year college faculty write competitive grant proposals. Mentor-Connect is an ATE project led by Florence-Darlington Technical College in partnership with the American Association of Community Colleges. Virginia Western was one of 24 community colleges nationwide selected to participate in Mentor-Connect’s year of training and mentoring sessions to prepare the grant application.
“Much of the credit for our winning proposal must go to the Mentor-Connect program. I was initially skeptical that the program would properly address our focus area. The focus on agriculture is just gaining momentum and I wasn’t certain any mentor would have experience with the subject matter,” said Berry. “However, the mentors worked with us continually, pushing us to make progress even though we were swamped with other responsibilities. The result of this experience wasn’t only a winning proposal; our internal team, our external network and our focus has been strengthened significantly.”
Mallory White pointed to the need this project will fill. “This is new territory. However, our urban college is uniquely poised to instruct the community about hydroponics and controlled environmental agriculture,” she said. “We have a strong science department, so it’s important to take advantage of our existing programs, incorporate new courses, and think of the future to meet the growing need for more advanced agricultural techniques required to ensure more crops can be successfully and sustainably grown.”
Students will be able to combine coursework from Mechatronics and Agriculture programs, plus new courses being developed, to receive an Associate of Applied Science in Technical Studies. Because these programs already existed, there is a much smoother on-ramp than the longer process of having a completely new program approved at the state level.
The NSF grant will aid staffing, course development and equipment to better target the focus on controlled environment agriculture. For example, the project is developing a course in vertical growing and hydroponics, which will include equipment that will also benefit the College’s Horticulture Program as well. “We’ll literally be able to cross-pollinate the mechatronics and ag fields — the mechatronics with the sensors and pH meters, giving students more practice with data analysis and the ag field through understanding the technology behind the hydroponics,” Mallory White said. The program also plans outreach to benefit K-12 students.
Another mode of cross-pollination involves increasing gender diversity among the Mechatronics and Agriculture programs’ current populations. The Mechatronics Program enrolls more male students, while female students comprise the majority of Agriculture Program enrollees. “One of our target outcomes is to create a more diverse population in the programs and have men and women explore ideas within this developing field of controlled environment agriculture,” Berry said.
The ATE program focuses on the education of technicians who work in high-tech fields that drive the nation’s economy. Because two-year community and technical colleges are the leading sources of technician education in the United States, faculty from these higher education institutions have had leadership roles in most ATE projects since the program began in 1993.
“We are thrilled to work within our community to support the growing field of agriculture and look forward to the outcomes of this valuable project. We strive to be good community partners, and this project is yet another way Virginia Western can be a leader in providing opportunity and resources to our students,” said Dean Amy White.
Those interested in seeking this degree may contact Berry for more information by emailing dberry@virginiawestern.edu. More information may be found at https://ate.is/dberry.
