Building pipelines to careers in food, nutrition at Alcorn State

Black students continue to be underrepresented in graduate programs and careers related to food, nutrition, community health and human sciences. Alcorn State University intends to change that.

Using a MEA Center grant, the university has built a pipeline program designed to increase student enrollment and retention in related undergraduate programs and connect students to professional mentoring and first-hand work experience they can use to enhance their post-graduate prospects.

Martha Ravola, Ph.D., Photo proided by John Newsom

“Students are very focused on their grade point average, but GPA only tells employers about their academic learning,” said Martha Ravola, Ph.D., an associate professor of human development and family science at Alcorn State. “One may have the knowledge, but may not have the hands-on experience in the field. This is why experiential learning is critical. Students need to know how it works in real time and how to present themselves and function in real time. Hands-on experience is a big piece.”

The project — “Enhancing Student Recruitment and Workforce Development through Partnerships and Engagements” — is funded by the MEA Center at N.C. A&T’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. Nirodha De Silva, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Langston University, serves as principal investigator. Ravola is a co-principal investigator and the project director at Alcorn State.

Building this pipeline starts with student recruitment. The MEA Center grant has allowed Alcorn’s Department of Human Sciences, which Ravola chairs, to develop new departmental recruitment materials distributed at school and university events — High School Day, Field Day, freshman orientation, to name several. A departmental recruitment team uses these events to inform prospective students about the department’s offerings as well as potential career paths.

Because this pipeline connects students with careers, the project includes hands-on pre-professional experience. During the 2021-22 school year, eight Alcorn State seniors, all of whom were majors in the human sciences department, held internships with local employers that matched their career interests. Employers included child care and child advocacy centers, counseling centers, schools, the university’s food service operation and a statewide nonprofit working to eliminate health disparities.

Students received academic credit and a $3,000 stipend for a semester-long internship. The stipends were critical, Ravola said, because many minority students can’t afford to have unpaid internships because they must work to support themselves and their families.

Ravola said the Alcorn State program raised the university’s visibility among industry partners around the region, which could create more career options for Alcorn State graduates. Students, meanwhile, learned career skills as well as valuable functional skills such as leadership and teamwork. They also gained mentors and began building their professional networks. Ravola said these experiences will serve students well whether they attend graduate school or go right into their careers.

After their internships, “the students returned and talked as if they’d been employed there,” Ravola said, “They’d say, ‘In our organization, this is what we do, this is what we have done, this is what went out.’ It was encouraging to see their increased confidence.”