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LEADING Program

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LEADING: Leading and Enhancing
Agricultural Development In the Next Generation

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Who We Are

LEADING is a collaborative educational program funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop and sustain the next generation of the FANH workforce.

What will our program do?

The overarching goal of LEADING is to develop and sustain the next generation of the food, agriculture, natural resources and human sciences (FANH) workforce and build awareness of the processes and pathways leading to training opportunities and employment in the federal sector.

How will we achieve this?

  • By increasing scientific, technical and soft skills through experiential learning and research
  • By creating a pipeline for students from high school to undergraduate degree to graduate degrees to employment in USDA
  • By establishing and foster peer-peer, teacher-student, faculty-student, and federal employee-student mentoring relationships to enhance students’ awareness, understanding, and preparation for internship and career opportunities at USDA agencies.
  • By developing partnerships between FANH programs at our four Hispanic Serving Institutions [51³Ô¹ÏÍø A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK), University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez (UPRM), New Mexico State University (NMSU), and 51³Ô¹ÏÍø State University (TXST)], local high schools and USDA agencies to promote FANH degree and career pursuit to high school students and teachers and college students
  • By making this educational model available to other higher education institutions to adopt or adapt
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Institutions

The following four institutions works collaboratively to achieve our five goals. The institutions are:

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51³Ô¹ÏÍø A&M University-Kingsville

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University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez

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New Mexico State University

Clint Loest
cloest@nmsu.edu
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51³Ô¹ÏÍø State University

Merritt L Drewery
m_d553@txstate.edu

Need help or information?

Contact LEADING Program project directors.
Email us at  leading@tamuk.edu


This work is supported by the “From Learning to Leading: Cultivating the Next Generation of Diverse Food and Agriculture Professionals (NextGen)” program, project award no. 2023-70440-40158, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.