Item No. 1 of 1

INVESTIGATOR: Besong, S.

PERFORMING INSTITUTION:
DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY
1200 NORTH DUPONT HIGHWAY
DOVER, DELAWARE 19901

PARTNERSHIP TO STRENGTHEN FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCE PROGRAMS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS AND DSU

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Family and Consumer Science (FCS) discipline is a product of the Bureau of Home Economics Act of 1972. FCS program have contributed significantly to increased access to education and employment opportunities for women, especially children from low-income and underserved communities. FCS program provide training and research in human nutrition, child development, institutional management, interior design, home furnishing, cleaning, handicrafts, sewing, clothing and textiles, commercial cooking, nutrition, food preservation, hygiene, child development, financial management, and family relationships. Despite its contribution to education of young people, recent decline in state and federal funding to education has forced school districts to lay-off or reduce the number of FCS teachers and increase class sizes, thereby compromising the quality of FCS education. This project aims to enhance and strengthen the quality of teaching at secondary schools and Extension programs at Delaware State University (DSU). The specific objectives of this project are: 1) To develop a professional development workshop for FCS teachers in DE and surrounding states, 2) To develop and organize summer programs at DSU and participating schools, and 3) To broaden Human Ecology students' experiences by offering them the opportunity to teach after-school programs to economically vulnerable students from secondary schools in the area. The purpose of this proposal is to provide high quality education and Extension programs for current and future FCS professionals in order to accomplish the USDA mission of providing a professional workforce in the food and agricultural sciences. Delaware State University, an 1890 land-grant, comprehensive, public-assisted institution, seeks to train the leaders and teachers of tomorrow, as well as to communicate knowledge to decision-makers and the public at large.

OBJECTIVES: Family and Consumer Sciences (formerly called Home Economics) is a discipline that was established after the Morrill Act of 1862 and the passage of the Bureau of Home Economics Act of 1927 to promote opportunities and rights for women in education. This discipline has prepared thousands of women and minorities for public school teaching and careers in the extension service, state and federal governments, industry, hospitals, restaurants and hotels. Family and Consumer Science (FCS) was a progressive field that brought science to the farm home and women into higher education and leadership positions in public education, academia, government and industry. FCS program has prepared hundreds of women and minorities for careers in the extension service, state and federal governments, and textiles and fashion industry, as well food related jobs. Bureau of labor Statistics, U.S Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook (2014-2015ed) reported that there is growing demand for FSC graduates for jobs in apparel and textile design, Merchandising, dietetics, education, food and nutrition sciences, hospitality, interior design, nutrition and fitness, communications and financial planning. Despite the promising job market for FCS graduates, enrollment of students family and consumer science program has been declining compared to other disciplines. The contributing factors to the lower pool of qualified and competent underrepresent minority graduates for entry-level jobs in the family and consumer science fields are attributed to: 1) lack of exposure to the diverse career opportunities in FCS, 2) lack of student engagement with professionals in FCS fields, 3) lack of hands-on experiential learning with modern technologies required for the high-tech textiles and apparel industries. This project proposes to expand and enhance our current approach to recruiting, retaining, preparing and placing minority graduates into FCS programs. This project proposes to build a partnership with secondary school administrators, teachers and counselors to develop and organize summer programs that will engage students and showcase career opportunities in the field of Family and Consumer Sciences. The project will strengthen DSU's Cooperative Extension programs and will develop activities and services to meet the needs of consumers and clients in Delaware. The specific objectives of this project are: 1) To develop a professional development workshop for FCS teachers in DE and surrounding states, 2) To develop and organize summer programs at DSU and participating schools, and 3) To broaden Human Ecology students' experiences by offering them the opportunity to teach after-school programs to economically vulnerable students from secondary schools in the area.

APPROACH: To improve the quality of instruction and strengthen the FCS program activities in secondary schools, this project plans to develop and organize annual workshops at target schools during summer months for family and consumers science teachers. The workshops will be designed to provide teachers with new knowledge in curriculum development and instruction of family and consumer science courses. The project plans to use existing survey data to assess the needs of DE FCS teachers regarding types and content of materials that would help them in their profession and in the classroom. In addition, we will conduct a pre-survey during teachers' in-service meeting to gather information on their needs. A post-survey will be designed and administered to participants at the end of the workshop to evaluate the effectiveness of the workshop. FCS contributes to a broad range of intellectual, moral, and workforce development of students. FCS activities prepare students for family life, work life, and prepare them to become responsible citizens and leaders for family, community, and work settings. FCS promotes critical and creative thinking skills to address problems in diverse family, community, and work environments. To assist secondary schools in Delaware in student training and intellectual development, this project proposes to develop and organize summer camp for secondary school students. Each session of the summer camp will last for one week. The summer program will be organized each year during the month of July at target schools to provide students with basic nutrition education and wellness, and meal preparation skills, wardrobe planning, apparel and textiles, clothing design and tailoring skills, and financial management. Graduate students and undergraduate student who will be hired to assist with project execution will develop lessons for secondary school. A set of pre/post surveys will be administered and collected to measure the knowledge and skills gained during the summer camp and to improve the quality of program for the following years. We will also observe and interview the student mentors to determine skills gained. An important outcome of this project is leadership skills development for our undergraduate students. The project plans to incorporate a leadership development component to ensure that DSU graduates are equipped with both technical and leadership skills. To broaden Human Ecology (HE) students' experience, the project directors plan to partner with secondary schools within Kent County in Delaware to offer students an opportunity to teach a class through a community engagement program called the FCS after-school program. Six well-trained students will be selected to teach each year. The selected undergraduate students will be offered tuition support in the amount of $3000 per year. They will involve in planning, training, executing, and evaluating after-school programs. Through this practical application, students will increase an understanding of leadership role, critical thinking, problem solving, and communication skills, ethics and professionalism, and how to working a team. In addition, they will have an opportunity to mentor, teach by shadowing a secondary school teacher. Finally, undergraduate students will have an opportunity to build their transferable skills, which is one of most important real-world skills we can offer them.

PROGRESS: 2020/05 TO 2021/04
Target Audience:Middle school students High school students Undergraduate students Graduate students Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Project funds were used to cover travel expenses for Dr. Samuel Besong to attend the 2019 American Association of Family and Consumer Science 109th Annual Conference and Expo in Atlanta as part of professional development opportunity for faculty. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Project activities are disseminated via URL link (https://cast.desu.edu/textiles-apparel-studies-outreach-programs) What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to request for a one-year No-cost Extension that will provide additional time to complete outlined project objectives. We plan to use some of the funds to increase capacity of the sewing laboratory with basic equipment required to teach beginners tailoring skills. Some of the basic equipment that we plan to purchase to build the capacity of DSU's sewing lab are: professional industrial sewing machines, professional serger, steam pressing machine and male dress forms We plan to organize a two-week summer sewing camp and increase the Summer Camp sessions to two sessions in other to increase the number of student participants and to increase awareness and foster interest in Family and Consumer Sciences as a future career for students. We plan to increase opportunities experiential learning and leadership skills for our undergraduate students by organizing project activities at participating school campus to offer students an opportunity to teach a class through a community engagement program. We plan to organize Family and Consumer Science (FCS) after-school program and continue to organize annual FCS summer camp and Farm to School programs. We also plan to continue organization of annual professional development workshops for Family and Consumer Sciences teachers. To also plan to organize a sewing program for adult individuals who are interested in sewing as a hobby.

IMPACT: 2020/05 TO 2021/04
What was accomplished under these goals? This grant was awarded in March 2017, unfortunately work on some project activities have not been completely executed and student support was not provided this year because project activities were suspended due the outbreak of COVID-19 PANDEMIC. PD/CoPDs and students were unable to execute project activities because the university was forced to shut down all activities on campus to prevent the spread of COVID-19. We were unable to work with Middle and High Schools in Kent County. The purpose of this proposal is to provide high quality education and Extension programs for current and future FCS professionals in order to accomplish the USDA mission of providing a professional workforce in the food and agricultural sciences. To achieve that we developed and organized a professional development workshops for Family and Consumer Science teachers that would addresses teachers' concerns and provided them new knowledge in the field. We organized a one-day teachers' workshop at DSU campus (July 25, 2019). We developed recruitment fliers and distributed to middle and high schools in Kent County. Event recruitment information was added to URL link (https://cast.desu.edu/textiles-apparel-studies-outreach-programs). We recruited two industry professionals (Sher Valenzuela Vice President from ILC Dover and Jill Wolfe from First State Manufacturing) as guest speakers for teachers' workshop. Another project objective is to develop and organize summer programs for middle and high school students to increase awareness, knowledge and skills in Textiles and Apparel Studies' field. To accomplish project objectives, we have organized a one-week Summer Camp program (July 8-12, 2019) for middle and high school students. We secured a Horticulturalist as a guest speaker for camp: to discuss how plants are used for clothing fibers and Small Ruminant Specialist to discuss how animal fibers are used for clothing. We developed fliers that showcased and displayed program resources and career opportunities in the field of Family and Consumer Sciences, and Textiles and Apparel Studies programs. Fliers were distributed to middle and high schools within Kent County, Delaware. Summer Camp recruitment URL link (https://cast.desu.edu/textiles-apparel-studies-outreach-programs) and registration materials were distributed to middle and high schools within Kent County. About twenty middle and high school students have already registered to participate in the 2019 Summer Camp program at DSU campus. We distributed URL link to the Department of Education representative (Rita Hovermale) and her directory contacts for 2018-2019 FCS middle and high school teachers in all Delaware School Districts. To increase our recruitment efforts, we set up a booth at the Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) Conference in Delaware on March 26, 2019 and distributed over 200 fliers. In addition, we did launch a Facebook site for Textile and Apparel Outreach with information about summer camp. An IRB application form was written, submitted and waived for this project because it complements DSU's Cooperative Extension outreach activities. We recruited four undergraduate mentors with a minimum of 3.0 GPA from the Textile and Apparel Studies Program to assist with Summer Camp Program activities. This project has strengthened collaboration between the Department of Human Ecology at DSU and middle/high schools in Kent County, Delaware which helps to increase awareness and visibility of DSU's Textiles and Apparel Studies program.

PUBLICATIONS (not previously reported): 2020/05 TO 2021/04
No publications reported this period.

PROGRESS: 2017/05/01 TO 2018/04/30
Target Audience:Middle students in kent County Delaware Middle School secondary school administrators, teachers and counselors in kent County Delaware Undergraduate Students in the Department of Human Ecology at Delaware State University Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Information about project activities were disseminated to middle schools within Delaware and neighboring states What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to visit participating middle schools in the Fall-2018 semester. We plan to organize a workshop during the Fall-2018 and summer-2019 to provide professional development opportunities for Family and Consumer Sciencesteachers in Delaware andsurrounding states. We also plan toorganize summer-2019 programs at DSU and participating schools to bridge the knowledge gap about Family and Consumer Science programs. We also plan tocollaborate with DSU's Cooperative Extension and organizeafter-school programs to economically vulnerable students. These after-school programs will provide an experiential learning opportunity for undergraduate students in the Department of Human Ecology. We plan to develop advertisement/recruitment tools and improve the department's website to showcase the project activities help us attract talented students to our programs.

IMPACT: 2017/05/01 TO 2018/04/30
What was accomplished under these goals? We have developed criteria for selecting academically talented students for financial support. We have selected two students the Textiles and Apparel Studies program and two students from the Food and Nutritional Sciences program to receive financial support in the Fall-2018 semester. We have selected a graduate student in the Food Science program to assist in mentoring Food and Nutritional Sciences students.

PUBLICATIONS: 2017/05/01 TO 2018/04/30
No publications reported this period.