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Dr. Buddhi Raj Gyawali, Professor of Geospatial Applications and Environment, recently obtained 1.5 million dollars as a share of his collaboration with other 4 HBCUs on the recently funded grant "Generating And Sustaining The Next Generation Of The Food, Agriculture, Natural Resources, And Human Sciences (FANH)  Workforce Through International Experiential Learning, Outreach, And Engagement" for four years funded by USDA-NIFA's new program Inaugural "From Learning to Leading: Cultivating the Next Generation of Diverse Food and Agriculture Professionals Program". This 10-million dollars multi-institutional grant will be jointly managed by four consortium institutions- Kentucky State University (SKU), Florida A&M University (FAMU), and Southern University (SU) under the leadership of the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore (UMES). The project aims to build and sustain the next generation of diverse food, agricultural, natural resources, and human sciences (FANH) workforce primarily through domestic and international experiential learning, outreach, and engagement programs. The specific objectives for achieving this goal are to: 1) Develop and sustain resilient partnerships with a vested interest in building the future workforce in FANH [Lead: FAMU]; 2) Establish and sustain effective and responsive career development activities and understanding of process and pathways to federal employment [Lead: KSU]; 3) Develop innovative recruitment, training, and retention and leadership development activities to attract diverse students to FANH fields [Lead: SU]; and 4) Design and implement impactful domestic and international experiential learning projects (ELPs) for students [Lead: UMES].

Kentucky State University, under the leadership of Dr. Buddhi Gyawali (Project Director) and his collaborators Dr. Maheteme Gebremedhin, Associate professor of Soil and Meteorology, and Dr. Anuj Chiluwal, Assistant professor of Agronomy, will utilize the secured funds to create stipends for 20 undergraduate Agriculture, Food and Environment (AFE) majors every year; (2) provide instate tuition waiver and health insurance for ten new graduate students enrolled in M.S. in Environmental Studies, (3) create 2-week long experiential learning and research opportunities for 10 minority students and faculty every year to travel to African, Central American, and Caribbean,  Asian, and Oceania countries to study climate change, coastal land management, disaster response and management, glacier melting and geohazards. The funds will also be utilized for developing educational content, media and digital campaigns, and marketing materials for AFE and MES programs and activities to enhance students' understanding of a wide variety of career opportunities across FANH and USDA, industry, public and private sectors.

A linkage Center will be established at the consortium institutions with resources to facilitate and sustain experiential learning and research; train target students to gain an increased understanding of leadership roles, including critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills; connect the academic classroom experience with internship and leadership roles and organizational activities.

Dr. Gyawali's other seven currently active grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and USDA and its 890s-Center of Excellence initiatives amounted to over 2.5 million dollars have been very instrumental and impactful in creating stipends for minority students for experiential research and international travels, Summer Apprenticeship Program (SAP) for high school students,  geospatial technology certificate program and instrumentation and pedagogical development of Agriculture, Environment and STEM faculty.

Please contact Dr. Gyawali (buddhi.gyawali@kysu.edu, or (502) 597-6029 to learn more about this new grant and the impacts of currently active grants.