Community Partnerships Help Undergraduate Students to Meet the ‘Grand Challenges’ of Today

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has defined several priority need areas or “Grand Challenges” that face our world-wide community. These challenges are complex and will require collaborative approaches to yield creative solutions. The Fishback Honors College at South Dakota State University is committed to preparing undergraduate honors students with the experiences and training to tackle these “Grand Challenges.” Six undergraduate student interns were recruited and trained to deliver non-formal educational programs that addressed the USDA priority need areas. The community outreach internships were conducted in partnership with Boys and Girls Clubs local to Eastern South Dakota as well as SDSU Extension. These outreach efforts engaged more than 1,000 youth ranging from preschool to high school aged students. The role of the interns was to create, execute, and assess a series of experiential learning activities for youth that translated “Grand Challenge” lessons learned through the college students’ coursework and research to this broader audience of youth, and to further the Honors College goal of deepening its engagement in the community.