Students for Dr. Bill Sutton’s Wetlands Ecology and Management cross-over graduate and upper-level undergraduate class put high-impact learning practices into action when they do quality research right on campus at the
SEE PAGE 16
Tiger Bay Wetlands.
Pictured on the cover:
First-year Food and Animal Science master’s student Imani Spearman enjoys her time out at the Ruminant Livestock Facility working with both the goats and the cattle.
curriculum:
A B.S. in Agricultural Science with a Food and Animal Science concentration puts you on the pre-vet track
Career Development:
Students are supported in their pursuit of community involvement, internships and vet shadowing opportunities
experience:
Undergraduates perform hands-on research at our on-campus labs, livestock facilities, farms and wetlands environments
Faculty:
With
message from the dean : dr . chandra reddy
Greetings from the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture! It is with great enthusiasm that I share this latest edition of with you—our valued stakeholders, alumni, and friends. This issue highlights the vibrant, engaging, and productive fall semester of the 2024-2025 academic year.
Inside, we celebrate our extraordinary students, who continue to make us proud every day. We also introduce innovative educational approaches, including our commitment to high-impact learning practices, and share the remarkable achievements of our researchers.
I am proud to report that the College of Agriculture has seen strong success in student recruitment and retention even during these times when university enrolment has been in a declining trend. As we look ahead, we are committed to growing our programs, facilities, and student body, setting the stage for even greater achievements in the years to come.
Let me highlight some standout stories in this issue of AgLink.
On page 44, you’ll find “Finding Her Voice for the Future,” which showcases one of our most accomplished undergraduate students, Kennedy Bentley. After representing TSU, the College, and the United States at the prestigious Group of Seven Meetings in Italy, Kennedy joined me at the Borlaug Dialogue, hosted by the World Food Prize.
On page 8, we share “Helene Through Their Eyes,” a heartfelt account of how our incredible East Tennessee Cooperative Extension agents rose to the occasion, serving their communities with resilience and dedication during and after Hurricane Helene.
On page 28, we celebrate the ribbon-cutting ceremony for our new research and education facilities, held during the Small Farm Expo. Dignitaries, designers, and our TSUAg family helped us open our new agricultural education buildings at “the Farm.”
Finally, on page 38, don’t miss “110 Years and Counting,” a tribute to our rich history. As we approach our 111th year in 2025, this feature honors the giants on whose shoulders we stand and reflects on our enduring legacy.
In closing, I want to extend my gratitude to Dr. Ronald Johnson for his support of the University’s land-grant programs during his tenure as Interim President. As we welcome Mr. Dwayne Tucker as the new Interim President of TSU, we offer him our full support and wish him every success in leading the University to new heights.
Thank you for your continued support of Tennessee State University, the College of Agriculture, and our land-grant programs. Together, we are building a brighter future for agriculture and our communities.
Chandra Reddy Dean and Director of Research Administrator of Extension
Five Years of the Female Farmer
With more than half of the undergraduate student body at the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg) being female, the power of women in agriculture is not lost on anyone here at the College. As such, TSUAg held the fifth-annual Women in Agriculture and Human Sciences Conference in early November, and the two-day educational summit on all things agriculture entrepreneurship was again this year, a hit.
The Pavilion at the TSU Agriculture Research Education Center was packed for the two-day conference, which
featured dozens of speakers from TSUAg, governmental agencies, private farming operators and consultants. The conference featured the tag line “Local, Natural and Sustainable,” and as such, focused on issues relevant to small local agriculture proprietors. And while the event did feature its fair share of male speakers and have male attendees, the power of the female agriculture entrepreneur was on full display over the two days.
It was TSUAg’s Rita Fleming, Dr. Arvazena Clardy and Dr. Latif Lighari who offered the opening welcome to the more than 100 attendees on day
Charlie Morrison
5th annual Women in Agriculture and Human Sciences Conference brings together female entrepreneurs from across the state | By
one. The morning session featured presentations by Dr. Brione Lockett from the Department of Human Sciences, who spoke on maintaining one’s well-being in life situations, Dr. Thyneice Bowden-Taylor, who gave a presentation on raising poultry in home or commercial environments, and Greg Jones of the Tennessee Small Business Development Centers who gave a well-received presentation on creating business plans.
TSUAg Alumni Association President James Reeves kicked of the afternoon of day one by addressing the topic of heirs’ property management before
The 5th annual TSUAg Women in Agriculture and Human Sciences Conference brought female (and male) agriculture entrepreneurs to campus from across the state for two days of intensive learning.
giving way to TSUAg Research Assistant Mary Mafuyai. Mafuyai spoke powerfully on the topic of women’s land ownership and agricultural involvement in Tennessee, bringing the theme of the Women in Agriculture and Human Sciences Conference, “Local, Natural and Sustainable,” home for the attendees.
Dr. Veronica Oates joined TSU Extension Agent Karla Gargus in speaking on the topic of how and why to grow and consume microgreens. Recent TSUAg doctoral graduate Dr. Steven Kennedy rounded out the day’s presentations with a talk on fruit production and management.
Day two started up with a presentation from four representatives from the USDA’s Natural Resouces Conservation Services, who addressed the technical and financial assistance available to urban farmers through the organization’s programming. The second session of the day was led by Ashley Brooks of Ruby’s Happy Farm, who gave the audience a view from an
actual producer before TSUAg Drs. Dharma Pitchay, Sunil Gurung and Firuz Yuldashev spoke on the power of hydroponics.
The Farm Service Agency’s Outreach Coordinator Baylee Bain presented her organization’s offerings to open up the afternoon session of day two.
TSU Research Associate Emily Hayes gave the audience an introduction to meat goat and beef cattle production before Dr. Clardy gave the final talk of the conference, on “creating your dish garden.”
“The conference was truly informative and beneficial,” said conference attendee Jacqueline Taylor.
“It was amazing,” said Terri Carter of the University of Georgia’s Cobb County Extension Office. Carter led a group of 10 who made the drive from in and around Athens. “The heirs’ property discussion led by Mr. Reeves was the most important part of the conference for us. I really enjoyed the part about growing microgreens as well, its really
cool that you can grow something so nutritious inside with very little space, that’s really cool.”
“I met so many people, and its the people you meet that inspire you to go back home and do more good work,” Carter continued. “When you go to a conference like this you really find people who think the way you think
“We created the event to educate women from Tennessee in various areas of agriculture, over the years though it’s grown to include men and folks from other states like Georgia and Ohio,” said Dr. Clardy, the Director of the conference.
“We have a lot of new and beginning farmers, we have some folks from the TSU New Farmer Academy and we have many husband and wife teams who come to the conference, where the men maybe do the hard farming but the women serve the business in other ways,” she continued. “We’ve had a lot of women in vegetable production, cut flowers and agri-tourism.”
Dr. Arvazena Clardy has led the effort to put on the annual Women in Agriculture and Human Sciences Conference since its inception five years ago.
The Ag. Research Education Center Pavilion was packed for the two-day conference, which featured dozens of speakers from TSUAg, governmental agencies and private farming operators and consultants.
Ashley Brooks of Ruby’s Happy Farm addressed the 5th annual Women in Agriculture Conference on the challenges, the pitfalls, the success stories of her small agriculture business.
Helene Through Their Eyes
Three TSUAg Extension Agents reflect on the devastation of Hurricane Helene | By
TSUAg Extension Agents Danielle Pleasant, Jack Price and Lane Brooks
On September 27 Hurricane Helene ravaged northeast Tennessee and western North Carolina leaving massive damage and needs in its wake. Even before the waters receded, Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg) Extension agents were responding to needs in our communities, helping to coordinate incoming relief efforts while continuing to connect individuals to resources throughout our affected areas. Additionally, many of our fellow agents and 4-H program alumni reached out in support and started coordinating aid to send to affected areas.
The devastation in each of our communities is difficult to describe. Physically, the landscape is forever changed, roadways destroyed, crops ruined, houses washed away, and lives lost; however, the mental, emotional, and financial recovery that our communities face will continue to be felt far into the future. As we traveled across the region, we came to the realization that each county was impacted differently but the pain and suffering were the same.
The needs in each impacted community were different, the levels of destruction were different, and the losses were different. The sheer magnitude of destruction can’t be imagined or calculated in a personal sense. The landscape has changed so much that we will never see these picturesque areas through the same lens. No one was prepared for a disaster of this magnitude, however, the support and outreach have uplifted our communities and left each of us humbled and grateful.
Extension agents serve as the arm of outreach for land grant universities Tennessee State University and the
University of Tennessee. Through the Cooperative Extension program, Extension agents bring researchbased information from the university to local communities. Through this historic disaster, Extension agents had to wear many different hats and take on new roles, but they still did what they do best, served their communities and served them well.
Despite flooding in three UT-TSU Extension offices, agents were committed to helping each other and their communities. Lane Brooks, a new TSU Extension Agent in Cocke County, began his tenure by immediately addressing the destruction, packing up materials, and coordinating efforts to maintain community support.
The Hawkins County team served in Carter, Greene and Cocke counties by serving as a drop off hub and headquarters while also delivering the needed materials to surrounding churches, extension offices and other points for distribution in our neighboring counties.
Our Hawkins County 4-H Honor Club members and extension staff were very instrumental in getting the Carter County Office moved due to extensive damage. Office staff also assisted with hay deliveries and farm equipment distribution at the Appalachian Fairgrounds. We also were able to ship water and cleaning supplies to Cocke County via partners and volunteers simply wanting to assist their neighbors.
Major infrastructure damage in Johnson County left many individuals and communities isolated. The Extension team immediately began connecting resources and donations to individuals in need. During this time, 4-H Agent Danielle Pleasant received a phone call from
Doris, a donor in West Virginia. Upon answering the call, Doris first asked, “Are you the one with the successful 4-H horse judging team?”
Doris was so positively impacted by her involvement in 4-H as a young person, some fifty years prior, that she wanted to give back through 4-H; a program that had given her so many opportunities and helped her learn skills that contributed to her success. Doris made plans to drive about nine hours to deliver supplies to Johnson County. “As an Extension Agent, I can only hope to leave such a lasting impact with my 4-H’ers, as her agent once did,” said Danielle.
4-H Youth Development Extension agents work with local school systems, volunteers and program partners to deliver educational programs and
learning opportunities for youth to learn and develop essential life-skills such as communication, decisionmaking, setting and achieving goals just to name a few.
Throughout this crisis, agents, along with many of our partners and volunteers have had the joy of seeing our youth step into leadership roles and serve their communities as well as their neighboring counties. From helping with debris clean-up, coordinating and organizing donations, to volunteering at resource sites and preparing meals, our youth have shown us that they are not the leaders of tomorrow, they are leaders today.
East Tennessee is a unique community, descending from Scotch Irish ancestry, they are a tough, resilient and proud people. This gives them a will to survive
and come back with determination. This too is what our Extension Agent family displayed in this time of destruction. Whether it was taking calls and directing folks to needed resources, unloading hay and farm supplies or physically going out and assisting with clean-up these folks stepped up to the plate.
The UT-TSU Extension family performed flawlessly. Extension continues to play an important role in the long-term recovery for our communities by providing trusted information and resources to those we serve. AL
Honor Club members from Hawkins County 4-H assisted Cater County Extension in moving their office after the devastating flooding brought by Hurricane Helene Scan this QR code to learn more about Hurricane Helene
NextGen Grant Program is Paving Way of Opportunity
TSUAg’s NextGEN Program powering the search for the next generation of agriculture leaders | By Charlie Morrison
When the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg) secured an $18.1 million USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) “NextGen” grant in June of 2023, the College kicked off a program that, just a year-and-a-half on, has already changed the lives of TSUAg students. Managing the grant is a monumental task, but the project’s Principal Investigator Dr. John Ricketts and the team he’s assembled around the “NextGen” program are, 18-months into the program, in high gear.
The USDA NIFA project that provided for the College’s NextGen program is officially titled the “Next Generation Inclusion Consortium for Building the Food, Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Human Sciences Pipeline.” It’s aim is to build a more diverse agriculture workforce. In laymen’s terms, it provides a helpful framework with which TSUAg can recruit the next generation of agriculture professionals. For their participation, NextGen participants get a leg up in pursuing their dreams.
The program awards scholarships directly to students, paying for tuition, room and board, books and other expenses for scores of students over the next five years. In addition, there are a slew of new programs and opportunities available to students in agriculture that owe their existence to the NextGen grant, including research programs, study abroad programs, internships, even scholarships for high school students to enroll in the TSU Extension’s Tennessee New Farmer Academy.
The program has breathed new life into the student body at TSUAg, by supporting students with scholarships, internships, study abroad activities and much, much more.
Scholarships
Up from 19 in year one, this year 37 students are on partial or full scholarships to TSU through the NextGen program. Project Principal Investigator Dr. John Ricketts didn’t expect to build out the scholarship program by year two, but at 37 it’s at full capacity. The merit-based financial scholarship program rewards applicants with at least a 3.0 G.P.A. and requires of them participation in a number of NextGen activities. Student buy-in has been strong and in short, the program is thriving.
A handful of students from TSUAg took the long trip to Australia in November to work with virtual reality partner Think.Digital on their Cattle VR technology. The NextGen team is using the technology to both educate and recruit students, and taking the program to the people.
Internships
The NextGen program facilitates a number of undergraduate and graduate-level internships, both in the country and abroad. Two graduate students recently completed enriching two-month internships focused on impactful research projects in collaboration with the Biosciences Eastern and Central Africa International Livestock Research Institute-ILRI Hub and Southeastern Kenya University.
The first project surveyed antimicrobial resistance in Kenyan poultry farms, while the second investigated agricultural practices in diverse environments. Both projects provided access to cutting-edge research facilities and expert guidance.
“I feel extremely blessed to have been part of this project. Kenya is a beautiful country with kind people, lush landscapes, and diverse wildlife,” said participant Alondrah Santana. “This experience deepened my love for agricultural sciences. I hope to return in the future with my family or as a scientist.”
Study Abroad
International (and domestic) study-abroad opportunities are a big part of the NextGen program, and TSUAg is maximizing the number and types of trips available to
students. A recurring partnership with Virginia Tech University through NextGen brings students each year to Senegal in a partnership with a local Senegalese university. The next opportunity will be this spring.
Dr. LaPorchia Davis continues to take her fashion merchandising students to Europe as a part of the NextGen program. The next trip will be a sustainable textile-focused trip to London this spring.
A handful of students joined Dr. Ricketts in Australia in November as part of the NextGen program’s partnership with Aussie digital firm Think.Digital, whose Cattle VR technology the program is using to both recruit and educate. Dr. Dilip Nandwani brought students to India in December to tour organic farms in the country.
NextGen funds supported Dr. Brione Lockett’s alternative spring break trips to the American west, and even supported senior Kennedy Bentley’s trip to represent the NextGen program at the Group of Seven international summit in Italy (see page 44).
MANRRS Collaboration
The NextGen program is also a partnership with sub-award partner MANRRS (Minorities in Agriculture Natural
Resources and Related Sciences), and that collaboration is ongoing. In September, the TSUAg NextGen team hosted a Jr. MANRRS tour, with the stated goal of creating 30 new chapters across the state and country. This spring, NextGen will be inviting members of Jr. MANRRS to campus for a two-day youth leadership development conference in partnership with Middle Tennessee State University.
SEED App
The NextGen Inclusion Consortium’s focus remains on drawing students into agriculture and as such, the TSUAg NextGen team brought agriculture to them with the innovative SEED app. The team brought in an outside development and design team to build the app, which is ideal for students looking for scholarships or actively seeking their next role. SEED allows users to search and apply for jobs, internships and scholarships, explore podcasts, videos, and articles, track opportunities, discover events and stay in touch will all things ag.
The SEED app allows TSU’s NextGen Inclusion Consortium team to publish their own podcast as well. That effort, being led by graduate student Jazmine Norwood, introduces the NextGen program and features guests on the topic of recruitment and retention to the program.
Food and Animal Science major and senior Kennedy Bentley represented the NextGen program at the Group of Seven meeting in Italy, an event bringing together leaders from the world seven richest countries for discussions on issues of relevance. Kennedy spoke a second time for NextGen on a panel discussion at the World Food Prize in October titled “Global Discussion: Cultivating the Next Generation of Food and Agricultural Leaders.”
decades of dedication
TSUAg celebrates 20th annual Tennessee Small Farm Expo with awards, exhibitors and a focus on small farmers | By
Peer-to-peer research conversations were abundant during this year’s
Charlie Morrison & Alexis Clark
The proprietor of one of Tennessee’s only Black-owned century farms, James Butler, Jr. of Butler Farms, was an active participant in particularly the exhibition tent at the 20th annual 2024 TN Small Farm Expo.
The Tennessee Department of Agriculture booth
Tennessee Small Farm Expo
The Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg) celebrated its forever support of the Tennessee small farming community and its 20th year hosting when it held the 2024 Tennessee Small Farm Expo here on campus in early September.
This year’s Small Farm Expo once again brought together hundreds of industry leaders, small farmers, and students for a day of workshops, presentations, farm tours, and the annual Small Farmer of the Year Awardee Luncheon, and this year even had a bonus event a ribboncutting ceremony officially announcing the opening of three new buildings out at the TSUAg Agriculture Research Education Center (AREC) where the Expo was held.
The day kicked off with the annuallyheld Commodity Groups Breakfast, an event that brings to campus representatives from the state’s various commodity organizations and pairs them up with TSUAg research scientists
for a conversation-filled breakfast. This year, commodity group leaders joined a group of dignitaries along with TSU faculty for a spirited breakfast. Speakers at the breakfast included Farm Bureau Insurance of Tennessee President Eric Mayberry.
Typically, the breakfast gives way to facility tours but this year, the facility itself took center stage when the Small Farm Expo officially kicked off with a ribbon-cutting facility for three new buildings that were reconstructed following the devastating 2020 tornado that ravaged the AREC facilities that existed on the property four years ago.
The ribbon-cutting itself was conducted in front of the Controlled Environment Agriculture Research and Education Greenhouses, however, the ribbon was also symbolically cut for the new Agriculture Education Center and the Pavilion as well, key facilities that help deliver a well-rounded research experience for the student body. Following the ribbon-cutting, tours of
the entirety of the AREC commenced, as did the exhibition tent where more than 40 exhibitors greeted guests with smiles and information. The tent was a beehive of activity, as students, farmers and guests visited booths populated by representatives of public and private institutions like the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Farm Bureau and the Future Farmers of America’s Tennessee chapter, just to name a few.
The Tennessee Small Farmer of the Year Awardee Luncheon kicked off inside and outside the brand-new Pavilion building with lunch from a trio of vendors and the recognition of some of the dignitaries in the room, including those from the USDA, NIFA, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and more.
TSU Associate Dean of Extension Dr. Latif Lighari offered up a welcome and TSUAg Dean Dr. Chandra Reddy spoke on the historical perspective of the event’s 20th year. It was Dr. Lisa
More than 40 exhibitors came out to this year’s Tennessee Small Farm Expo, leading discussions, networking, and introducing their respective operations.
Ramirez, Director of the USDA’s Office of Partnership and Public Engagement, who gave the keynote at the luncheon.
The announcements of the 2024 Small Farmer of the Year awardees, the highlight of each and every Expo, was made next, serving as a climactic conclusion of the luncheon. Ryan McCaffrey of Wears Valley Ranch was named both the winner of the Best Management Practices category and the overall 2024 Tennessee Small Farmer of the Year, awarding him $3,000 for his awards.
Other award recipients, each receiving $1,000, included Debra Lockard of Lockard’s Produce for the Alternative Enterprises Award, Briley Dodge of Beech Hill Beef and The Local Farmer store for the Innovative Marketing Award and Adam Clark from Pop’s Produce as the Most Improved Farmer of the Year.
Awards aside, one of the real benefits of the Expo is the exposure it offers the student body to agriculture organizations throughout the state and the country, and this year was no different. TSUAg students
Jhanya Chenault and Jaida Seafous, both agriculture ambassadors studying animal sciences, expressed excitement about the opportunities to engage with industry professionals and expand their career paths.
“I jump at these opportunities because I want to present myself to future employers,” said Chenault, a junior from Atlanta, GA. “Being here in Tennessee, we have so many options, and I’m surrounded by people who want to be in the same spaces that I want to be in.”
For Seafous, a sophomore from Houston, TX, this was her first time attending the Expo. “I wanted to take full advantage of this opportunity,” she said. “We want to get our faces out there, and I have many opportunities at Tennessee State University.”
Finis Stribling, III, the Director of the Tennessee Small Farm Expo, highlighted the significance of Expo and highlighted the plight of farmers with limited resources. “Our mission has always been to work with small-scale, limited-resource, underserved producers,” said Stribling. “Now, we’re looking at innovative approaches like drone technology to advance small-scale farming here at TSU.” AL
Dr. Lisa Ramirez, Director of the USDA’s Office of Partnership and Public Engagement, gave the keynote address at the 2024 Small Farmers of the Year Awardee Luncheon.
Again this year, some of the biggest beneficiaries of the event went to our students, like Jhanya Chenault and Jai’Da Seafous who spent the day networking and meeting agriculture organizations.
Ryan McCaffrey of Wears Valley Ranch (right) was named the winner of the Best Management Practices category and the overall 2024 Tennessee Small Farmer of the Year.
AN Exercise IN GROWTH
Senior Niarra Anthony grows her skills, herself at AFA Leadership Conference | By
Charlie Morrison
Sometimes getting to where one wants to be in life requires skills you didn’t even know you needed, the kind of skills one only gains by having experiences. The work in the lab, hitting the books every weekend, collecting data in the field, the focus of an agriculture education student at the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg) is generally on professional development, but sometimes you need a little personal development too.
Enter Senior Food and Animal Science major Niarra Anthony, who took that lesson to heart by, for the second straight year, pursuing some personal growth at the American Future of America (AFA) Leaders Conference held this past November. This year Anthony took her participation to the next level, experiencing the conference in her role as an AFA “Ambassador.”
The AFA is an organization that has, for the past quarter-century, dedicated itself to developing transformational leadership in the agriculture industry. The organization’s dual-thrusts are scholarships coupled with their intensive leadership development events, like the four-day AFA Leaders Conference. The AFA builds the conference out with undergraduates in mind. Each of four learning tracts at the event are matched to students’
respective year in college, helping them cultivate core competencies in relationship development, collaboration, career management, cultural EQ, interpersonal IQ, and systems thinking.
For Anthony herself, working on her soft skills rounds out her college education. “There were a lot of things they discussed that you don’t necessarily learn at college but conferences like this motivate me and inspire me to keep doing what I’m doing, because the fact that I’m even able to be there as an Ambassador means I must be doing something right,” says Anthony, a TSUAg Dean’s Scholar, with a telling smile.
“I learned a lot. As a senior in Track 4, most of the conference was devoted to preparing us for our first job after college,” she continues. “A lot of it was dedicated to making sure we had the right mindset going into our careers and enhancing our leadership skills.”
And while for Anthony, the next step in her career is not a job, but rather Purdue University’s Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Program, which she is slated to begin this fall, the conference still offered real value and personal growth. For her, it’s about understanding how to handle change in one’s professional life.
“We spent most of the time talking to industry professionals, getting their perspectives on what they wished they knew before they went straight into their jobs,” she continues. “I think one of the main things I gained was understanding that your path is not going to look the way you think it’s going to look.”
“Animals are my comfort zone. I’m not too proficient at the people side of the business world, marketing oneself and stuff like that,” says Anthony. “I want to be a little more well-rounded and to get as much experience as I can. That’s how I learn best, by actively doing things.”
Anthony, who is also a member of MANRRS, Delta Sigma Theta and is a TSU Community Service Scholar, is a strong proponent of experiential learning, and the AFA Leaders Conference was no exception.
And while the skills she honed at the conference and continues to improve on her own won’t help her too much in her current struggle with her organic chemistry class, they’ll help her in the classroom of life.
“I think experiences really make your college career,” she says. “It’s all about what you’re able to gain from it, and for me I’m not really gaining if I’m not trying a lot of different things.”
As an AFA student “Ambassador,” Niarra was able to experience this year’s AFA Leadership Conference with greater access than in 2023. For example, she poses here with AFA President and CEO Mark Stewart.
LEARNING BY DOING
TSUAg employing high-impact learning practices to better student outcomes |
IIt’s hard to say exactly when it happened, but as we move into the spring semester of the 2024-2025 academic year, the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg) now features a firmly entrenched learning environment for the student body, one that leans on high-impact, experiential learning practices. TSUAg has embraced the role of specialized practices as part of the very curriculum students follow, practices that take students from the classroom and put them into the world at large.
High-impact learning practices dovetail with TSUAg’s dedication to students’ workforce development while at the College. Placing graduates in important fields within the vast industry that is agriculture remains the focus, but these days, the College views the readiness component of workforce development differently.
The current view is that students who have truly experienced their chosen fields, students that have volunteered, done internships or actively researched, students who have put their trowels in the dirt so to speak are ready to impact their industries immediately in such a way that the classroom alone could never prepare them to do.
“At TSUAg, we are committed to creating a transformative learning environment where students don’t just learn—they experience. High-impact practices like internships, research, and community engagement take our students beyond the
classroom, preparing them to contribute meaningfully to the agriculture industry from day one,” says TSUAg Associate Dean for Academics and Land-Grant Programs, Dr. De’Etra Young.
“When students put their knowledge into action—whether in the lab, the field, or through service—they develop the skills, confidence, and insight necessary to lead in their chosen fields,” she continues. “This is the hallmark of a TSUAg education: graduates who are not only workforce-ready but ready to make
Things like experiential learning, internships, active research, community service and exploration are integral to delivering to the agriculture industry students who have seen it, learned it
Field research and experiential learning are integral to the educational experience of TSUAg undergraduate students and graduate students alike in 2024. In fact, according to Environmental Science Associate Professor Dr. Bill Sutton, it’s not possible to call one’s college experience one of true learning without the experiential component, particularly with
“I honestly don’t think that students preparing themselves for a wildlife career should even do it if they don’t actually get out there and put their hands on things and see how things are managed in the wild,” says Sutton. “Learning without experiencing in wildlife just doesn’t make sense. We have to expose our Environmental Science students to real-world
Sutton brings students to the Tiger Bay Wetlands and other ecosystems throughout the state as part of his Wetlands Ecology and Management cross-over class for both graduate and upper-level undergraduate students. The group spends approximately half of their class time in the field, with a typical three-hour class featuring 90 minutes inside and 90 out.
“You can look at a picture of the species you’re trying to identify on a PowerPoint slide all day long, but until you see how it acts in the wild, what its behaviors are, your ability to identify them is diminished,” Sutton continues. “Bringing students out into the field is really just giving them the basic skill sets to survive
As part of the curriculum for the class, master’s students need to spend a minimum of eight hours in the field, where they do a real-world data collection project such as identifying waterfowl or classifying soils. Undergraduate students need to contribute
Emily Hayes gives students a hands-on experience at the Ruminant Livestock Facility.
Dr. Bill Sutton with students from his Wetlands ManagementEcology class.
to those grad student projects for a minumum of eight hours as well. The collaboration fosters leadership in the graduate students and interest in their undergraduate counterparts, according to Dr. Sutton.
Internships
“I get more out of learning in the field. Sitting in class learning from a piece of paper just doesn’t do it, you can’t identify the bones of a horse from the black and white paper you need to actually look at the horse,” he continues. “Hands-on experience is key. When you try and you fail... they understand. They let you keep trying and trying and you get to truly understand what it is.”
Cameron Walker was one of over 50 TSUAg undergraduate students who sacrificed their summers off this year to pursue real-world internships. Students took on partnerships with private and public organizations alike, picking up real-world lab experience, mentoring with industry leaders in their fields and learning the ropes of what it takes to contribute to a corporation. Walker’s was one internship that blossomed for him in unexpected ways.
Walker, a junior majoring in agricultural sciences with a concentration in food and animal sciences, landed an internship this past summer with the prestigious Kentucky Equine Management Internship program (KEMI). For Walker, who is on the pre-vet track and is poised to begin veterinarian school upon graduation, integrating his academic knowledge with practical experience is the key.
The KEMI program delivered Cameron to employment at Denali Stud Farm, where he is learning the intricacies of daily horse management on a commercial thoroughbred horse operation. Originally from Baton Rouge, LA, Cameron was immersed in this invaluable experience all the way through December, gaining insights and skills that will undoubtedly benefit his future veterinary and animal sciences career. The junior actually lived off-site at the stud farm, staying in farm hand housing and pursuing his studies at TSUAg online. For Walker, taking his classroom work to industry experts, realworld situations and hands-on learning opportunities is giving him the confidence to succeed not only in his future studies, but too the career that lies just beyond them. “I’m learning so much job shadowing with people throughout the industry,” he says.
Volunteerism
Volunteerism is baked into the philosophy of high-impact learning practices, as the end goal of the belief system is that our graduates walk away from TSU with the wellrounded skill set they’ll need to thrive at the next level. Students are encouraged to impact their communities, and, led by student organizations like TSUAg’s amazing chapter of MANRRS (Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Related Sciences), students bridge gaps between the College and the community by venturing out for acts of volunteerism.
The MANRRS chapter is so dedicated to the act of outreach that they have created a Community Service committee led by committee chair Niarra Anthony. This semester alone the group undertook volunteer projects at The Land Trust for Tennessee’s Glen Leven Farm, the Nashville Tree Foundation and others.
The group took part in the Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk, planted trees with McKissack Middle School, did the 2024 Girl Scout Cookie Count and ran its second annual “Warmth in Wardrobes” giving campaign today which saw the group collect clothing and shoes to the Nashville Rescue Mission.
Service learning
Service learning at TSUAg takes place on campus as well. Students, faculty and staff from the TSUAg Department of Human Sciences put that truth on display this fall in helping to host the Celebration of Young Children event.
The gathering brought hundreds of three to five-year-old children, their parents, chaperones and teachers to campus for a day of hands-on, interactive activities. Participating
Cameron Walker personified experiential learning during his experience working at the Denali Stud Farm in Paris, KY.
NiarraAnthonyand Amani Matlock of theTSUchapterof MANRRS.
schools included the TSU Early Learning Center, the Ivannetta Davis Early Learning Center, the Tom Joy Head Start program and the Dudley Head Start program.
The event brought in faculty and staff from across campus including the SAND student org., child development/family studies, education, physical therapy, occupational therapy and other students, folks from the College of Ag, the SNAP-Ed program, TECTA and even the TSU Library. It was a lot of fun for students, parents and faculty and staffers alike and the volunteers from Human Sciences who carried the event were proud to have hosted.
SherryCrudupwith one of the hundreds of kids who came
for
the Celebration of YoungChildrenevent hereoncampus.
“The Celebration of Young Children provides an opportunity for students to put what they learn in the classroom into action,” said Dr. Beatrice Harris, a Human Development Associate Professor in Extension with the Department of Human Sciences. “When students see the kids excitedly using skills across types of early development, they better understand how play-based activities are the most effective way to advance children’s abilities.”
Undergraduate Research
One of the other areas TSUAg’s use of highimpact learning practices is showing up is in the implementation of undergraduate research programs. The College believes in using the 34 laboratories we have on campus, the Tiger Bay Wetland, the farms and more to bring the act of conducting high-quality research to the undergraduate student body.
and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCUUP), which supports drawing more students from historically Black colleges to STEM fields. Roy’s specific work through the program is on incorporating cutting-edge gene editing technologies with a focus on CRISPR. The focus is to train the next generation of students in the principles and ethics of gene editing.
“Evidence has shown that the more hands-on research that undergraduate students are involved in, the more likely they are to be retained in STEM fields,” says Dr. Roy. “What I’ve done is paired each of these students with a graduate or postdoctoral student and developed a mentorship agreement based on the project we decide to pursue.”
Through the grant and the various research projects, Dr. Roy has brought six undergraduate students through the program to date. Currently, she has an additional three undergrads working projects with mentors. It’s not quantity for Dr. Roy however, it’s quality.
Enter Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Science Dr. Sonali Roy, who is leading TSUAg’s participation in the National Science Foundation’s Historically Black Colleges
“We’re here to train scientists,” Roy concludes with a smile. “They need to know to ask research questions and how to get there, so that’s what we’re teaching them.”
I
get more out of learning in the field. Sitting in class learning from a piece of paper just doesnt do it, you cant identify the bones of a horse from the black and white paper
you need to actually look at the horse.
- TSUAg Junior Cameron Walker
A Corporate Connection
Fortune 500 company Bayer a consummate partner of TSUAg |
By Charlie Morrison
It was a warm day in September at the beginning of the fall semester and representatives from Bayer, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, had just kicked off a two-day event called the Bayer Campus Takeover. The group set up a tent for their day-long Meet and Greet event outside of the Floyd-Payne Campus Center, which, with the Freshman Convocation going on that day, was a hive of activity.
The inflow of interested students from both the College of Agriculture (TSUAg) and other colleges at TSU was steady all morning and afternoon. It was a day full of helpful people, good information, smiles and handshakes. And that was just the beginning.
At lunchtime, most of the group from Bayer migrated over to “the Barn,” the Farrell-Westbrook Auditorium, for the next segment of the “Takeover,” a ‘Lunch and Learn’ event. The topic of the event was the importance of fostering a growth mindset in life. TSUAg undergrads
and graduate students peppered the Bayer speakers with questions during a lively question-and-answer period that ensued.
“Tennessee State University, with its storied agriculture program as well as its other programs, really fit into our skillsets of the future,” said Bayer Senior Talent Acquisition Coordinator Candice Todt.
The Bayer group concluded the day’s activities that evening with an again, well-attended informational session. Many of the students in the audience during the evening session networked with the Bayer representatives, who stuck around to shake hands, meet students and set up interviews for the following morning.
“I’m so glad to see that TSU has embraced that connection with industry because it closes the loop. Industry allows you to see how research is applied, how research affects real lives. That exposure is key and it makes even classes
The Bayer Campus Takeover event brought a group from pharmaceutical and biotechnology giant Bayer to campus in September, allowing students networking opportunities and the chance to learn more about one of the world’s leading companies.
more meaningful,” said Bayer Senior Scientist and TSUAg alumni Dr. Jacqueline Joshua.
“Bringing world-class corporations to campus is a big part of our College-wide emphasis on workforce development.,” said Dr. De’Etra Young, TSUAg’s Associate Dean of Academics and Landgrant Programs. “We want our students to reach for the stars, in research, in their careers and in life, and seeing people like Jacqueline representing TSUAg and representing Bayer shows these students what they could become one day, it puts their studies in context.”
The Bayer Campus Takeover event represents the first time we’ve had representatives from the biotech giant with us on campus, but TSUAg partners with the company in other ways as well.
Advisory Board
Bayer too has supported TSUAg through its involvement with the College’s Advisory Board. Since its inception just over two years ago, the Advisory Board has leaned on the expertise and knowledge of Bayer
Regional Market Development Lead Alan Coskrey. Coskrey has been integral to the Advisory Board supporting TSUAg’s growth in research and development. For him, the partnership has been a fruitful one.
“It immediately connected with me that we were getting involved with a college that is very forward-thinking, a college that understands the value of a corporation being connected to it,” said Coskrey. “It was a really, really good fit for me and I was very excited to be a part of it.”
The Bayer University Mentoring Program
One of the ways TSUAg students interact with Bayer is through the Bayer University Mentoring Program (B4U), a global one-on-one mentoring program with over 380 mentees from 27 partner universities in North America.
B4U aims to help develop the science industry workforce internationally through collaborative engagement and programming and it engages university partners and contributes to the development of the next generation of scientists by offering participating
students soft-skill coaching and careerdevelopment advice. Here at TSUAg, a total of 10 students participate in the B4U program.
Bayer Scholars
Bayer’s support of TSU extends to direct support as well. After a meeting of the minds with TSUAg Dean Dr. Chandra Reddy, Coskrey and TSUAg’s Associate Dean of Academics and Land-grant Programs Dr. De’Etra Young in 2023, they introduced a new academic support program titled the Bayer Scholars Program.
The company donated $100,000 for student scholarships and student success initiatives related to workforce development. Currently, there are four Bayer scholars here on campus, Alyssa Johnson, Sierra Jones, Brandon Robinson and Louis Daoust.
“We stay connected with the College, we stay connected with the students and the hope is that when it’s time for these students to graduate, we would have an opportunity to meet with them, bring them to our campus and hopefully bring them on,” continues Coskrey. “We’re looking for top talent.” AL
Bayer Regional Market Development Lead Alan Coskrey has served on the TSUAg Advisory Board since its inception two years ago.
Undergraduate students and graduate students alike enjoyed their networking with the Bayer team.
With the Freshman Convocation taking place that morning the Bayer meet and greet tent was busy all day.
THE PATHS LESS TRAVELED
TSU graduates take Agricultural Science degrees in differing directions with joy and success |
By Charlie Morrison
The essence of a Tennessee State University degree in Agriculture Science is a long hallway lined with doors. When opened, each respective door opens onto a path, one of any number of paths students can follow into their future. Some doors lead to careers in agriculture proper, government agencies, private firms... Others lead to futures in the hard sciences outside of the realm of agriculture... Still others take students outside of the world of STEM entirely... Doors leading to doors.
A degree in Agricultural Science is a path to vastly different destinations. To prove that point, we introduce you to some of our recent graduates excelling in their respective fields as professionals.
The Science Path
Alexis Dingle – Research Scientist at Agragene
The first and most obvious thing a student who graduates from TSU with a degree in Agricultural Science can do is to stay in the world of hard science. Students at the College of Agriculture at TSU train to be hard scientists, and while not everyone spends large amounts of time in their formative years in the laboratory, others do, and they thrive, both during and after their undergraduate years. One such student is 2019 graduate Alexius Dingle, now Dr. Alexius Dingle, a recent graduate of the molecular biology and genetics Ph.D. program at Texas A&M University now working as a research scientist at biotechnology company Agragene, Inc.
Dingle lept many a hurdle in acquiring her doctoral degree, not least of which was the Covid-19 pandemic, which landed in Texas during her second semester. The pandemic lockdown that ensued cost her time in the lab and extended her stay at A&M, but now that’s she’s defended her dissertation, received her doctoral degree
and entered the workforce, she can take time to reflect on the past decade she spent in and out of the lab.
“The process of getting the degree was the hardest thing I’ve ever pursued in my life. It’s been six arduous years of doing things in the lab that don’t always work. I think that makes getting a Ph.D. so unique,” said Dingle in an interview with AgLink. “With a Ph.D. you have to figure things out and a lot of it hasn’t been done before.”
Of her time at TSU, during which she focused on biotechnology, Dingle has fond memories. Not only was her time here marked by her 4.0 G.P.A., but also her participation in the TSU chapter of Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS), the friends she made, and more. But it was her time working the science in the lab here at TSU that truly set Dingle up for success in her doctoral work.
“My experience at TSU was super-helpful. I appreciate the types of opportunities we have to do research at the College of Agriculture,” she said. “Not every student goes to a university where they’re fortunate to have research opportunities available like they were available to me, and also to be paid for those opportunities.”
Alexius Dingle graduated from TSU in 2019.
“For me, I knew nothing about research going into my freshman year. It was Associate Dean of Academics and Land-grant Programs Dr. De’Etra Young who suggested that I do research and told me I’d get paid. Once I started to do research and got into the thick of it, I realized ‘wow, I really like doing this,’” she continued.
With what is likely her last year as a student behind her, Dingle is now making good on all the work she put in at TSU and then later at Texas A&M. And while one never knows what the future will bring, Dr. Dingle has truly settled into science. Dingle can be sure of one thing however, whatever happens with her future, she’ll have earned it.
The Path of Pivots
Justin McKinnie – Senior Acquisition Analyst, Bolden Capital Group and President, McKinnie Real Estate Solutions
While some like Dingle follow the path further into the realm of science, others like fellow biotechnology student and 2018 graduate Justin McKinnie get their start in agriculture before pivoting. McKinnie, a Senior Acquisition Analyst at the Atlanta, GA-based Bolden Capital Group and the president of his own asset management firm McKinnie Real Estate Solutions, took his own unique path to success, but for him, it began in agriculture.
McKinnie’s first big moves following his May, 2018 graduation from TSU were firmly in the direction of agriculture. After he donned his cap and gown here in Nashville, McKinnie took off down to Orlando, where he joined the Walt Disney Company, for nine months serving as a biotechnology management intern. At Disney, McKinnie worked the science, preparing plant tissue cultures in the lab, and he also worked the people, leading interactive guest tours through the company’s greenhouses, labs and aquaculture facilities each day.
His next appointment, as a production management trainee at McCain Foods in Wisconsin, kept him in the world of science, however bit by bit McKinnie found himself gravitating to the business world corporate America introduced him to through McCain. By the time McKinnie landed his next big role, this time in Atlanta, he was officially a convert, exchanging the world of scientific data with that of finance and business.
That position, as a real estate analyst with Hope Community Capital, LLC, signified his transition from one thing he loved to another. It was a job that spurred on his entrepreneurial spirit, and led to him creating his own company, a point of pride for McKinnie.
Fellow 2018 TSU College of Agriculture graduates Justin McKinnie and Justus Watson are both seeing success in the professional world, though in different ways. The longtime friends still stay in regular contact, having forged a bond outside the classroom at TSU.
2019 TSU Agricultural Sciences graduate Alexius Dingle is treading the science path after her decorated career on campus here in Nashville. She’s currently plying her trade in the lab at Agragene, Inc., working in genetics.
Justin McKinnie found success in the business world after a post-graduation transition.
“I got the opportunity to participate in a rotational program at McCain that pulled us into the realm of business operations. I got the chance to meet a lot of the executives and learn how the business operated from a high level,” he said to AgLink. “A lot of that exposure early on allowed me to sit in some rooms I probably shouldn’t have been sitting in as a guy who was one year and some change out of college. It was a big eye-opener and helped fuel that fire I had to be in business myself.”
McKinnie credits his time at TSU outside of the classroom, things like his participation in MANRRS, the time he spent networking, and skull sessions with Dr. Young for allowing him to learn the soft skills necessary to thrive in first in the world of agriculture and then in the world of business. “I put the things I learned at TSU outside of the classroom as the equivalent of what I learned in the classroom,” he said. “A lot of those things helped me learn how to sell myself and what the art of selling myself really was. Being able to be in front of companies and employers and understand what they’re looking for out of students who could ultimately turn into employees, those skills I learned outside the classroom at TSU.”
“At the end of the day however, studying and doing research, running numbers... it all correlates one to one to the world of business. It all requires the same level of analytical analysis.”
The Industry Path
Justus Watson – Sales Manager, Canadian National Railway Company
While some like McKinnie need to evolve in the professional world to find their niche, some find it straight away and stick with it, gaining valuable industry experience to build on. Such is the case with McKinnie’s friend at TSU, fellow 2018 Agricultural Science graduate Justus Watson.
Like McKinnie, Watson’s first position in the professional world kept him in the world of science but unlike his friend, Watson’s experience was during the summers between his sophomore year and his junior, and junior and senior years, when he took internships at first Dupont, and then the Hershey Company. After graduating, however, Watson’s path took him to the world of logistics that, while quasi-related to the agriculture industry, certainly represented a new direction.
Shortly after graduating Watson took a position with the Union Pacific Railroad Company, working out of their regional office in Omaha, NE. He committed to the organization, spending two years as a account representative before being promoted to the company’s Houston office to take a position as a sales manager.
After more than three years in that position, in October of last year, Watson brought his time at Union Pacific to a close by leaving the company to take a role with the Canadian National Railroad Company, also in sales management. By the time he left Union Pacific, he’d been there longer than he had at TSU.
Scoring internships at vaunted American businesses such as Dupont and Hershey takes a certain set of skills, skills that Watson attributes to his extracurricular activities at TSU. His work in the Alpha Kappa Psi Professional Business Fraternity, his participation in MANRRS, the hours of preparation he spent preparing elevator pitches for potential moments in life, that’s where Watson honed his skills at presenting himself.
“I owe a lot of my success to both Justin (McKinnie) and Dr. Young. Dr. Young was really a positive, guiding figure for both of us, but there was also a friendly competition between he and myself,”
McKinnie and Watson with TSUAg Assoiciate Dean of Academics and Land-Grant Programs Dr. De’Etra Young.
Justus Watson
said Watson. “Neither of us wanted to be the guy who didn’t produce, and we were engaged in constant work.”
Like his friend and colleague McKinnie, Watson leveraged his position with his company into a graduate degree. Whereas McKinnie ended up working for a Master of Science degree in commercial real estate, Watson opted for the traditional MBA, which he received from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
“Science teaches you how to think, how to think through solutions, how to think through problems, how to think through different scenarios so you know how to navigate those discussions, and perhaps more importantly what not to do, what not to think, what not to try,” said Watson.
“A big part of business now, especially in my role, is data. To be able to produce it, mine it, understand it, see trends, create models, create visualizations, and put them on slides to present and tell a story,” he continued.
“I was able to sell the railroad on the idea that I had transferrable skills even though I’d been in science, in agriculture, and come from biotechnology. I guess it worked out.”
Somewhere in between the world of hard science occupied by Dingle and the business world represented by Watson is the world Smithfield Foods food safety and quality assurance manager Kourtney Daniels lives in. The 2017 TSU graduate (summa cum laude), like Dingle, took her talents to College Station, TX and Texas A&M continuing on with her education as an Aggie to get a master’s degree in food science.
Food and beverage giant Cargill plucked Daniels out of her graduate program directly, and she was able to transfer the hard science skills she’d learned both at A&M and TSU directly to the food manufacturing industry, where her knowledge and skill set had practical use. She spent over three-and-a-half years with Cargill and was twice been promoted.
Daniels joined Cargill at their Minnesota headquarters before being promoted and transferring to their Virginia facility for a role as an HACCP professional. She took on a
position as a food safety and regulatory superintendent here in Nashville, before ultimately joining Smithfield Foods in July.
“I’ve been very lucky and blessed that my career has been able to be an outcome of all the different opportunities I’ve had in both my undergraduate program at Tennessee State University and my graduate program at Texas A&M,” said Daniels in an interview with AgLink.
“I know for a lot of other people they’ve had to pivot, where their soft skills and the networks they created at TSU have given them other opportunities. I’m happy that while it’s not been a straight and narrow path, I started in agriculture, I’m still in ag, and I really don’t see a reason to leave ag any time soon.”
For Daniels, coming to a conclusion about what she’d study and then do was never the issue. It was all about how she’d get there. “Even before I started to look at careers my last year of high school, I literally picked my major. I knew I wanted to work in food, I love food, I love to cook, I watch food documentaries... I enjoyed doing that in high school and unlike a lot of people I had some really good science teachers,” she continued.
“Knowing about the actual industry that is food safety, quality, and regulatory, I had no idea. If you had told me I’d be doing what I’m doing my senior year of high school I would have said, ‘are you sure?’ I didn’t even know that was a thing. And I’m still learning.”
On her experience at TSU, Daniels has been able to reflect back with happiness on her experience. For her, TSU feels like it was just yesterday, that’s how busy she’s been since leaving.
“What feels like it happened yesterday has really been like a decade, it’s been a while since I’ve been there. Being part of a college and a community where the connections are so strong that I never feel like I’ve been away, that’s incredible.”
Recently back on campus as the keynote speaker at the TSU chapter of MANRRS’ annual awards gala, 2017 TSU graduate Kourtney Daniels recently transitioned from food and beverage giant Cargill to join Smithfield Foods right here in Nashville.
AN INSPIRING DEVELOPMENT
TSUAg formalizes new integrative network of learning as AgINSPIRE program |
By Charlie Morrison
Introduced during the fall semester the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture’s (TSUAg) Integrative Network for Student Performance, Impact and Research Excellence (AgINSPIRE) program has arrived, and it’s changing student outcomes here at the College.
Dedicated to enhancing student success by layering high-impact educational practices, the program focuses on undergraduate research, service learning, scholarships, leadership preparedness, and academic excellence.
By integrating rigorous academic standards and support, AgINSPIRE ensures that students in the College of Agriculture graduate with the skills, knowledge, and experiences necessary to excel in their careers, pursue advanced studies, and contribute meaningfully to their communities.
In short, a degree from TSUAg is not a degree one has earned by simply going to class, taking tests, doing lab work. An education at this College involves experiential learning, hands-on moments outside the classroom where
students broaden their knowledge and grow as young adults.
In truth, the kind of experiential and other learning techniques that AgINSPIRE espouses have been baked into our curriculum for years. That said, AgINSPIRE organizes it, layers it and coordinates it to work in harmony with students’ traditional academics experiences.
“The goal of AgINSPIRE is to layer high-impact learning practices for student success,” says Dr. De’Etra
TSUAg’s outstanding chapter of MANRRS plays a big role in delivering upon the service learning component of AgINSPIRE. Here students volunteered with the Land Trust of Tennessee to clear some land.
Young, TSUAg’s Associate Dean of Academics and Landgrant Programs. “The project is to take the work that we’re doing already and ask ourselves how can we layer it and combine it together to make a comprehensive program that the student will benefit from.”
There are four components that make up the layers of AgINSPIRE, undergraduate research, community service learning, support services and leadership development. The program is based on the idea that when harmonized and layered, these four components can broaden students’ knowledge, grow them and in the end deliver better student outcomes.
Undergraduate Research Hub
The Undergraduate Research Hub’s Dean’s Scholars Program will be enhanced to better support student research and academic development. An annual Student Showcase will be hosted, providing a platform for students to present their research findings and internship experiences to peers, faculty, and industry professionals. Additionally, the program will offer workshops on research methodologies, data analysis, and academic writing to equip students with the skills needed for research excellence.
Community Engagement and Service Learning
Student organizations will deepen collaborations with local organizations and government agencies to create servicelearning opportunities addressing challenges like food security, environmental sustainability, and community health. Courses featuring a service-learning component will be specially designated, ensuring structured academic engagement. Reflective assignments and impact
assessments will be implemented to enhance learning outcomes, enabling students to articulate the value and community impact of their service experiences.
Scholarship Resource and Support Services
The project is to take the work that we’re doing already and ask ourselves how can we layer it and combine it together to make a comprehensive program that the student will benefit from.” “
- TSUAg Associate Dean ofAcademics and Land-Grant Programs Dr. De’Etra Young
The Scholarship Support Services will enhance the efficiency and evaluation of TSUAg’s scholarship administration. It will also develop a comprehensive database of available scholarships and assist students in identifying and applying for opportunities that align with their academic and personal profiles. Additionally, resources and workshops on financial literacy, including financial planning, budgeting, and managing scholarship funds, will be provided to ensure students are financially prepared throughout their college journey.
Leadership Development
The TSUAg Grow and Lead Professional Development Series will offer workshops and seminars focused on essential leadership skills such as communication, team building, conflict resolution, and ethical decision-making. The Student Leadership Ambassador Program will be reinstated, bringing together student leaders from various organizations within the College of Agriculture to practice leadership, plan events, and advise the college administration on student needs and interests. Additionally, the Leadership Mentorship Program will pair students with faculty, alums, or industry leaders to provide mentorship and guidance on leadership development and career planning.
In October, lifestyle magazine Outside came to campus for HBCUsOUTSIDE x Outside, a three-day event series that featured the screening of the surfing documentary Wade in the Water, yoga on the yard led by the Black Wellness Collective and a hiking adventure and ecology lab at Percy Warner Park.
TSU Interim President Dr. Ronald Johnson gave the keynote address during the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new facilities during the 2024 TN Small Farm Expo.
Check out this impactful recap video produced by our friends at Storytellers Video Productions.
BACK IN BUSINESS
TSUAg cuts the ribbon on a trio of new facilities constructed in the wake of 2020 tornado | By Alexis Clark and Charlie Morrison
The Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg) celebrated 20 years of hosting the Tennessee Small Farm Expo by officially cutting the ribbon on three new facilities constructed to replace those destroyed in the devastating 2020 tornado that ravaged campus. TSU Interim President Dr. Ronald Johnson was given the honor of holding the oversized scissors, joining TSUAg Dean Dr. Chandra Reddy in cutting the ceremonial ribbon for the three recently re-opened facilities.
The ribbon cutting ceremony took place against the backdrop of the new, large-scale Controlled Environment Agriculture Research and Education Greenhouses, but the ribbon was also symbolically cut on the Agriculture Education Center and the Pavilion as well, critical parts of “the Farm,” the TSUAg Agriculture Research Education Center. These rebuilt facilities enable researchers to conduct cutting-edge experiments in sustainable
agriculture and host educational workshops, seminars, and public outreach programs.
A number of leaders from some of the organizations who supported TSUAg’s effort to rebuild the destroyed facilities spoke as part of the ceremony, including Ken Abernathy of Sedgwick Claims Management Services, Inc., Dick Tracy and Gwyn Bean from the Tennessee Board of Regents, and TSU’s own William Radford and George Herring, from facilities. It was a celebration of cooperation.
President Johnson gave the keynote address at the ceremony, emphasizing the resilience and determination of the university in overcoming past challenges.
“The devastation caused by the 2020 tornado was a formidable setback, but it did not deter us,” Johnson said. “We’re not just replacing what was here, we’re advancing
TSU Interim President Dr. Ronald Johnson gave the keynote address before joining TSUAg Dean Dr. Chandra Reddy in cutting the ceremonial ribbon in front of the new Controlled Environment Agriculture Research and Education Greenhouses, constructed to improve on those lost in the 2020 tornado.
what we can do. These state-of-the-art facilities will redefine the landscape of agricultural research, education, and community engagement, not just at TSU but across the state of Tennessee.”
The ribbon-cutting ceremony was nestled into the agenda of the 2024 Tennessee Small Farm Expo, which brought together hundreds of industry leaders, small farmers, and students for a day of workshops, farm tours, and the annual small farmer awards luncheon.
Dr. Reddy was excited to introduce the buildings at this year’s Expo, and as such, he expressed his gratitude to the partners who continue to participate in the yearly expo and who helped rebuild the facilities.
“We seized this opportunity to build a modern, comprehensive agricultural research station that we can all be proud of,” Reddy said. “The new research infrastructure stands as a symbol of our collective strength and determination, and it will serve as a beacon for future research, innovation, and education.”
Dr. De’Etra Young, Associate Dean for Academics and Land-grant Programs, noted the significance of the new facilities for the university’s future.
“These facilities symbolize our commitment to a futureready TSU,” Young said. “They are designed to foster innovation, collaboration, and excellence, ensuring that our students and faculty have the resources they need to lead and excel in agriculture.”
Agriculture ambassador and TSUAg undergrad Janae Terrell had the honor of introducing President Johnson to the audience.
The architects, construction team and financial supporters of the new TSU facilities were honored at the ceremony and presented TSUAg hats.
A group of undergraduate agriculture ambassadors pause for a quick photo with former Tennessee State Senator Brenda Gilmore.
Being hands on, being able to learn from experts, it opened my eyes.” “
Not the End, Just the Beginning
- 2019 Academy Graduate Danielle Buyton
TSUAg’s Tennessee New Farmer Academy celebrates a decade of helping the state’s small farmers | By
Charlie Morrison
This fall, over 100 new and beginning farmers received their diplomas after graduating from the 2024 Tennessee New Farmer Academy lecture and event series. This year’s graduating class was the 10th such group since the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg) Extension program first began offering the Academy in 2014.
The members of this year’s graduating class joined hundreds of other Academy alumni who have grown their knowledge and skills at the program over the past decade on their way to becoming successful agriculture entrepreneurs.
The Tennessee New Farmer Academy is a seven-month certificate program held annually at three locations across the state that focuses on teaching the concepts, providing the information and facilitating the hands-on experience needed to build solid, viable, and successful agricultural businesses.
Typical participants in the program include those who are new to agriculture, those transitioning into agriculture from another field and
those who are looking for a postretirement opportunity. Tennessee Commissioner of Agricluture Dr. Charlie Hatcher has called the Adademy one of the best new farmer assistance programs in the country.
Longtime Extension professional Finis Stribling, III founded the program back in 2014 along with TSUAg Cheatham County farm manager Chris Roberts, welcoming just 9 participants to the TSU campus for the first seven-month run. What started with nine however, grew each and every year. These days there is a waiting list for each run of the program.
The Academy was born out of a series of lectures given by members of the lower middle Tennessee Extension community. Extension offices in lower middle Tennessee, like those in Maury, Giles and Bedford Counties where Stribling worked, were being approached regularly by new landowners wondering if they could turn a profit with farming. The group began to do lectures on various aspects of small farming and those lectures gave way to the full-fledged Academy that exists today.
After building the program over the first three successive years, in 2018 Stribling began taking the Academy to the state at large. The Academy began that year to be hosted at two other locations in the state, the Agricenter in Memphis, the site of the TSU Shelby County Extension Office, and as well to Wartburg, Tennessee, home to the Morgan County Extension Office.
Students in the program learn farm business skills, marketing basics and agricultural production practices in the Academy. They get hands-on experience in the program, which is both classroom-based and hands-on in the field.
Much of the curriculum is dedicated to educating participants on the regulatory bodies governing agriculture and securing financial assistance for capital and other investments. For Stribling, participants need to know what’s out there.
“The key is understanding the resources. A lot of people who come through the program don’t know what Extension is. They don’t know the Farm Service Agency exists. They don’t know
NRCS exists and what their purpose is,” Stribling says. “Understanding what resources are there, how to navigate those resources and being able to simply speak the language is what these entrepreneurs need.”
After advertising the first year the Academy relied on word of mouth to spread the word on the program, with program graduates being their best marketers. Finis takes these graduates to events like the Pick TN Conference where they talk about and teach the program and the benefits of participating in it.
2019 Academy graduate Danielle Buyton of Jade’s Elevation Farm is one of those who participated then later taught elements of the program. In 2019 Buyton lived in Houston, but flew in each month to attend. She appreciated the comradery of being around dozens of other beginning
agriculture entrepreneurs and the team spirit that permeated her group during the sessions.
“It was a think tank for me. You had 50 people who were ready to jump in and solve problems that you may not have been prepared to solve but because you guys were working together, they had different approaches than I might have,” said Buyton, who in 2023 won the Small Farmer of the Year Award at TSUAg’s Small Farm Expo. “Being hands on, being able to learn from experts, it opened my eyes.”
For Rising Glory Farms’ Chris Carlough, a graduate of the class of 2019, the Academy was a boon to his operations. “Overall, it was an excellent educational opportunity for a new farmer to get a jump start. Rather than struggling for years to learn on what’s available, what resources are available, new farmers get a jump start on that.”
“I walked away from the program, got an FSA loan with a low interest rate, I’m working with the USDA on improving my regenerative farming and increasing my infrastructure on my cattle operation,” he continues.
“And you get to meet a lot of new farmers and network. Some of these folks even volunteer on my farm. There was a lot of support... farmers helping farmers.”
For Stribling himself, each iteration of the Academy is a new chapter in his personal passion project.
“One thing I tell each class is that though I’m with Extension and I’m considered the Director of the academy, I’m also a farmer,” he says. “I’m very passionate about farming and people tell me they can hear that passion in my voice and I’m a third-generation farmer myself, so I get it, I understand.”
Tennessee New Farmer Academy Director Finis Stribling, III was on the team that first created the event series 10 years ago.
The 2024 Class of the Tennessee New Farmer Academy.
The focus of the Academy is on the plight of the farmer -- navigating the industry to one’s advantage is a learned skill Stribling hopes to impart on each class.
Stribling puts together each year’s program by pulling from his Rolodex of industry experts like University of Tennessee Extension Specialist Eryn Bell, who spoke at the final session of the year on agricultural and resource economics.
The Academy has graduated hundreds over the past decade, many of whom go on to successful agriculture entrepreneurial careers.
Living the Dream at TSUAg
2024 Summer Apprenticeship Program brings 28 from seven states to campus for glimpse of the college life | By
Charlie Morrison
TSUAg’s Summer Apprenticeship Program even saw students venture out into the TSU Tiger Bay Wetland to do some hands-on research. They’re seen here with Dr. Tom Byl.
It was one crazy summer here at the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg), as though much of the student body left campus after graduation, a whole new group rolled in behind them, participants in the TSUAg Summer Apprenticeship Program (SAP).
A group of 28 high school students and rising Tennessee State University freshmen from seven different states spent a month here on campus as part of the 2024 SAP, an event that brings bright minds to our campus each summer.
As was the case in past years, the College received over 250 applications from prospective program participants. That number was whittled down to 40 with an average high school grade point average of 3.86, before the final 28 were finalized. The students moved in at the end of June this year, with the glimpse of life at the College of Agriculture program kicking off on July 1 and running through the end of July.
The crux of the program is exposing the students to academic life at the College. Students are encouraged to identify areas of concentration from TSUAg’s majors and concentrations to allow them to focus their studies. Students are placed with professors working in those concentration areas and various points throughout the program. That said the overall student experience is all about simply exposing the students to classrooms, laboratories, farm facilities and of course dorm life.
“I think that we got a lot of good college experience and we learned a lot, we learned about DNA and how to alter DNA,” said Dalton Thompson, a junior at Maplewood High School Memphis. “That was one of the best parts for me, being in the lab, doing actual lab safety work, doing things the research scientists would actually do in their own work.”
“It was an eye-opening experience for me. I knew I liked biology and the study of plants, and someone suggested agriculture, but I wasn’t sure if this was what I want to do,” said Kaylan Banks from East Nashville, who is now on campus here at TSUAg as a freshman. “I want to work doing something I love, and this program opened my eyes to biotechnology and I really enjoyed that. Now I know that agriculture is where I need to be.”
“It’s been interesting... very educational,” said Nashville resident Grace Waweiu, then a rising junior at Hume Fogg High. “It gives us an idea of what college is going to be like. There were a few days in the cafeteria where there were a lot of people. And it was interesting to see what people study in real life.”
Students in the SAP program truly got a sense of what undergraduate university life is all about. They took trips to the Floyd Student Center, the TSU Student Recreation Center, the Friendship Baptist Church, they made Wal-mart runs... all of it. During the daytime however,
I want to work doing something I love, and this program opened my eyes to biotechnology and I really enjoyed that. Now I know that agriculture is where I need to be.”
- TSUAg freshman Kaylan Banks
the student did a lot of focused study and research projects. And while the SAP did place students in research environments quite a bit, the students’ social calendars were full as well.
Field trips during this year’s SAP program were local and regional, educational and fun. They included attending a Nashville Sounds baseball game, going to the Land Between the Lakes state park, Mammoth Cave, our Otis P. Floyd Nursury Research Center in McMinnville, even the Opry Mills Mall visit was arranged. There were barbecues on campus, the students played games and sports, they went to the National Museum of African American Music, the kids had a blast.
“The SAP program is important, both for the students and for the College of Agriculture,” said TSUAg Associate Dean of Student Dr. De’Etra Young. “The students get the experience they need to prepare for their college journey, they get the opportunity to get a feel for a number of subject areas, and they have a lot of fun being here. For us, the program gives us the opportunity to get a feel with what students at the high school level know, what they’re interested in, how they like to learn.”
“The program is a valuable recruiting tool for us here at the College,” said Everett Jolley, TSUAg Director of Recruiting and Retention. “Not only do many of these students matriculate to the College upon completing their high school studies, but we learn about what STEMfocused high school students are interested in and what environments suit them. It’s a big help to us.”
The month-long SAP program wrapped up back at the Farrell-Westbrook auditorium where groups of SAP students, having practieced the day before, delivered presentations on the substance of their research projects while here for the month. Subsequent groups presented their research projects, which spanned the gamut of TSUAg offerings, in front of faculty, staff and parents who came for the final day presentations.
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“Getting the grant is part of it that’s of course important to me and really valuable, but filling in a gap, starting to work on it and allowing others to start working on it is what’s really valuable to me.”
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Dr. Behnaz Molaei
Digging for Data
Molaei introducing powerful new application of drone-based imagery in first grant-funded research project at TSU | By Charlie Morrison
Ask anyone operating in the world of competitive scientific research, the wizened elder statesmen or those going through the process for the first time and you’ll likely get the same answer: What’s the toughest part of truly entering the field of academics and research? The answer: getting that first grant-funded project off the ground.
With that first successful, grant-funded research project under your belt, others naturally follow, waterfalling from the initial project in a cycle that sees researchers take their projects through the years. But that first one, can prove to be a hurdle. Just ask Tennessee State University College of Agriculture Agricultural Science and Engineering Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist Dr. Behnaz Molaei, who just this fall experienced the joy of hearing ‘yes’ from the USDA.
Molaei finally heard that first ‘yes’ in September, after spending the better part of the year preparing and submitting her grant request before finally getting the go-ahead this fall.
Molaei’s first submission, aimed at improvind the accuracy of the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)-based energy balance model for estimating geospatial crop evapotranspiration (ETc).
After a laborious application process finally this September the USDA reached out to let her know that the project would be funded for four years to the tune of $727,000 from the USDA’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture. That she’d been awarded a grant in the uber-competitive “Engineering for Precision Crop and Water Management” category was big. Beginning her work however, was even bigger.
“Getting the grant is part of it that’s of course important to me and really valuable, but as a researcher that I know I’m working on something that’s really needed is even more valuable to me,” says Dr. Molaei. “Filling in a gap, starting to work on it and allowing
others to start working on it is what’s really valuable to me.” The project uses precision tools like state-of-the-art soil, plant and atmosphere sensors as well as remote sensing data for monitoring the status of crop water use in different climates.
She wrote this proposal so they can examine the date through the lens of a dry region (Texas) and a rainy region (Tennessee). The end goal is bring the data to an arificially intelligent machine learning model for better irrigation scheduling.
“In irrigation, the big questions are always ‘how much water do we want to apply?’ and ‘when do we want to apply it?’” says Dr. Molaei. “Basically, we want to see how much water each crop is using.”
Current ETC evaluation techniques are simply inefficient and ineffective when it comes to site specific evaluation.
“To save water we have to know how the crops are using water in the whole of an area, for example a big orchard,” she continues. “We want site-specific irrigation management, for that, we need to have a method to know to how much water different parts of the field need.” While she was pursuing her Ph.D. from Washington
State University, Molaei was part of a research team that began trying to update that model with higherresolution, drone-based imagery. It was the beginning of a longer project to develop, test and modify a model to test for soil ETc.
Molaei is partnering with USDA Agricultural Research Service scientist Drs. Steven Evett and Gary Marek to feature their data. A further collaboration is with Dr. Xin Zhang from Mississippi State University, with whom Dr. Molaei studied with at Washington State.
This grant has a part of the budget dedicated to undergraduate students, something that happens quite a bit here at TSUAg. This project, when built out to the full extent, will provide students at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels the opportunity to take on a proper, USDA-funded research project.
“Training, publishing, catching up, getting everyone moving in the same direction... these are the challenges of managing such a project,” she continues. “In the end I want to be able to set students free to collect their own data. I want these students to be independent for the benefit of their career.”
Dr. Molaei, who focuses on irrigation engineering and precision water management, has undergraduate and graduate students taking part in her USDA-funded project to better measure the water needs of crops.
Researched and Edited by Elease Jolley and Thelma Sanders-Hunter
110 Years and Counting
The College of Agriculture celebrates five generations of four-year agricultural education | By Charlie Morrison
The Farrell-Westbrook Agriculture Research Complex (formerly the Agricultural Research and Extension Facility) circa 1992.
It is a story that spans five generations. 110 years of history. Tens of thousands of lessons learned and lives bettered. The story of agriculture education that’s been weaved at the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg) reads like an epic.
Full of heroes, hurdles, points of inflection and many a plot twist, the story spans 19 U.S. Presidents, eight permanent University presidents (and a few interim ones as well), five deans and a slew of name changes. Through it all, one thing has stood the test of time, one thing serves as a testament to why TSUAg exists in the first place: TSUAg
delivers to its students agriculture education that careers are built upon, that lives are built upon.
The Early Years
TSUAg, as we now lovingly refer to it, has had many names since it first began offering a four-year agriculture degree back in 1914. When it first began offering formalized agriculture education in 1912, it was known as the Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State Normal School for Negroes.
In those days, the mandate of the agriculture program was vastly different than it is today. Under TSU’s first President, William J. Hale, the school’s
165-acre farm, yes, provided a live research environment for agriculture students, but it also served as a working farm that actually fed the campus. Student farm hands produced all of the vegetables served in the cafeteria and even much of the meat students ate on campus.
Meat was processed in the Abattoir, a modern meats laboratory, was maintained “to develop, assemble and extend the necessary knowledge, attitudes, and skills to guide the future farmers and housewives enrolled at Tennessee State University in the proper selection and processing of meat.” Housed in the basement of Lawson Hall, students and faculty working in the Abattoir included sausage making and commercial butchery. In fact, commercial butchers were trained at TSU in the Abattoir until the early 1990s.
And while the practical application of knowledge was different in the early years, the coursework had the same feel it does today. Courses embodied the study of the chemical and physical properties of soils and fertilizers, treatment of insects, pest and plant disease, methods of cultivation, the care of and feeding of livestock, the composition of feeds, dairying and testing dairy products.
Under agricultural education, elementary and general agriculture and agricultural pedagogy were offered. Courses in elementary agriculture, elementary horticulture, general agriculture, animal husbandry with breeds of livestock and poultry, slaughter, and veterinary science were included in the curriculum. The department, at one time, was the only program that offered a complete pre-veterinary medicine curriculum in middle Tennessee.
The foundations of the Cooperative Extension program, one of the foundational pieces of the modernday College of Agriculture, were laid during this era. Though the Cooperative Extension program as we know it wouldn’t come into being until the
Former TSU President Walter Davis, along with H.C. Hardy, and George Bills.
The Department of Agriculture offers courses which are both scientific and practical. The chief aim is to increase a student’s knowledge of agriculture that he may be able to develop his farm to a very high productive value; second, that he may be able to do farm demonstration work; and third, that he may be able to teach agriculture in a practical and scientific way.”
1970’s, by 1918 there were a handful of agents exclusively serving the Black population that worked from the TSUAg campus (then called the Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial College). Indeed, providing outreach to the state of Tennessee, particularly the Black community in the state, dates back to the beginning.
Pre-Land-Grant Years
Following the Tennessee State Board of Education first granting to the Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State Normal College the title of university (whence it was renamed Tennessee A. and I. University), the College had some productive years, growing the agriculture department from its infancy.
The agriculture department’s first head was Mr. A.C. Burnett. His tenure lasted over two decades, until 1935, when the magnificent, decades-long leadership career of Dr. Walter S. Davis began. Davis served the Director of the Department of Agriculture for eight years, when in 1943 he was elected to serve as the President of the College. His tenure would last until 1968.
Professor Wilfried Lawson also worked in those years. The namesake of Lawson Hall taught agriculture from 1927 until 1935, serving as the Director of Agriculture in those years.
In 1943, agriculture was organized into the Division of Agriculture with Walter A. Flowers as the Director of Field Services. It was during this time that the College took on a departmental structure for the first time, something current Dean Dr. Chandra Reddy would revisit in 2023. The school, over the next three wartime years, began organizing itself with departments including agronomy, animal sciences, biochemistry, horticulture and poultry husbandry.
The Land-Grant Years
TSUAg first established what is now known as its tri-fold mission to support academics, research and Extension in the 1950s. The decade saw the school, then Tennessee A & I, be converted into first a university and then later a land-grant university, and with those changes the school began to execute its new mission.
The outreach component of the mission, then called Extension and field services, developed a hallmark event in 1958, the Farm and Home Institute meeting. Held in August of that year and in the subsequent four decades, the purpose of the Institute was to bring together grass-roots and other leaders from public, private and the community to discuss the ways and means to improve the standard of living among rural and limited resource families in
Tennessee. In many ways the event stands as the precursor to the signature event of modern TSUAg, Extension, the Tennessee Small Farm Expo.
TSUAg built on its legacy of outreach in the 1970s after the Smith-Level Act appropriated funds to 1890 land-grant colleges and establishing TSU’s proper Cooperative Extension Program. In 1991, TSUAg formalized its partnership with the University of Tennessee when the two state land-grant institutions entered into a Memorandum of Understanding on Extension work in Tennessee. Today TSU Extension agents reach a whopping 60 counties in the state of Tennessee.
Though it was always a part of academic life at TSUAg, research at the College ramped up significantly in the decades following the College’s establishment as a land-grant school in the 50s. In 1967, the USDA established what would be generational support of TSUAg research, sending a $19,256 research grant to the College for a project.
By the mid- to late-1970s USDA support of research grew extensively again. In 1978, “CSRS Evans-Allen” funding established grants for high-priority agricultural research, directly impacting the research TSUAg could get funded. That reach grew further with the 1890 Capacity Building Grants Program, a
program that further funded land-grant schools and was the direct outgrowth of a symposium held in Nashville, Tennessee in April 1988. Today that support translates into millions of dollars in annual research and academic grants, scholarships and more.
The College’s facilities experienced tremendous growth during the land-grant years. While the school did have a working farm, a dairy barn, a home economics building, and academics buildings that have long been demolished, much of the campus we have today was created during this time.
The dedication of the Wilfred Whitehead Lawson Agriculture Building was held November 27, 1957. The building is located on the north side of the campus facing Thirty-second Avenue North. It contains classrooms and laboratories for teaching and agricultural scientific research. The Lawson Agriculture Building was annexed in 1980 to provide space for six research areas and office space for the Cooperative Agricultural Research Program (CARP) administration. That facility was financed with federal funds administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In 1970 the home economics department got a new home, the Home Economics-Nursing Education Complex. The facility, now known as Frederick Humphries Hall, is home to the College’s Department of Human Sciences and its early learning program.
Renovation of the Dairy Barn, now known as the FarrellWestbrook Agricultural Research and Extension Complex,
was completed January 9, 1992. The state-of-the-art facility was designed with a dairy barn aesthetic to mimic the functional diary barn that existed there previously. With chickens having been replaced by Ph.D.s, the transformation of the College into the modern age was complete.
The Modern Age
The installation of Dr. Chandra Reddy as the Dean of the College in 2008 essentially kicked off today’s TSUAg. After coming on board, Reddy oversaw the unification of the College’s three land-grant programs: teaching, research, and extension, mandating that faculty within the three areas devote percentages of time to teaching and research; research and extension; or extension and teaching. Faculty members within research and extension are now supervised by what is today five academic department heads.
In 2023 the College was restructured into five distinct departments operating with functioning department heads under one administration. What was two departments, Agricultural Science and Human Sciences, became five departments, the Department of Agricultural Science and Engineering, the Department of Food and Animal Sciences, the Department of Agriculture Business and Education, the Department of Human Sciences and the Department of Environmental Science.
New facilities are currently in the design phase that will provide for these five departments to create a truly hyperfocused learning environment.
To be continued... AL
This piece is part one of a two-part story on TSUAg’s proud history. In this issue we take on the bulk of that history, dating back from our inception as a four-year agricultural college to the modern day, and in our next issue coming out in the summer, we’ll dive into to TSUAg’s modern history that began with Dr. Reddy’s appointment as Dean in 2007.
Former TSU President Walter Davis, along with H.C. Hardy, and George Bills.
The Hardest Work You’ll Ever Love
Butler Farm continues 150-year legacy to inspire, educate and feed the people |
By Charlie Morrison
One of the hidden benefits of the Tennessee Small Farm Expo (see page 12) the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg) hosts each fall is that it is a repository for stories. TSUAg faculty members tell stories of their research, agency representatives tell stories of ways they’re impacting agriculture, companies tell stories of their respective missions and the small farmers themselves tell their own stories.
This year’s Expo featured the story of exhibitor and Butler Farms proprietor James Butler, Jr. and as the owner of one of the state’s longest-continuously-running Blackowned “century” farms, a farm born out of emancipation and continuing through to today, Butler has quite the story to tell. It’s a story that his family has been telling for five generations, a story that began with his great-greatgrandfather.
Today the Butler Farm produces high-quality grass-fed Angus beef, but over the generations that’s far from the only thing that’s come out of the farm. Over the years the
farm has done a little more for each successive generation as Butler family members added, subtracted or altered the farm’s operations. Through it all there was grit.
The Lineage
We don’t know much about Joseph Butler, but we do know that in 1822 James Butler’s great-great-grandfather was born into slavery in North Carolina. While much of his life has been lost to history, we do know that after emancipation he made his way from North Carolina to Rutherford County, where in 1869 he paid $5,000 for 67 acres near Murfreesboro. Butler acquired the property with a mortgage that Butler couldn’t even get without a White man, Harrison Smith, serving as a co-signer.
In the first of many pivots the Butler family would make over the subsequent generations, Joseph sold that land, but in 1880 bought another tract, the land James Butler still owns and farms today. Joseph raised corn, cotton
James Butler, Jr. at his Murphreesboro, Tennessee Angus farm.
Butler Farms’ cattle are Tennessee Beef Quality Assurance Certified and Butler Farms itself is a Tennessee Advanced Master Beef Producer.
James Butler, Jr. is the fifth-generation proprietor of the Butler “century” Farm which has been in continuous production on the land he owns since 1880.
and vegetables on that 26-acre farm for decades before turning it over to his son Perry Butler. Perry took the farm in a new direction as the owner, building both a school and a church on the property around the turn of the century in addition to raising vegetables, cotton, horses, cattle, chickens and goats on the land.
Oscar Butler was the next proprietor of the Butler Farm. James’s grandfather took the farm’s history of flexibility in what it did to the next level, peddling moonshine from the property and establishing a quarry on the land in response to the construction of a nearby road. Oscar raised pigs and had dairy cows to boot. Oscar, like all of the Butlers, was not just self-reliant, resilient and had the hard skills to work a farm, he thought on his feet, adapted and grew.
“That’s the way that they made it in my grandfather’s day. That’s the way that they had to be to make it, they had to fix things, they had to figure it out,” says James, a smile on his mustached face. “For him to even buy property the way he was buying property, paying for it by knowing when his cows were going to calve, he had to adapt. That’s who he was.”
James’ father James, Sr. took over management of the farm next. The veteran of World War II served his community as a mason, a Shriner, a church lay leader, a board member and a volunteer in addition to raising goats and black Angus cattle on the land, which also produced hay for James, Sr.
Today, Butler Farms’ fifth generation proprietor continues on his father’s tradition of raising
black Angus cattle. The contemporary Butler Farms focuses almost exclusively on that, supported by James’ additional farm in Shelbyville. Butler Farms’ cattle are Tennessee Beef Quality Assurance Certified and Butler Farms itself is a Tennessee Advanced Master Beef Producer.
The farm operates with 10 heifers and one bull, producing approximately 10 calves annually. They butcher and sell their grass-fed beef only when deemed ready for slaughter. There are no hard schedules at Butler Farms.
The Lessons
At its peak Butler Farm encompassed more than 100 acres. It has been built on, added to, reworked and reborn in its five generations, a testament to the passion the Butler family has had for the land. The farm has seen vegetable growth, cattle raising, row crops... even a functioning quarry flourish on the land. And for James Butler the key component that held the farm together for the past century-and-a-half has been the passion each generation brought to the work of farming the land.
“You have to have heart to keep something like this going. If you talk to people that love agriculture you’ll hear that passion in them, you’ll see it and recognize that there’s something in there,” Butler continues. “Otherwise, you just don’t care like you need to care. Ice and snow... and I live on the other side of town, so it’s hard. You just can’t do it without passion.”
“I tell people it’s the hardest work you’ll ever love.” AL
- James Butler, Jr You have to have heart to keep something like this going... I tell people it’s the hardest work you’ll ever love.” “
Finding her Voice for the Future
Senior Environmental Science major Bentley appears at pair of high-profile international forums | By Charlie Morrison
Powered by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) “NextGen” program, Environmental Science major Kennedy Bentley went on a whirlwind tour in 2024, compounding her experience on an impactful study abroad trip in Senegal last summer to represent Tennessee State University and the
College of Agriculture (TSUAg) at a pair of global international forums.
In September, Bentley was one of just three U.S. delegates to participate in the “Agri-Young Hackathon,” at the Group of Seven (G7) Ministers’ Meeting on Agriculture. The event, held from Sept. 26 to 28 in Syracuse, Italy, saw
30 undergraduate-level youth from the seven G7 nations come together to draft policy recommendations and present them to the group of agriculture ministers.
In late October, along with TSU Interim President Dr. Ronald Johnson, Bentley was selected to participate in a panel
In October, TSUAg senior Environmental Science major Kennedy Bentley was a featured speaker at the 2024 Borlaug Dialogue, appearing on a panel with Interim TSU President Ronald Johnson to discuss diversifying the next generation of agriculture professionals.
discussion at the internationally-recognized 2024 Borlaug Dialogue Conference in Des Moines, Iowa. The forum was moderated by the USDA NIFA Director Dr. Manjit Misra, and also featured Paul Schickler, Chair of the World Food Prize Foundation Council of Advisors and Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen.
The connective tissue between each of Bentley’s experiences this year has been her status as a NextGen scholar and participation in the NextGen program here at TSUAg. Scholarships and study abroad are two of the big components of the program, titled ‘From Learning to Leading: Cultivating the Next Generation of Diverse Food and Agriculture Professionals.’
The program enables 1890 land-grant universities like TSU to engage, train, and support students and build the next generation of diverse food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences professionals. NextGen offers students like Bentley both financial support and the opportunity to make a name for herself, and on the latter she’s made good.
And while Bentley is the first to admit that while she was proud to have represented TSU, the College of Agriculture, the NextGen program and most importantly herself with grace and intelligence at the two international forums, she’s equally proud to have represented us in Senegal, where for two weeks, she worked with the Extension program and NextGen to educate locals on best-practice canning techniques. It was there she got the travel bug.
“Senegal was the initial moment I said to myself, ‘wow, this is great,’” Bentley says. “You just have to be there to realize how valuable the experience is.”
“Originally, I wanted to go into wildlife conservation, but this experience of traveling has broadened and changed my mind a little bit,” she continues. “I want to work more on international policy with regard to wildlife with the hopes that it would allow me to travel across borders.”
The flame of Bentley’s yearning to work in international agriculture policy was unquestionably fanned by her experience in Italy at the G7, an informal forum that brings together Italy, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United
Kingdom, and the United States of America to discuss global topics of importance.
Leading up to the trip, the U.S. delegation had the chance to meet with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in Washington, D.C., who prepped them on position points. But for Bentley, appearing at the conference was as much about bringing the world of agriculture through her lens to the community.
“Showing what people like me, young Black women or any young kid can actually achieve in the agriculture world without focusing on farming, that’s my biggest thing,” says Bentley. “I think the lens that I brought was very different, I’m not here to build my family’s farm I’m here to change the way we look at climate and the way we look at food.”
At the Borlaug Dialogue, an annual international symposium tackling the topic of global food security organized by the World Food Prize Foundation, Bentley was challenged in another way. She was asked to speak about the industry, the NextGen program, and what it takes to diversify American agriculture. The conference wanted to hear from young voices, and it was Bentley’s they turned to during the panel discussion.
“This generation is really focused on doing what they can do to make the most money, and I really don’t blame them, but at the same time this new generation doesn’t care to ask, ‘how are we going to change the world?’” she says. “We’re receiving kids into our industry that actually care, kids that want to make a change. That’s our audience. You can literally do anything in agriculture.”
Having tackled the G7 and the Borlaug Dialogue, Bentley is now focused on the future, specifically next semester. But for Bentley’s part, the significance of the last six months’ is not lost on her.
“It was such an honor to represent as a young, Black woman, to be chosen as one of only three kids to represent the United States in Italy and then to speak at the Borlaug shows that people really want to hear the voices of those who are not always heard from,” she says with a smile.
The Myth of the Lone Genius
TSUAg takes on VSD with collaborative, transdisciplinary approach | By
Charlie Morrison
Dr. Farhat Avin has played an integral role on Dr. Baysal-Gurel’s VSD research team, working to better identify the elusive disease.
Popularized in both fiction and the movies, the trope of the solitary scientist alone in their lab fastidiously working away, making discoveries and generally exercising their genius is a fun thought and useful for storytelling but make no mistake, it is a fiction. Real science, especially that of the 21st century, involves collaboration and cooperation, connection and communication.
In October, science of the collaborative, communicative kind was on display at the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture’s (TSUAg) Otis L. Floyd Nursery Research Center, where, under the direction of TSUAg Associate Dean for Research and Research Associate Professor Dr. Fulya Baysal-Gurel, a collection of over 80 research scientists, growers, and industry leaders convened an important workshop to combat a pathogen affecting woody ornamental trees called Vascular Streak Dieback (VSD).
What is VSD?
VSD is essentially a disease that causes browning, wilting, and tissue damage to more than 25 ornamental and woody plant genera in Tennessee and in five other states across the country. Eastern redbud, maple and dogwood the top three genera that are being affected by the disease, which could be connected to the fungus Ceratobasidium theobromae that has been consistently associated with vascular tissue of nursery stock showing symptoms of stunted growth, burnt and blighted leaves, vascular ‘streaking’ and poor root development.
VSD was first discovered in woody ornamental plants in the state in 2019, when the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) received an infected redbud sample. Soon after that discovery, in 2020, the team from TSUAg that included Baysal-Gurel, Dr. Farhat Avin, a number of graduate assistants and in 2021 then- post-doctoral researcher Dr. Prabha Liyanapathiranage, now the TDA’s State Plant Pathologist, began their own research on the issue.
The Collaboration
Even at that early stage, the science was collaborative, with Baysal-Gurel’s team attacked the issue as a group. Dr. Baysal-Gurel and her team published their research extensively over the successive years and their hard work on the issue put them in the position to take a leadership role on the issue throughout the country.
Dr. Baysal-Gurel herself traveled extensively across the country to speak on the issue, even making an appearance at the U.S. Capitol to explain the nature of the VSD issue.
In furthering their research, Dr. Baysal-Gurel and her team began to build a multi-state transdisciplinary team of researchers and extension specialists with vast experience
in woody ornamental plant pathology, diagnostic, fungal and population genetics, breeding, plant physiology, plant production systems, and agriculture economics.
The group later formalized those connections by acquiring a grant from the USDA’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA), a Specialty Crops Research Initiative project, titled “Planning a Solution: A Partnership to Identify Research and Extension Priorities for Vascular Streak Dieback (VSD) in Woody Ornamental Crops.”
The Process
The grant mandated a two-step process for the project: First, the group would conduct a thorough, nationwide needs assessment survey of nursery growers, regulatory agencies, state agriculture leaders and research and Extension personnel from VSD-affected areas. Secondly, the grant provided for many of these scientists and stakeholders to make the trip to Tennessee for the workshop, which was held on Oct. 1 and Oct. 2. The goal of the workshop and the project was ostensibly to determine where to direct further research.
The workshop brought more than 50 stakeholders to the Floyd Nursery Research Center auditorium, with an additional audience of more than 30 participating via Zoom. The group proceeded through a packed agenda of presentations, question-and-answer sessions and group discussions on the origins of VSD, the biology of the issue, the economic impact, innovative management strategies... the meeting was an all-encompassing discussion of an
TSUAg Associate Dean for Research and Research Associate Professor Dr. Fulya Baysal-Gurel has taken on a national leadership role in the battle against Vascular Streak Dieback.
issue conducted with the best traditions of the modern-day scientific method.
“The industry was heavily impacted by this one single issue. We needed a timely involvement in the project, to investigate the situation, identify the problem and develop management recommendations for the growers to help them reduce damage on their production,” said Dr. BaysalGurel.
“Growers are well aware of their needs, the USDA NIFA, us, everyone is aware of this problem and they all got together with our scientists. They believe in these scientists and extension professionals and they trust us, we would like to solve this problem together, it’s a huge team effort,” she continued.
Next Steps
Having navigated the difficult early hurdles of establishing a coalition to study the issue, and determining how to pursue further studies, the working group is primed to continue the pursuit of an answer to VSD, as a group. The final discussion topic of the workshop was built around finding funding to continue the effort. The group will pursue a number of funding avenues to continue,
particularly a farther-reaching grant to allow the collective research collaboration to continue.
As far as the scientific next steps, TSUAg researchers are currently developing a molecular tool that is being vetted by other institutions that if demonstrated to be successful, could amplify detection efforts in plants.
Additionally, the TSU team is also conducting cultivar screening trials to identify the tolerance of redbud species and cultivars to VSD, as this information is crucial for initiating breeding programs to obtain hybrids with promising horticultural characteristics and increased resistance to VSD. The TSU team is continuing with the cultivar screening, including more redbud species, cultivars, and hybrids received from different regions, to identify VSD resistance.
“Coming from a diagnostic background, I love to solve puzzles. You have a package in front of you and it’s like a puzzle so you are putting pieces together to understand what is causing that problem,” said Baysal-Gurel. “This is the same thing, except it’s a puzzle that will take me personally 10 or more years to solve. I’s not only my success, this is a team’s success though.” AL
More than 80 attended the VSD meeting in person and online. It was a packed house in the Otis L. Floyd Nursery Research Center Auditorium.
Grabbin’ the Bull by the Horns
Animal Physiology Lab thriving at TSUAg’s dual-purpose livestock farm | By
Charlie Morrison
TSUAg maintains the only instututional herd of Dexter cattle in the country. Brought in to examine the potential of small-breed cattle for small-scale beef production, Dexter cattle are a small, British breed.
Since the Tennessee State University College of Agriculture (TSUAg) first put down roots over 110 years ago, livestock has been a staple of the agriculture education program. For much of that time, the goats, cows, pigs and chickens that have called the College home over the years were functional animals, animals that were there there to offer for educational and teaching opportunities, but also to simply feed the student body.
Nowadays, livestock play a vastly different role at the College. These days, it’s all about research.
Enter Food and Animal Science faculty member Dr. Richard Browning, the
director of TSUAg’s Animal Physiology Lab and the man who for all intents and purposes introduced livestock research at the College. Brought to campus in 1994 to initiate a livestock research program at the College, Browning has dedicated three decades to the herds at TSUAg on campus at “the Farm, the TSU Agriculture Research and Education Center.
Today’s research focuses on Dexter and Mashona cattle, two heat-tolerant, small breeds that fit with the College’s work on climate smart agriculture.
Dr. Browning’s initial work at TSU focused on a related issue, the effect tall fescue endophyte toxicosis had on
beef cattle. Only in 2002 did the Animal Physiology Lab truly took shape, as at that time meat goat production became Dr. Browning’s and the College’s research focus. The animal physiology team introduced a herd of over 200 Boer, Kiko, Spanish, Myotonic, and Savanna goats for genetics studies.
It was in the summer of 2015 though, that the lab got back in the business of cattle production, bringing in a group of 25 Dexter cows and bulls to begin a genetics-based breeding and research program. Mashona bulls were added in 2019, when the essence of the current research focus, studying the viability of “F1” crossbred Dexter and Mashona cattle. Full blooded Mashona cows were
This year was Dr. Richard Browning and the TSUAg Animal Physiology Lab’s fifth season breeding Dexter and Mashona cattle breeds out at the College’s Agricultural Research Education Center on campus.
added to the herd in 2021, rounding out the group Browning and his team study.
In focusing its research on the “dwarf” cattle breeds of Dexters and Mashonas, the Animal Physiology Lab found its niche. And it fits, as TSUAg prides itself on serving its own niche, Tennessee’s small farmers.
“We wanted to do something smaller and heat tolerant, that’s when we got the idea to do the Dexters. We deal with small farmers who like to look at alternative production systems, so it made sense,” says Browning. “The
Dexters are really unique. They’re half the size of commercial cows which makes them ideal for small farmers who are making decisions on what breed of production cattle to choose. They’re manageable.”
“The bonus for us is that they’re not as intimidating for students as normal, commercial cattle.”
That Dexter cattle are less intimidating for students has served the TSUAg livesock program well, as hundreds of Food and Animal Science undergraduates, graduate students and
doctoral students have worked on the farm with Dr. Browning.
“The whole point of doing research is to do something different, something original, something novel that’s going to add a different perspective on, in my case, cattle production,” Browning chimes in. “In the end, what it is all about is giving producers something to consider. Some may adopt it, some may not, some may try it and have it not work, but my role is to give them another avenue to consider.”
The way the lab works in 2024, though Dr. Browning and Research Associate Emily Hayes are heading up most of the laboratory tasks, undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students lead the way on the day-to-day maintenance and care of the animals. There’s even a student from a nearby high school that works the herd, under the tutelage of Farm Manager Heather Riggs.
In any given semester there have been up to a dozen undergrads at one time actively working, learning and researching at the livestock farm. Currently, there are four undergraduate research projects being undertaken by students out at the livestock farm, one on yearlings, a study on the F1 crossbreeds, a study on male-induced estrus research and a fourth on Myatonic goats.
There are a pair of graduate students doing their research with the TSUAg herd as well, another of over dozens of graduate student researchers that have come through the program over the years.
“What we’re trying to learn here is how these animals do domestically. Do you they need a lot of care compared to other breeds? Will they need veterinary care?,” says farm hand, Junior and Animal Sciences student Kayley Garnett, who wants to be a veterinarian at a zoo.
“I get a lot out of this, I get a lot of experience. Plus, it’s quiet, and you don’t have to deal with people most of the time, just the animals,” she laughs.
First-year Food and Animal Science master’s student Imani Spearman works with the cows and the goats out at the farm.
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