Service Learning in Agricultural Entrepreneurship Opportunities and Comparative Experiences

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Service Learning in Agricultural Entrepreneurship
- Opportunities and Comparative Experiences

• Kathleen Liang
• Dept of Community Development and Applied
  Economics
• University of Vermont
• Paul Dunn
• Distinguished Professor in Entrepreneurship
• Director of Entrepreneurship Studies and Small
  Business Development Center, University of
  Louisiana at Monroe

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Introduction

• Introduce service-learning and agricultural
  entrepreneurship
• Identify service-learning opportunities in
  teaching agricultural entrepreneurship among
  youth groups and other special groups
• Create and develop service-learning programs
• Resources and partnership
• Share experiences and build networks

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What is Agricultural Entrepreneurship?

• Integrated knowledge accounting, finance,
  management, operation, marketing
• Skills, applications, critical thinking
  innovative pedagogy
• Planning business and personal goals
• Self-evaluation

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What is Service Learning?

• Service-learning combines service objectives with
  learning objectives with the intent that the
  activity change both the recipient and the
  provider of the service. This is accomplished by
  combining service tasks with structured
  opportunities that link the task to
  self-reflection, self-discovery, and the
  acquisition and comprehension of values, skills,
  and knowledge content.

National Service Learning Clearinghouse
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What Happened in Vermont

• Income and employment distribution
• Cultural variations
• Agricultural based nature
• Youth entrepreneurial development
• Rural Entrepreneurship Through Action Learning
  (REAL) www.realenterprises.org

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New Initiatives in Vermont

• UVM and local high schools Service Learning in
  Agricultural and Resource Entrepreneurship
  (started in Fall 1999)
• Establish modified REAL at UVM in teaching Agri
  and Res Entrepreneurship (started in Spring 1999)
• Youth Horticulture Club (Spring 2002)
• 4-H and Native American Youth Entrepreneurship
  (in progress)

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Process of Establishing Service-Learning
ProgramsUVM experience

• Faculty training
• Identify collaborators
• Design syllabus and contract
• Arrange regular meetings collaborators,
  participants, and UVM students
• UVM students journals and periodical
  assignments (reports)
• Design and conduct evaluation surveys
• Reflection

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Challenges in Vermont

• Resources and people
• Institutional barriers
• Vision for future development

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What Happened in Northeast Louisiana

• Income and employment distribution
• Cultural variations
• Agricultural based nature

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Initiatives in University of Louisiana at Monroe

• Small Business Institute (1972)
• Camp Enterprise (1995)
• FastTrac(1996)
• Faith Based Youth Entrepreneurship (1997)
• Micro Enterprise Development (1994, 1998, 2003)
• First Step FastTrac (2000)
• Financial and Human Resources (1994)

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Challenges in Northeast Louisiana

• Resources
• Current support
• Future support
• Institutional barriers

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Are there similar programs in your programs or
institutions?
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Resources
National Service Learning Clearinghouse
www.servicelearning.org Colleges, Universities
Social Works, Nursing Schools

• Thank you!