![\"Chad](\"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/files\/2022\/11\/Chad-Mueller.2-720x1080.jpg\")
The new Agriculture-Entrepreneurship degree at Eastern has already received widespread support from those recognizing the niche this program fills.\u00a0 Both Northwest Farm Credit Services and the Harry A. Merlo Foundation provided generous programmatic and scholarship donations to launch the program forward from the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur purpose at Northwest Farm Credit Services is to improve lives in the communities where we work and raise our families. The agriculture industry plays such a vital role in the U.S. economy – even globally – and this program directly impacts our local communities as a part of that global system. This new Agriculture-Entrepreneurship program broadens opportunities – and perspectives – for students in exciting ways,\u201d said Brent Fetsch, Oregon President at Northwest Farm Credit Services. \u201cThis program is the opportunity for EOU to continue making education more accessible to more students. Someday these student will be our employees, customers, or informed voters, which is why we\u2019re proud to invest in this program as well as directly investing in eastern Oregon. We\u2019re excited to see the ongoing growth and hope our investment is followed by others, both from the agriculture industry and private sector in support of making education accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese donations for the program truly meant everything to being able to start where we are. We are able to purchase lab equipment for hands-on field work. We are sending students on robust port tours. We awarded $30,000 of renewable scholarships. These are essential<\/em> tools of the program to help convey the bigger picture of agriculture to our students,\u201d Mueller said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This program is experiential learning with hands-on activities in all of the classes and coursework. Students are scheduled to be in the field, working on tangible projects across campus, as well as throughout the community. But, in order to do so, resources are required. \u201cWe\u2019ve already received so much support from Northwest Farm Credit Services and the Merlo Foundation – and we continue to apply for additional grant funding,\u201d Mueller said. \u201cWe\u2019re purchasing a mobile agriculture logistics unit – a self-contained field classroom with a variety of data collection tools and equipment. This will enable us to get students into the communities for real-world research. We\u2019re also looking at hosting \u2018boot camps\u2019 for junior high and high school students. I\u2019m excited for the possibility of hosting Ag academies for K-12 teachers to incorporate agriculture into their curriculums.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m so excited for this upcoming year,\u201d Martin said of the start of the program, as a member of the first cohort. \u201cWe have the opportunity to really focus on our community outreach and giving back. I think it\u2019s really important because there are so many people out there who are willing to donate. Donors see there are hardworking students who are willing to do what it takes – we\u2019re working hard for them because of what they have already done for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Agriculture-Entrepreneurship degree is designed to meet the needs of the agriculture industry. Whether students return home to run their family\u2019s farm or ranch, pursue work in public policy, find employment with a large-scale firm, or any other opportunity within the supply chain. \u201cThe feeling is absolutely incredible – we are providing a degree for students in agriculture which has the potential to help them find their long-term career path; even if they don\u2019t come with a background in agriculture, they can still find so many great career opportunities,\u201d Mueller said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, the program isn\u2019t at full fruition yet. \u201cLong-term, I would love to have an agriculture innovation-entrepreneurship center – maybe even a new facility on campus – where students will develop their own entrepreneurial projects,\u201d Mueller envisioned. \u201cFor capstone projects or personal passions, students can give more meaning and feeling to their degree, while we bring in actual connections to outside entities as they pursue these real projects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe community, our partners, and our stakeholders are excited about this program.\u00a0 They are supportive and really want to see it succeed,\u201d Mueller said of his outreach efforts.\u00a0 \u201cTo me, the one thing which has truly warmed my heart is the amount of positive community feedback we\u2019ve received – and that\u2019s just the start.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Experience at your fingertips Her face lit up as she talked about the projects and possibilities this new school year brings, as a member of the inaugural cohort of the Agriculture-Entrepreneurship program. Eva Martin, a sophomore from Ione, Oregon, expressed her passion for community outreach. \u201cI grew up in FFA [Future Farmers of America]; I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":491,"featured_media":2271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,168],"tags":[124,40],"class_list":["post-2268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlight1","category-winter-2022","tag-agriculture-entrepreneurship","tag-business"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/491"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2268"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2277,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2268\/revisions\/2277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Inaugural](\"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/files\/2022\/11\/Ag_cohort-1920x819.jpg\")