MCC awarded NIFA Grant for Workforce Training Programs

Feb. 17, 2025

McLennan Community College (MCC) is one of three colleges awarded grants from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) through the Agriculture Workforce Training at Community Colleges (AWT) program, which aims to educate community college students by providing workforce training programs in the fields of agriculture and the food industry.

MCC will receive $250,000 for the College’s Sustainable Agriculture for the Future: Developing Agri-Environmental Technicians project. The two-year project will design a training program for Agri-Environmental Technicians. Training will cover topics such as soil and water quality, resource conservation, environmental monitoring, and the fundamentals of sustainable agriculture practices, and will include an industry-renowned credential embedded into the coursework. The long-term goal is to ensure students obtain a training certificate.

Business Program Division Chair Dr. Christina Esquivel and Math and Science Division Chair, Dr. Shannon Hill will serve as the principal investigators, and the team includes faculty members: Mary Sides, Michaela McCown, Ron Chmielewski, and Kirk Schlemmer.

“The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of agricultural and environmental technicians to grow 7% over the next decade, faster than the average for all occupations. Receiving this grant is not only a tremendous honor, but by developing an Agri-Environmental Technician program, MCC is supporting our strong, agriculturally-based community by providing potential employees with hands-on experience and industry-accepted credentials that are ready to step directly into the workforce,” Dr. Esquivel and Dr. Hill said.