The Millennial Generation Agriculture Major - Decade of Lessons from the Trench.

In the decade since implementation, Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences interdisciplinary, college-wide Agricultural Sciences Major is thriving. Conceived to address declining undergraduate enrollment in traditional agricultural programs and student demand for curricular flexibility and community, the major is now home to 100 students from around the globe. Pillars of our success come with a labor-intensive recipe. Key ingredients include strong centralized advising support, a first-semester cohort-building explorations course, substantial curriculum flexibility, and an interwoven ambassador group that builds and sustains student community. Faculty advising investment spans the college with 17 advisors from more than five departments. The student body and growing alumni cohort represents exceptional diversity of student interests and backgrounds. Of our more than 130 graduates, career pathways include industry, non-profits, teaching, home farm management, and varied graduate school foci.  Our academic diversity requires continuous flexibility, guided by a core philosophy—a life sciences foundation, breadth of agricultural knowledge, (from soils and cropping systems to integrated pest management), and required concentration depth. Concentrations include animal and crop science, business, education and communications and sustainable agriculture. The major also stands out with a credit-requiring internship where students engage in a career-building experience of at least six weeks of full-time effort aligned with individual goals. Students are also paired with a faculty advisor to earn at least one credit. To manage our high diversity in career interests as well as student job-readiness, we’ve adopted a high-touch, individual advising approach. Overall, as our student population reaches carrying capacity, and we’ve learned the elements for high student satisfaction and correlating strong job placement success, today’s agriculture major requires an investment-heavy approach.