Alabama A&M University News October 30, 2010 Ag Sci Enrolls First Online Dual Credit to High School Students Huntsville, Ala. ---- A group of high school students from Alabama's Black Belt counties are now enrolled in dual credit agriculture courses, coordinated by Alabama A&M University According to Dr. Taylor Byrd, Jr., research project director, 14 high school students from the five Black Belt counties of Greene (Greene County High School), Monroe (Monroeville Vocational and J.R. Shield High School), Pickens (Aliceville High School), Dallas (Selma Early College High School) and Hale (Hale County High School) are now enrolled for the first time in online dual credit food and agricultural sciences courses. AAMU recently re-designed the courses for online instruction through its School of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. The new Online Dual Credit Program allows eligible high school students to enroll in college agricultural science classes online concurrently with high school classes, says Byrd. The students receive high school credits while in high school and earn college credit once they graduate and are admitted to college. The online dual credit project began as part of an aggressive recruiting and retention strategy, Byrd says, to provide faculty training in the food and agricultural sciences for re-designing courses for online instruction and initiating the development of online degree programs in food and agricultural sciences. The project also aims to establish collaborations with high school counselors, local boards of education, and parents for recruiting purposes, and "to expose high school students, counselors, and parents to exciting and highly rewarding careers in the food and agricultural sciences," says Byrd. The project is funded through a USDA Capacity Building Grant entitled “Developing Online Dual Credit Partnerships with High Schools to Recruit 21st Century Professionals for Careers in the Food and Agricultural Sciences." Drs. Yong Wang and Taylor Byrd serve as co-principal investigators. For additional information, call (256) 372-4968. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Program Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 404.592.4820 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.