Third Quarter 2007 Report

QUARTERLY PROGRESS REPORT – THIRD QUARTER 2007

SECTION 1: GENERAL GRANT INFORMATION A. Clearly Identify Your Grant: Grantee’s Name:

Gloucester County College 1400 Tanyard Road Sewell, New Jersey 08080

Name of the Project:

FITS – NJ Careers

Grant Number:

CB-15918-07-60-A-34

Date:

October 30, 2007

Reporting Period:

Third Quarter 2007

Contact Information:

Robert D. Rossi, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Chemistry Gloucester County College 1400 Tanyard Road Sewell, NJ 08080 (856) 415-2267 [email protected]

B. Summary of General Grant Activities: During the third quarter, recruitment and marketing initiatives took center stage for our A.S. Food Science degree program. Key presentations to parents of NJ STARS high school students and a hands-on workshop for Gloucester County middle- and high-school science teacher’s, highlighted our efforts to increase our registration in food science as a major. Several targeted mailings and distribution announcements using our newly published food science program brochure were also made. More events are in progress. Articulation discussions for transfer of this new degree program with Cornell University and Delaware Valley College are being finalized. Articulation with Rutgers is still on hold, pending resolution of the calculus course transfer issue. Through the efforts of our newly hired Food Industry Continuing Education Program Coordinator several continuing education courses are being developed for the local food industry. Working closely with a consultant, specific food industry incumbent workforce content training materials are being identified and implemented.

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Salem Community College (SCC) is focusing on activity to establish an advisory committee to help identify a program of study in food process technology. Supplemental resources and support materials for planned course work, including equipment needs, are also being pursued. C. Status Update on Leveraged Resources: Activity leading to the development of an A.S. degree in food science began in July 2006 with the receipt of a $48,893.00 U.S. Department of Agriculture Grant, which comes with a $50,000.00 GCC matching funds requirement. During this past quarter, as with the previous quarter, these funds were used to support the “Food Science for Middle-and High-School Science Teachers” workshop which was held at Gloucester County College July 24 – 26, 2007. In addition, the funds were also used to supplement/support the attendance for several of our staff at the national meeting/conference of the “Institute for Food Technologists” (IFT) held July 28 – 31, 2007. To-date, $25,793.04 of the USDA Grant funds has been drawn down. Dr Susan Smith, V.P. of Academics at GCC also attended an IFT short course while at the conference, paid for with GCC funds. GCC sponsored an event on September 13, 2007 called “First Night.” The purpose of this event was to introduce current and prospective GCC students to the various career opportunities in all fields, including science, technology and math. As part of this annual event, a manned tabletop display dedicated to science as a career was exhibited and Food Science was highlighted. One portion of the “Food Science for Middle-and High-School Science Teachers” workshop was held at our neighboring high school Gloucester County Institute of Technology (GCIT). The culinary arts portion of the workshop required the use of a fully-functional training kitchen with equipment and utilities, which was graciously made available to us by GCIT. D. Status Update on Strategic Partnership Activities: Corporate partnership activity this past quarter involved a tour of our strategic partner, Campbell Soup Company, in Camden, New Jersey, as part of our “Food Science for Middle-and High-School Science Teachers” workshop held in July. The tour was organized by Raymond H. Carroll, Director, Thermal Processing, for Campbell Soup, who is also a member of our “Technical Advisory Committee” for this grant. Campbell Soup conducted the tour using 10 additional employee’s including a presentation by their V.P. of Worldwide Quality. Additionally, our partner school Rutgers University organized and conducted the technical content of this three-day workshop held on the campus of GCC. Discussions continued with our partner from Cornell University toward an articulation agreement. Articulation discussions also progressed this quarter with a new academic partner – Delaware Valley College, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

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SECTION II: TIMELINE FOR GRANT ACTIVITIES AND OUTCOMES Below is a working timeline for our program. Please note, this is an abridged version of a master timeline we are maintaining using Microsoft Project. This abridged form is complete for the key tasks in the third quarter 2007, and will be updated and supplemented with additional tasks for subsequent quarters as they approach. The narrative addressing these key tasks can be found mainly in Section III of this report. Project Activities Finalize articulation agreement with Cornell University Attend Workforce Innovations Conference, KC, MO Hold “Food Science for Middle-and High-School Teachers Workshop” Attend IFT Conference and Expo, Chicago, IL Second quarterly report due to FPO SCC to assemble program advisory committee Propose initial plans for IC 401 renovation into a food science laboratory Meeting with consultant for food science website GCC to define and advertise food science faculty position GCC to propose list of continuing education courses to be offered Fall 2007 Develop and mail letter of introduction of new continuing education program coordinator Establish continuing education training course parameters

Projected Completion Date

Actual Completion Date

July 15, 2007

July 16, 2007

July 16, 2007

July 24-26, 2007

July 26, 2007

July 28 – August 1, 2007

July 31, 2007

July 30, 2007

July 30, 2007

July 31, 2007 August 15, 2007 August 15, 2007

October 4, 2007

August 15, 2007

September 26, 2007

August 31, 2007

October 9, 2007

September 6, 2007

September 6, 2007

September 18, 2007

September 18, 2007

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Project Activities Finalize plans for IC 401 renovation into a food science laboratory Cornell University to begin beta trial of new K-12 science teachers food science summer workshop Finalize and begin ordering library resources Hold 2nd GCC Technical Advisory Committee meeting for 2007 Offer first continuing education training Third quarterly report due to FPO Assemble food science faculty hiring committee at GCC Participate in local IFT “Supplier’s Night” event Finalize articulation agreement with Delaware Valley College Promote food science at “Science Day” event at GCC Develop continuing education courier offering food industry course/training for incumbent workers Hire food science faculty member at GCC Develop and implement a Food Science Website SCC to define a food processing curriculum of study Fourth quarterly report due to FPO

Projected Completion Date

Actual Completion Date

September 30, 2007

September 22, 2007

September 22, 2007

September 30, 2007

September 30, 2007

October 10, 2007 October 10, 2007 October 30, 2007 October 30, 2007 October 30, 2007 November 5, 2007

November 7, 2007

November 9, 2007

December 31, 2007 December 31, 2007 December 31, 2007 January 30, 2008

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October 30, 2007

Project Activities Prepare an abstract for a poster presentation of our Food Science grant activities to 2Y3C conference at Indiana University in July, 2008 SCC to internally approve a food processing curriculum of study SCC new AAS Program Announcement distribution and address any issues SCC AAS paperwork in hands of Academic Issues Committee Identify and schedule presenters at first regional conference NJ Presidents’ Council Approval of SCC AAS degree program

Projected Completion Date

Actual Completion Date

February 15, 2008

March 31, 2008

April 2, 2008

May 2, 2008

May 15, 2008

June 2, 2008

SECTION III: GRANT OUTCOMES A. Capacity-Building Progress, Deliverables, Impact and Dissemination: 1. Progress and Deliverables GCC A.S. Degree in Food Science Program: Our Grant Administrator resigned at the end of August in order to return to school, fulltime, for an advanced degree. In mid-September, a part-time replacement, Ms. Tracy Gourdine, was hired to assist in the administrative duties. Our attention continues focused on two key objectives. First, publicize the program to the proper audience in order to obtain a cohort of students declaring this program as their major. Second, finalize the outstanding articulation agreements in process, and develop new agreements with other key 4-year institutions. Program Publicity, Educational and Marketing Events 

“Food Science for Middle-and High-School Science Teachers Summer Workshop.”- held July 24 -26, 2007. This three day workshop, presented by the staff from Rutgers University, hosted 30 county K-12 science teachers to a

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hands-on introduction to the discipline of food science. Sufficient information was shared with the participants, allowing them to introduce this scientific career path to their classes this fall. The workshop also gave the science teachers access to materials that they can use and incorporate directly into their science lesson plans. Outcomes assessment evaluation was performed during the last day of this workshop. The results can be summarized as follows: o Without exception, the participants were overwhelmingly pleased with the workshop, as evidenced by the positive responses on the survey, a great inclination to recommend the workshop to colleagues (over 90%), as well as comments such as “This has been the best workshop I've ever attended. ALL science teachers should be required to attend. Looking forward to next workshop,” and “I've been pushing the programs at Penn State for years. That stops from now on. This program has sold me on GCC and Rutgers.” o The vast majority of respondents indicated that they were Very Satisfied with the workshop activities and the handouts (67.53% and 82.28% respectively). o As a teaching tool, the workshop was extremely effective, with 73.34% of respondents reporting that prior to the workshop, they had little to no knowledge of food science, but that afterwards, 100% said they were now somewhat to very knowledgeable. Additionally, 100% of respondents indicated that they now feel comfortable enough with food science to introduce it to their classes, and 96.56% are likely to incorporate food science into their lesson plans. Web-based student impact reporting of any food science related materials used in the classroom during this academic year by the workshop participants are up and running and awaits input. 

In preparation for next summer’s workshop (2008), content of a workshop program was beta-trialed at Cornell University during the weekends in September, 2007. Twenty-four K-12 science teachers attended the 4-Saturday classes. We await feedback from the outcomes evaluations.

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Preparations are underway for our “Science Day at GCC” event to take place on November 7, 2007. During this event GCC, with approval from the Gloucester County Board of Education, has agreed to serve as the county-wide in-service day for middle- and high-school science teachers. The purpose of the event is to publicize the outstanding science education being offered at GCC and its partnering 4-year institutions through a series of workshops and presentations. It

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is anticipated that some 70 science teachers will be in attendance. Our new Food Science program will be highlighted. 

A presentation about a career in food science was made on August 15, 2007 to 44 parents of NJ STARS students (New Jersey Student Tuition Assistance Reward Scholarship Program). Recall, NJ STARS is a financial aid program exclusively for New Jersey residents that covers the cost of tuition and approved fees at New Jersey's 19 community colleges. Students who graduate in the top 20 percent of their high school class are eligible. NJ STARS covers up to five semesters of tuition and approved fees at the student's local community college.

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Food Science Program Marketing Activities o Preliminary discussions were held with Mr. Robert Pfeiffer (President/Creative Director Pfeiffer Advertising L.L.C.) with the goal of developing a logo/brand for our program. Target date for the beginning of November, 2007 to review logo options. Cost of service is approximately $500.00. o A meeting was held with newly hired GCC webmaster Mr. David Comfort on the development and implementation of a GCC Food Science website. Discussions are now underway with a GCC web design instructor his class to develop ideas for the design of that website. Target completion of the up-and-running website is December 31, 2007. o A new Food Science brochure was prepared and published during past quarter. The brochure highlights food science as a career option and specifically describes our program of study for the A.S. degree. This brochure has been distributed to our advanced level science classes, as well as shared with our partner institutions. A targeted mailing of these brochures was also made as a follow-up to the participants of our science teacher’s summer workshop in July. A mailing is also planned to the county K-12 guidance counselors in the 4th quarter of 2007.

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Our efforts to date have resulted in 5 students with Food Science as their declared major.

Progress was also made this past quarter toward the hiring of a food science faculty member. A job description was generated and ads announcing the position were circulated internally, and placed in four local newspapers with well established circulation. On-line ads will also appear in the Journal of Science, the Institute of Food Technologists, and academiccareers.com. In addition, targeted mailings will be made early in the 4th quarter 2007, announcing the position to department chairs of the IFT approved universities.

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Progress this quarter toward an articulation agreement in food science (among other programs) with Cornell University was slowed due to an administrative review of articulation guidelines. All the needed forms and documents have been exchanged and reviewed, and await final signatures. We have been assured that signing will take place before the close of October. Articulation of our food science program with Delaware Valley College, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania has progressed to the point that all issues have been satisfactorily resolved and a signing ceremony is planned for November 5, 2007. Articulation with Rutgers University is still delayed as a result of the issue discussed last quarter regarding transferability of calculus courses offered by GCC. Both parties continue to work toward resolution. Approximately $6 K was spent this quarter for our first library resources for this program. These text/reference materials will be used to establish GCC’s library as an area resource for the study of food science. Several of our staff/faculty attended the IFT international technical conference in July. Workshops, short courses, technical papers and expo participation all served to increase visibility of our program and to keep us up-to-date on important changes occurring in this vital industry. Salem Community College Program During the 3rd Quarter the primary focus of activity has been to establish and assemble an advisory committee to help identify a program in food process technology. To accomplish this, meetings with potential food process technology advisors were held, with several individuals showing interest in becoming involved in this committee. Potential candidates include:     

Raymond Carroll - Director of Thermal Processing, Campbell Soup Company Jeanne Held - Regional Manager, Texture Technology Corp. Dr. Mukund Karwe - Professor of Food Engineering, Rutgers University Paul Takhistov - Associate Professor of Food Science, Rutgers University Dr. Haiqiang Chen - Assistant Professor of Food Science, UOD

This committee will be established in the 4th quarter, 2007. Work has also gone into identifying a library of DVD’s/VCR’s to supplement the envisioned food processing technology program. Also, information is being obtained on potential text books which would enhance the curriculum. A list of equipment needs is being developed in support of a laboratory course in food processing. Quotations and in-house demonstrations have been made for the TA.XT

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PLUS Texture Analyzer, a piece of equipment that will be shared by both GCC and SCC. This instrument will require advance Grant approval before ordering. This SCC program will now focus on putting together the Advisory Committee, defining an academic curriculum in food processing technology, establishing a graduation control sheet that specifically outlines the academic program options, and reviewing both the internal and external requirements to put such a curriculum in-place, in order to meet a target date of September, 2008 for program implementation. GCC Continuing Education Program in Food Science: During the third quarter, the newly hired part-time Food Industry Continuing Education Program Coordinator, Ms Mary Coombs, reached out to food production businesses responding to the College-administered survey. Letters of introduction and an informational flyer outlining continuing education opportunities were sent to these businesses. A courtesy e-mail and telephone call followed the mailings to ensure these businesses were made aware of the vast opportunities available through this grant. Several continuing education courses are being developed for Food Sciences Corporation in Mt. Laurel, NJ, as well as Surfside Products in Port Norris, NJ. The businesses are interested in a variety of soft skills upgrading such as Lean Manufacturing Overview, Team Building, Spanish in the Workplace, and Supervisory Training. Additionally, as Food Production specific coursework becomes available, these businesses are interested in those topics as well for their workforce. The Program Coordinator will continue to contact and monitor responses from a number of businesses in the Food Production arena and move forward with the delivery of continuing education coursework. A consultant, Mr. Larry Bacon, was hired during the third quarter to identify specific food industry content training for incumbent workers. As identified in the business survey, a large range of topics from Good Hygiene, Good Manufacturing Practices and HACCP training, among others, have been requested. The consultant, in conjunction with the Program Coordinator, will develop specific curriculum targeting the requirements of these Food Industry Businesses. A meeting was also held this past quarter with Mr. Luis Anguilar of the Houston Area Safety Council, one of our grant partners, to discuss preliminary plans to create a webbased system for delivery of food science/technology training. Training content is being researched and a preliminary proposal will made in the 4th quarter, 2007.

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Summary of Grant Outcomes:

Deliverable or Activity (with brief description) Food Science for Middleand High-School Science Teachers Summer Workshop NJ STARS Parents Presentation of food science program GCC “First Night” event Distribution of food science brochures to GCC science classes Beta-trial of Summer, 2008 science teacher workshop program at Cornell University Follow-up mailing to summer workshop participants Initial purchase made of library resources Students declared food science majors

Percentage Complete This Quarter (if applicable)

Completion Date (actual or projected)

Impact (known or potential, if applicable)

Impact Calculation Methodology

100%

July 26, 2007

30 K-12 Science teachers

Actual head count of participants

100%

August 15, 2007

44 parents of NJ STARS students

Head count of parents in attendance

100%

September 13, 5 2007 students/parents

Actual head count of people interested and receiving information

100%

September

Approximately 100 students

Students taking class

100%

September

24 participants

Actual registered participants

100%

September 25, 2007

30 participants

Actual mailing count

50%

September

N/A

N/A

20%

September, 2008

5 students

Actual count of declared major

2. Dissemination Activities and Events for Grant Deliverables B. Training Outcomes: Nothing to report this quarter.

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SECTION IV: PROMISING APPROACHES AND SUCCESS STORIES A. Promising Approaches, Processes and Lessons Learned: Nothing to report this quarter. B. Sharing “Success Stories”: It was decided that a poster session presentation of the technical aspects of our grant program will be given at the “Two-Year College Chemistry Conference” (2YC3, a division of the American Chemical Society) in July, 2008 at Indiana University. This conference offers an excellent opportunity to share our program with an audience composed mainly of science educators from 2-year colleges. An abstract needs to be submitted by February 15, 2008. Our continuing education program has also established the goal of identifying and scheduling presenters at our first regional conference on our grant activities, planned for Spring, 2008. C. Other Positive Developments: One excellent value-added outcome of the workshop is the desire of the science faculty of Williamstown High-School, in Gloucester County, to develop a “Food Science Academy”. The intent is to put high-school students on a track that would specifically prepare them for a degree in food science. Initial discussions will be held in October, 2007 with this high-school science faculty to assists in development of their program.

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