Senior Capstone Team
"Capstone" is the senior project for all UC Davis Sustainable Agriculture &Food Systems majors
Community Supported Academics
In order to build upon the existing community in a meaningful way, Sprouting SA&FS reached out to the SA&FS student community through various methods including informal discussions with students during fall quarter 2015 and directed conversation during winter quarter 2016. The directed conversations were done through focus groups, key person interviews, community assessment through a short survey. We learned a tremendous amount about how best to develop the SA&FS community further. Each time we met with students, our understanding of the community’s needs developed. From these meetings, we have been able to formulate several different opportunities and options for stakeholders to promote and encourage more SA&FS events.
Focus Groups
There were three focus groups with SA&FS students. The feedback we received directed our research in different ways.
Capstone Class - Here we understood the difficulty of implementing a direct mentorship group, but also that students were interested in working with the community.
Major Outreach 1 - In this three person focus group, our discussion focused around how to involve students in an unimposing way. We considered the costs and benefits of different events, and better understood where this project was headed.
Major Outreach 2 - Students expressed their interests in going off campus and attending more “SA&FS exclusive” events and tours.
“The encouragement to take ahold of my education and make it what I want is why I love SA&FS.”
-Ruthie Schnitt, Track II
Key Person Interviews
We reached out to Kenna Fallan, a SA&FS peer advisor, and Randy Dahlgren, a professor in the Soil Science Department and a SA&FS enthusiast.
Kenna -In our two meetings with Kenna, she helped us understand the processes of hosting events, she highlighted the challenges, and we learned how very involved she is in keeping the community alive. We believe that Kenna could use more support in these endeavors.
Randy - We had one meeting with Randy in which he expressed his enthusiasm for our SA&FS community. He is eager to host field trips, he encouraged us to reactivate a SA&FS club as a means of funding, and he recommended reaching out to other faculty and community members. His passion and involvement help to support our community