Since its establishment through the Smith-Lever Act, the Cooperative Extension Service has sought to use non-formal education programs centered on community needs to provide research-based information. However, the onset of the information age has transformed the way knowledge is shared and as a result altered the way people access information.…

As early-career Extension educators challenged by societal, structural, agricultural, and fiscal trends, we designed a multiyear educational program to support the diverse needs of emerging specialty crop producers in northwest Michigan. This article presents outcomes of that program. We explore how Extension professionals can develop impactful…

We explain in this article the need for board training in rural America irrespective of industry or government sector. We discuss how an assessment of training needs has led to the launch of a new project called the National Board Basics Curriculum (NBBC) project. In this project, we have identified four key core competencies that every board…

AN ANALYSIS WAS MADE OF THE GOALS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS ENROLLED IN EXTENSION CREDIT COURSES OFFERED BY MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY IN NORTHWESTERN MICHIGAN DURING THE FALL OF 1959. ALSO CONSIDERED WERE DATA ON STUDENT PROBLEMS AND ON CONTACTS AND RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE UNIVERSITY. GROUP ADMINISTERED QUESTIONNAIRES WERE USED TO COLLECT…

The following are among the 47 papers included: "Academic Performance and Retention of College of Agriculture Students" (Garton, Dyer, King); "Perceptions of Recent Graduates and Employers about Undergraduate Programs in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University" (Heyboer, Suvedi);…