The Capstone Course-Benefits to Senior-level Students in the Agriculture and Food Systems Interdisciplinary Program at Washington State University.

Like many Land-Grant institutions in the U.S., over the last decade, Washington State University has consolidated several of its’ former department-based undergraduate programs and restructured them into multi-departmental interdisciplinary degree programs. One such degree program is called Agricultural and Food Systems (AFS, afs.wsu.edu). The AFS program comprises five different majors: Agricultural Technology and Production Management Systems, Agricultural Education, Organic Agriculture Systems, Agricultural and Food Business Economics, and Agriculture and Food Security. This successful degree program currently has nearly 200 students enrolled. At the end of their program, students take AFS 401 “Advanced Systems Analysis and Design in Agricultural and Food Systems”, a senior-level capstone course. This course is designed specifically to provide a culminating experience to help in preparing students to be “job-ready, day one”. Guest lectures from industry professionals challenge students on topics including developing your personal brand, project management, sales 101, private agricultural business ownership and succession planning, and the performance review process. Teams of students work on relevant agricultural case studies and conduct research about various agribusinesses and present this information to their peers. In addition, a panel of recent graduates spend an entire class period fielding questions and sharing wisdom and advice related to lessons they have learned in their career. A fundamental part of the capstone experience is a team-based, semester-long project where groups of 5 students each work on addressing an emerging issue or problem and providing recommendations to one of several industry partners (co-ops, private companies, etc.). Students meet regularly with industry partners (face-to-face, videoconference, phone) to define their project, collect research information and develop a project plan. They prepare meeting agendas, take minutes and report back to instructors to identify what worked, what did not work, and what changes they plan to make for the next meeting. Besides introducing students to their business and colleagues, industry partners provide in-house research background information, assist in distributing employee surveys and provide excellent professional mentoring for students. At the end of the semester, student teams provide both a comprehensive written report and an oral presentation about their project and industry recommendations both to their peers and to industry leaders. The benefits and challenges of the capstone experience will be highlighted including results from both an on-line student exit survey and two facilitator-led focus group sessions with current students. Highlights of student led industry projects will also be shared.